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Virgin Media O2 Begin UK FTTP Upgrade Project as Customers Fall

Wednesday, May 11th, 2022 (7:38 am) - Score 24,000
Following the completion of the UK’s largest ever telecoms deal, the Virgin Media O2 logo is forged to celebrate the birth of the new company which brings together Virgin Media, the UK’s fastest broadband provider, and O2, the country’s favourite mobile network with a mission to upgrade the UK.Copyright: © Mikael Buck Credit: Mikael Buck / Virgin Media O2PR Handout – for use in conjunction with this story only.

Broadband ISP and mobile operator Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) have today published their combined results for Q1 2022, which confirms that their plan to upgrade existing Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) network areas with Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology has now begun. But their fixed line broadband base took a hit.

The main development for VMO2 over the last quarter has been the launch of their new Stream TV service (here). On top of that, we’ve also seen them enter into an agreement to run fibre through OFNL’s existing ducts on new build sites (here).

The operator also spent much of the first quarter carrying out a pilot – Project Mustang – of their plan to upgrade 14.3 million UK premises covered by their older HFC infrastructure with the latest 10Gbps capable XGS-PON full fibre (FTTP) technology (here). The pilot, which involved around 50,000 premises in Stoke, Salisbury and Wakefield, is now complete.

Following the completion of FTTP upgrade pilots in Q1, the company has now moved to deployment of full fibre across its entire fixed network at a cost of £100 per home with completion in 2028,” said the operator, albeit without revealing any details of the first locations to benefit.

The move will of course complement their plan to launch a separate company with unspecified investors, which will build FTTP broadband to another 7 million UK premises in new greenfield areas by 2027 (here) – extending total coverage to 23m premises. Access to this will be available at wholesale, with VMO2 itself being an anchor tenant ISP. VMO2 also has the “option” to separately wholesale out access to their existing network of 15.6 million premises (rising to 16m by the end of 2022), but they haven’t said when this will occur.

NOTE: In order to reach 7 million extra premises by 2027 they’d need to be building at a rate of 1.4 million per year or 350,000 premises per quarter. In other words, the build will need to ramp up.. a lot.

Aside from the aforementioned announcement, we note that Virgin Media also saw their fixed broadband base reach 5,595,800 customers (down by 1,000 in Q1 2022 vs +60.4K in Q4 2021) and their full fibre broadband (FTTP) network added another 101,000 UK premises to its coverage (up from 93,000 added last quarter).

The sharp fall in their fixed line base occurred on their HFC network (not the Project Lightning areas) and may, in part, reflect the impact of rising competition from FTTP rivals. But as falls go, dropping from a rise of 60,400 to a fall of 1,000 in the space of a single quarter is quite a shock. It’s perhaps no coincidence that the operator announced a price hike during the same period (here).

Quarterly UK Customer (Connection) Figures – Q1 2022
5,595,800 Fixed Broadband – (down from 5,596,800 in Q4 2021)
42,721,500 Mobile inc. Wholesale – (up from 42,243,400)

Meanwhile, the Project Lighting network expansion has so far reached an additional 2.8 million premises since it began some years ago (c.1.5 million via FTTP and the rest as Hybrid Fibre Coax), and their quarterly pace of build appears to have recovered a bit from last year’s slump.

Project Lightning Rollout Since 2017
Q1 2022 = 101,000 Premises
Q4 2021 = 93,000 Premises
Q3 2021 = 67,000 Premises
Q2 2021 = 89,000 Premises
Q1 2021 = 80,000 Premises (impacted by COVID-19 lockdown)
Q4 2020 = 115,000 Premises (some impact from COVID-19)
Q3 2020 = 125,000 Premises
Q2 2020 = 93,000 Premises (impacted by COVID-19 lockdown)
Q1 2020 = 93,000 Premises (some impact from COVID-19)
Q4 2019 = 154,000 Premises
Q3 2019 = 119,000 Premises
Q2 2019 = 130,000 Premises
Q1 2019 = 102,000 Premises

NOTE 1: Between Q1 2017 and Q4 2018 Virgin added 1,017,000 premises under Project Lightning, which works out as an average of 127,125 per quarter.

