Most Virgin broadband is ADSL via BTs local loop. Some Virgin broadband is via their cable network. There may also be some "unbundled" broadband using BTs local loop, but connected to virgin DSLAMs in the BT exchanges.
The cable option if you have it is indeed a very different proposition to the other alternatives. Alas most areas don't have the option.
Try a little experiment. Take one of your phones off the hook and see if ADSL improves. This does not always work but if there is a joint problem the voice line being off hook can, under some circumstances, help the ADSL signal across the problem. Mind you, if it had been a joint problem I would have expected the BT engineer to have sorted it out so I am not too hopeful this will work in your case.
That seesm to be a little variable BT appear to have "inside" and "outside" engineers. An "inside" one will check the NTE and plug his TDR in and pronouce an outside fault 2.21 km away he'll them get an "outside" engineer to come along a fix that. All very vauge the inside/outside demarkation seems to be the tarnsistion from the street cable to the dropwire to you.
Except that some ISP's such as Zen are much better than others at getting Openreach to sort things;)..
Not really most of that sort of stuff is poles 'n holes which the average Openreach bod isn't equipped for ..
Like an electrician that changes your meter or company supply fuse won't have all the gear on board for overhead line work or underground cabling...
All of the OR engineers sent to fix my phone line have been capable of looking at "inside" and "outside" faults. The beef I have is that, once they have used up 2 hours, they're gone even if they haven't fixed the problem.
Very true. Some are in fact nearly impossible to get to instruct BT to do *anything*. Of those who will talk to BT, the better ones will at least direct your call to someone who speaks english, and is not tied to a fault finding menu that they absolutely must follow never mind how absurd it is in the circumstance.
good god no, cable broadband customers outnumber ADSL one?e by about 18 to one. Virgin adsl via BTW is about as bad as it can get Virgin adsl Via C&W LLU is almost acceptable, but still over priced.
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If you have Virgin TV, then you also have broadband, even if you don't use it!
The broadband downstream uses TV channels - in fact, on a spectrum analyser you won't see any difference between the broadband internet downstream channels and the DTV multiplexes.
Unlike BT, the incoming feed covers from 5MHz to 750MHz (higher, in some cases) rather than the piddly little bit of additional bandwidth that BT can squeeze out of a copper pair in addition to voice signals.
The CATV feed is spit: 5 - 65MHz for upstream data, 85 - 750MHz for downstream data, both DTV and BIA (and, in areas where they haven't turned it off yet - if any are left - analogue TV).
The point is that, if the CATV feed is good enough quality for God-knows how many hundred DTV channels, it MUST be good enough for all your broadband demands!
In message , Terry Casey writes
I believe they are now supplying up to three linked downstream DOCSIS muxes (a total of 18MHz RF bandwidth), and are offering 100Mb/s.
It depends on how much you want to spend. Cable is a shared access media (ADSL is not a shared access media)
There is a head end that serves a number of customers, this will put a fixed amount of bandwidth down the cable and they will connect X customers to that bandwidth.
When I was on cable they were ~30Mbit/s and you had 2,4 and 10 Mbits/s customers sharing. Somewhere in the headend they manage the user bandwidth so you can't exceed the maximum you pay for. If you wanted the whole headend bandwidth to yourself then you are talking thousands of pounds in equipment so you will never get it.
Even if you sign up for one of their 50 Mbits/sec connections you don't get a 50 Mbit/sec channel to yourself, you will share a channel with lots of other (including lower bandwidth) customers. They do this because statistically a lot of customers will not be using any bandwidth and very few use use all the bandwidth for long periods.
In fact they ensure that if you do try to use all your bandwidth all the time that you are throttled as cable can't manage such use at a sensible price. The same is true of ADSL unless the ISP has its own network. This is why Sky can offer unlimited, do what you like ADSL, it doesn't cost them in bandwidth charges unlike all the BT wholesale ones.
The up channel is worse because they have less bandwidth available.
What I can say is..
if you are lucky and get a reasonably clear pair of channels you will get good throughput and low latency. If they start adding customers to your cable segment performance will drop until they decide to split the segment and add another headend. This cost cash so they tend to be very slow at doing it.
At one time you could hack the cable modem and get it to connect to different channels so you could find the best one. I doubt if you can still do this.
I suppose if you include all the blueyonder customers they acquired. Obviously depends on region as to what choice you get.
Its better than talk talk, and bt IME... (not saying much!)
Virgin Media was created by a merger of ntl and Telewest (who marketed their broadband as Blueyonder)
Actually, I'm not sure if merger is the right word. The intention was for ntl to take over Telewest but there was a legal complication - which may have been tied up with UKTV, I can't remember for certain - which mean't it was easier if, on paper, Telewest took over ntl.
Change ISP to one that will actually kick arse.
A&A promise to fix your broadband issue within a month or your money back.
Details at
Not if there is no "telewest" point anywhere nearby. For areas that aren't cabled they provide their service over ADSL, just like everyone else.
BT are doing FTTP in Milton Keynes. Seems to be FTTC everywhere else.
When I was a cable jointer on BT, my job was from the MDF in the exchange to the top of the pole. A "Subs app and line" guy then takes over to do the dropwire and internal stuff. Mind you, it's a long time since I was there and I don't know if they still work that way or if everyone does everything these days.
No Virgin Medi fibre in my area.
ADSL data been done now for 34 days. BT Broadband suggested I contact BTOpenReach ... they are not allowed to (insane)
Today had a response from formal complaint to BTOpenReach .. i..e. guys who run the network .... I quote
"...I am advised that by the senior planning manager that there is no budget for a broadband boost on this cable. Any faults would need to be raised with your communications provider "
So let me think ....I buy a service not a cable, the service has been down for 34 days, BTOpenReach engineers (5 visits) advise there is a network fault, and BT Open Reach Complaints say they don't have budget to fix it, and push me back to BT Broadband ,... who say not their problem as it's a network fault.
This is TERRIBLE service.
They're telling you the opposite of the truth, your ISP (BT Broadband) are the customer of BT Openreach, not you, you *CAN'T* contact Openreach!
Agreed, write to BT Broadband giving (say) 14 days notice that if the fault isn't fixed, you'll take that as breach of contract and take your business to an ISP who does care (e.g. A&A).
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