ot: Virgin speedup - docsis - does it cost?

[dave]

Just had an email from VM saying about a signup to docsis network speedup. It's not clear if there is an extra charge for this. Anyone know? Last time they cranked up the speed it was free.

[Eednud]

I got the DOCSIS 3 Upgrade for free.

Do you have the new Superhub 2, if not it might cost you.

Unless you phone up and tell them your Superhub keeps overheating and you have unplugged it for safety reasons. They will then send you a new Superhub 2 for free, then do the upgrade.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

It's free. I recently went from 50+ down to over 70+ down with no problems on the Superhub 2. The Superhub1 was okay on a wired connection, the wifi was utter s**te. I argued for weeks on this, I got the SH2 free - but they did not like it too much.

[T i m]

I think quite a few (technical?) people disable the whole 'hub' function of such devices and simply use them as cable modems (as I do here).

Cheers, T i m

[Chris Bartram]

Yes. The superhub's wireless is s**te, and the router a little basic.

[stuart noble]

And as I do (thanks to the advice given here).

[Brian Gaff]

I don't know what this is, but my modem says it uses docsys already, but of course they have just put all the prices up, so one does wonder if they are not sailing very close to seeing a trading standards or advertising sharp practice comment soon. When a price rise is announced several months ahead, can they really call upgrades before ti comes in, free? Brian

[Brian Gaff]

[dave]

Well, I do have the super hub so clicked Yes to the upgrade. I got this doublespeak msg straight from Mr Orwell:-

Summary

SuperFibre 70 We'll email you in the next 48 hours to let you know the exact cost of your order, even if there?s no change to your monthly bill. Don't worry, if there is a change to your bill, we?ll make sure you get the very best price we can give you based on the mix of services in your package. If you?ve opted in for a free speed upgrade, then don?t worry it?s free of charge and won?t change your monthly bill.

[DerbyBorn]

I have no problen with my Superhub - it transmits on 2.4 and 5 MHz. My tablet will receive the hight frequency - my older Laptop the lower frequency - but the wireless speed of my laptop is limited by its receiver

- so the upgrade hasn't really benefited me.

[pamela]

Sounds like Virgin has taken a leaf out of Talktalk's book.

I can start understanding something and after reading their blurb, I know far less about it than I started with. :-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

I keep hearing this advert on the TV - I have a bad habit of going to sleep with it on and waking up to 'teleshopping' , which tends for some odd reason to be dominated by wind turbine class food mincers designed to reduce an unpalaatable collection of vegetation into an even more unpalatable mush that you dont even have to chew.

- and it goes like this

"WE are so confident of this product that we will give you your money back if you lose ten pounds in the first week"

Reminds me of the Piranha Brothers 'other other plan'..

[pamela]

Mercifully, time shifting and streaming telly spares me those truly awful cheesy ads that I used to see when I first got Freeview and scanned the channels to see what was on.

I never had Sky TV but I think it's chock full of those garbage ads.

I don't know how people put up with them. As if they weren't bad enough, the ad breaks seem insanely long nowadays.

Broadcast telly could be digging it's own grave.

[stuart noble]

It's enough to turn you into a pirate

[pamela]

I'm told that for about ?80 you can buy a cracked Google Chromecast telly stick to give you free access to Sky sports, movies, and so on. Can't remember if the guy told me it also did Netflix.

I'd guess the company's server can see a ton of identifying info about the user and it would only be a matter of time before they took action.

[The Natural Philosopher]

WEll yes. Frankly its so easy to rip DVDS and record off air and even slicing the ads out of a halfway decent film only takes 10 mins or so.

I wonder when someone will have the fundamental idea of pay per download video that has no ads and can be watched over and over

[stuart noble]

Apparently kids actually *buy* music on ITunes. There's no hope for them.

[David]

Well, yes, I switched mine to modem mode because the web management was s**te.

I am currently on 150 down, 12 up (regularly verified by SamKnows) so I don't know if I am paying more or if the top speed varies by region.

I think the last "free" bump was from 100 to 150 down.

Cheers

Dave R

[T i m]

I just had a decent router (FritzBoxPhon WAN) and didn't want to change it.

Hmm, I just tested mine (as did the Mrs in case it was just this old Mac Mini) and we both got about 25 down and 2 up?

I don't think I took up the last free bump offer as I don't think any of them are free.

What seems to happen is they put the price up and I go to cancel. They persuade me to stay and the last of such deals *they_offered_me* a reduced fixed cost for two years. Then they put the price up "because of all the network improvements that had given us 'free' performance upgrades on ..." and I argued they had agreed a *fixed price*, not a

*discount*. After all, I gave them *price* comparisons with alternative ISP's and didn't care what tricks they had to play to give me a price match.

Even though they agreed it was the deal they offered (they checked the recordings) they still insisted I wasn't given a price but a discount (like I would have gone for that).

I simply CBA to 'write in' because it was their word against mine.

I started this cable service with Cable-Tel, then it went to NTL and now VM. I've never asked for a speed increase (I think it started at

150 Kilo bps down ) because I'm rarely in a rush for anything and don't 'live stream' much. I just want connection at the best (lowest) price. ;-(

Cheers, T i m

[stuart noble]

I'm ex NTL and I see Virgin as the devil I know. BT is the devil I don't want to get to know!