NOTE 2: Virgin’s fixed network covers a total of 15,749,700 UK homes passed (during 2022 they expect to add a total of 500,000 under Project Lightning).

On the financial front, VMO2 reported total transaction adjusted revenue of £2,500.1m in Q1 2022, which is down from £2,720.2m last quarter.

Lutz Schüler, CEO of Virgin Media O2, said:

“The first quarter has seen us remain focused on delivering and innovating to pave the way for the rest of the year. We have started to ramp up network investments while improving our products and services with big challenger decisions like not reintroducing EU roaming fees. The delivery of fixed and mobile price rises will also support revenue growth and allow continued investment as connectivity demand continues to increase.

We’re pushing ahead into Q2 with the launch of Stream, our new IP-based TV proposition which evolves traditional TV bundles and offers our broadband customers a flexible and innovative way to get their entertainment whilst offering significant additional value. With Q1 showing solid financial foundations from a stabilising top line and improved profitability, we remain on track to meet our 2022 guidance.”

Overall, we’re a little disappointed that VMO2 hasn’t put more effort into promoting the benefits of their FTTP upgrade programme for existing HFC areas. Hopefully they’ll correct this and reveal more information about their rollout plan in the near future, since it is a topic that a lot of our readers are watching very closely. But we suspect they won’t want to say too much until they have a bit more coverage and some retail products ready, which might not exist until early next year.

Meanwhile, the average speed across the company’s broadband base has increased 24% year-on-year and is now 231Mbps. Finally, on the O2 side of things, the operator reiterated that their 5G mobile services are now available in over 400 towns and cities and the rollout remains “on-track” to hit 50% population coverage of 5G services by 2023. In addition, 4G capacity was upgraded in more than 93,000 postcodes during Q1.

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Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and .
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Comments
56 Responses
  1. Avatar photo mike says:

    I’ll be leaving them asap. Within the next year or so both Cityfibre and BT FTTP will pass me. I’m looking forward to low latencies and fast upload speeds on a true gigabit service.

    1. Avatar photo Mark says:

      Same, cityfibre have been building around here now for a year so can’t be far from completion, VM need to not only step up the rollout but also reduce pricing as the altnets are by far cheaper too, it’s ok having FTTP but it needs to be competitive with the rest.

    2. Avatar photo Jon says:

      Same here – the latency on their network is less than great, I need more upstream speed for my use case, the Hub hardware is crap, other providers are cheaper, and on the rare occasion I need to actually deal with their customer support team the service is convoluted and poor quality.

      CityFibre are in the final stages of commissioning here, and it’s looking good.

    3. Avatar photo Sid says:

      Cityfibre just finished up around my street – not sure when I can move over to Giganet, but I would definitely want to try it out that is for sure!
      VM raising their prices every april sucks but all companies have to do it.
      i never had a bad word to say about them personally.

    4. Avatar photo John Barnes says:

      Virgin Media are only interested in earning more money.
      Their service and pricing is abhorrent compared to competitors and one city fibre is connected to buildings in my street(currently main road only) I’ll be moving to another provider the following day!

    5. Avatar photo stuart says:

      Cityfibre is absolutely amazing, with vodafone at the moment on the 900down 900up(it’s actually 930+) ping shows between 1 and 4ms.

      Everything just… works nothing has gone slow at all, there was maybe one occasion where the net disconnected for a few hours but it was fixed really fast.

    6. Avatar photo Roger_Gooner says:

      @John Barnes
      “Virgin Media are only interested in earning more money.”
      Please provide us with a list of network operators and ISPs which are not interested in making money.

    7. Avatar photo Matt says:

      Good buy then

  2. Avatar photo NeilM says:

    I have the 200Mb + O2 speed bump to 350Mbs. Which I barely use. I would save £2 going back down to 200Mb

    What I would really like would be to see is a break from constant price rises and having to ring up every 18 months to renew my loyalty bonus.

    Overall the service had been excellent, with some rocky periods, but in the last few years, it seems like network capacity in my area exceeds people’s needs.

    However, the general cost of broadband seems very high.

    I really admire b4rn, for their constant striving on price, and hope their customers appreciate it.

    1. Avatar photo GG says:

      I’d sign a 5 year deal if they fixed it at the intro rate (£40ish for 500mb) for the period.

      I can’t be bothered with the phone calls and messing around. I can’t be the only one?

    2. Avatar photo Alex A says:

      Agreed, I’ve always found Virgin’s product good (just use your own router) but their support is lackluster and having to go to retentions just to get a deal which matches new customers really doesn’t give brand loyalty.

      Unsuprisingly when you tell customers that to renew is £10+ more pm on a new contract than their old contract makes customers quite interested in leaving when FTTP arrives.

      Supposedly they are changing this with the merger with O2, especially now that they can’t live of being the only fast provider.

  3. Avatar photo Steven says:

    While I’ve had great service, I too will be off as soon as city fibre finish in our city.

  4. Avatar photo Phil says:

    This seems to be the issue Virgin are facing. It used to be the only choice for more TV channels and in many areas the only way to get decent broadband speeds, and people had to put up with the unreliability of Virgin’s network and the variable latency and congestion issues, not to mention poor support. Now that there are streaming services available (so no need for the extra TV channels of dubious worth) and areas get better connectivity from other providers using better technology, customers are going to vote with their feet. Virgin only have themselves to blame, they’ve oversubscribe in too many areas and under invested in their network and service.

  5. Avatar photo Ben says:

    There’s definitely a trend among Virgin customers — they’re looking forward to leaving as soon as an alternative comes to town!

    1. Avatar photo simon says:

      Which means there will initially probably be a lot of congestion until the areas are upgraded. As you said when people realise CF is available and they can get cheaper and better they will jump and VM will have to do something or they will have idle infrastructure

  6. Avatar photo Duncan says:

    After being disappointed that they didn’t come to me at first, I’m actually not that bothered now. They are to expensive, especially after the contract is up compared to a lot of other provider’s and it’s a nightmare to leave and haggle. Who wants that!

    When you have Openreach, potentially Cityfibre and Netomnia coming, it sweetener things even more.

  7. Avatar photo simon says:

    In streets where VM didn’t bother but an Alt-net plans to I wonder how that will go? If the alt-net can and indeed does do it will VM then even bother? If the alt-net can’t also then it would be understandable.

    1. Avatar photo Duncan says:

      If I was an alt-net I would concentrate on the streets Virgin missed if possible and snap up those customers! Then if Virgin decide to then put their cable in its potentially to late.

      I can’t speak for every situation, but for me there is no reason they didn’t come. Only budget if you believe what they say.

    2. Avatar photo simon says:

      “technical reasons” I was cited when i asked last year – They literally bypass us. Even the guy at the entrance (who lives next to a serviced house) can’t get it as the cable literally just goes across the road diagonally in front of him. If I was him I would be really frustrated.

      There are only about 12 houses here so I expect them not to bother. I can see the logistical problems just walking around.

      If CF do miss this street I will probably get something else – If they don’t then it would be nice –

    3. Avatar photo Mark says:

      What happens is you move in to your new home, only to find that BT is the only option in your road, asking virgin to come to my house, they said it was unviable for such a small road, (only has 15 houses). So I selected BT. And was happy with that. Then came gigaclear, and they did every road without question, I switched and am very happy, paying a lower price etc,
      But virgin media then began pestering me to switch to them, yet before they said it could not be done, I told them I was no longer interested. But they still sent someone round,
      And tried to talk me into an 18 month contract and paying more than I am now.
      Nasty, I told him I was no longer interested as it couldn’t be done to start with.
      It turns out all 15 houses in my street are on gigaclear. That should answer your question. I was left waiting for nearly 2 years to get answers from virgin why this could not be done, in between that time gigaclear came, and its job done. So I won,t be needing or choosing virgin in the future.

    4. Avatar photo G_Unit says:

      We’ve not had VM here and no Openreach FTTP either. Then all of a sudden an alt-net (Digital Infrastructure) and VM start building on the same day! Which came first I don’t know, but I assume VM got wind of the alt-net and tried to act quickly.

      Then, as a complete co-incidence I’m sure, we get Openreach leaflets through the door saying that they are building “full fibre” here now too. I’d imagine that if Digital Infrastructure hadn’t started here then we’d have been waiting longer for VM and Openreach, yet DI might not end up getting much out of it because I can imagine most people will go with BT or VM as they know and (rightly or wrongly) trust them.

      You wait ages for a bus and then three come at once…..!

    5. Avatar photo simon says:

      Thank you to you all – That does answer my question rather nicely 🙂

  8. Avatar photo Matt says:

    The switch to XGS-PON is great to see. Makes sense, given their newer deployments using RFoG. Thankfully my road has RFoG based infrastructure, so good to see another symmetrical service should be available in the hopefully not too distant future.

    Also, will be interested to see how the switch to PON will impact latency, given the overheads introduced with DOCSIS. Virgin around here has an average of 8ms, which isn’t the best but equally isn’t horrible.

  9. Avatar photo Matthew says:

    Dose this mean we’re going to get fttp this side of forever? As bt are literally on my door step but haven’t moved into my part yet thay take the piss and tbh I like virgin Media and to have fttp with them will be even better

    1. Avatar photo Iain says:

      Eh, they’re giving themselves until 2028. That’s better than nothing, but quite a while away. It’s entirely conceivable BT will infill the gaps in your area before then. Or perhaps an altnet will take interest first.

  10. Avatar photo Jordan says:

    what im confused about it, some places have FTTP from VM but still use CABLE in the house? why put fibre in the way into the house then convert it to cable??? VM is so clueless

    1. Avatar photo Mark says:

      I think the whole goal is to get rid of docsis and be a true full fibre network, maybe leaving it a bit late though as by the time this is achieved alot of places will have true BT fibre and an altnet like cityfibre.

    2. Avatar photo Ackers says:

      Fibre does not bend well so coax is good way of getting it where customer wants in house some alternet use cat6

    3. Avatar photo Phil says:

      Because it is a cheaper way of doing it, and basically it is using fibre like it was Coax, what you get out at the end is exactly the same as if it was Coax all the way. Virgin just use fibre like it was Coax cable, converting the same electrical signal into light, then back to the same electrical signal again at the other end.

      Openreach do something similar on a physical level, the ONT converts the fibre to Ethernet (so twisted pair copper which is not too far removed from telephone cable of old), but the difference is they don’t convert to and from a legacy analogue VDSL signal at each end.

    4. Avatar photo Tom says:

      It is extremely stupid and short-sighted. My guess is, they’re doing it this way because they don’t to run 2 separate networks.

      So it should be clarified, they may technically have FTTP customers, but those customers are still on DOCSIS. They don’t have a PON network. They haven’t even started. By 2025 they need have to have at least 60% of their customers on PON or they’ll lose tons of business. I don’t see how it’s gonna happen honestly, I don’t even know if they’ll have anyone on PON by the end of 2022.

      They chose to skip DOCSIS 4 in favor of PON, yet they’re not deploying PON. So millions of their customers won’t have access to faster than 10-50 mbps upload until 2028, that is completely mental.

    5. Avatar photo NeilM says:

      There is the issue of making good inside the customers house.

      So if there is some small amount damage during the cable replacement, then it has to be repaired, so even if it is a small percentage, it can add up. Which comes with extra customer service overheads.

      The bigger job, is to upgrading the network and that has to be the primary focus.

  11. Avatar photo El Guapo says:

    I wonder why VM never publicise where they are upgrading unless it’s a trial. I’m currently waiting to see who can provide me FTTP first. VM, OR, or Youfibre. Personally i’m hoping it’s youfibre.

  12. Avatar photo Jonathan says:

    Due to ongoing issues with red spikes on my BQM websites taking forever to load the so called 8pm to 10pm spikes that was so called fixed are now all throughout the day and all virgin can say is connection within spec, sorry not good enough, soon as city fibre is here I’ll be off had enough now, been customer 20 plus years

  13. Avatar photo Regorimabitbackward says:

    Surely, for most people this comes down to costs, if you live in a household that requires internet services, phone or tv, then my guess is people will look at cost first, some people may well sign up for a service based on cost alone, and, if it works for them why not. The problem I see hear is where virgin media o2 is the only player available then you’re held to ransom so to speak, I speak from experience, having either asdl 6 megs max or virgin media o2, having chosen the vmo2 route, which I will say has been both reliable and consistent but at a price, boy what a price, then vmo2 should not be surprised when if an opportunity comes for me to leave and get a cheaper service I, probably, me and a lot of others I would imagine will leave. I’m not in the least bothered about download and upload speeds ping time router type just like the water coming to my house steady, reliable, and able to take the pressure. Like people say if we were all the same we would all drive a Renault 5 and listen to Abba music.

    1. Avatar photo simon says:

      I am the other way around. I have a business service which is 5:1 so costs a lot more as I know once CF come here virgin’s customers will migrate and it might well become congested – and I can’t be doing with that. In a few years time once it’s all over I would like to think both CF and VM will be available to me – but if not I am happy to stick where I am even at the price tag

  14. Avatar photo Mark says:

    Having had Virgin broadband and recently switching to BT full fibre (when it became available in Jan 2022 here) I have to say BT is far superior IMO. Product and support!

    Cityfibre also became available here in April 2022 so VM will now have lots of competition here I have seen Openreach doing quite a lot of installs in past month or so!

  15. Avatar photo Rich Branston says:

    I’m a VM 200Mbit broadband-only customer, happy enough with the bandwidth provided but ping under heavy load peaks in the thousands of milliseconds, yes sometimes seconds of delay under heavy download. Im also unhappy with VM’s lack of (dual-stack) IPv6 support.

    Openreach are due to build FTTP through my area by April 2025 and if they do so before VM, I’ll be pleased to leave. Even if VM upgraded my area from HFC to XGS-PON, I suspect the mixture of RFoG and VM’s poor CPE would bottleneck performance below what full fibre should provide.

    1. Avatar photo Roger_Gooner says:

      I’m expecting XGS-PON for broadband with RFoG overlay for video (so a separate downstream frequency of 1550 nm I believe) and it should work well. A replacement ONT will be needed of course.

  16. Avatar photo cdturri says:

    So I am with VM on their 650mb service. The service is OK, no congestion here but I get micro cuts every now and then and small periods of high latency. Latency is 10ms (wired to router) so not too bad but could be lower on proper FTTP. I would switch to BT FTTP if I could but while Openreach did my whole street they left my telegraph post old school. I am guessing BT don’t think its worth doing since we are next to the FTTC cabinet and can already get 300mb on GFast. So if VM comes to offer FTTP I will try them for sure. Maybe that should be VM’s strategy? Go for the FTTP no-spots that BT has left…

  17. Avatar photo Tom says:

    Don’t forget that even their FTTP deployments still use DOCSIS. That’s right, they bring fibre to your home, then connect it to your existing coax cabling and then give you the same DOCSIS hub as everyone else. It is extremely stupid. It means at some point they’ll have to go thru and upgrade everyone again to PON, even their FTTP customers.

    And 2028…? Really? 2028?? They’re already getting killed by FTTP providers, unless they switch everyone by 2025 at the latest they’re going to struggle to stay afloat.

    My area just got CommunityFibre and they had a deal £30 for symmetric gigabit, 2 year contract. I was paying £25 for 100/10 from VM, guess if I switched… They can’t afford to wait until 2028, they need to switch everyone now to PON ASAP.

    1. Avatar photo Regorimabitbackward says:

      Not only switch to pong but be more competitive on price also.

    2. Avatar photo John says:

      @Regorimabitbackward: they are too big to be competitive on price. they will be always pushing tv+landline+internet packages to cover this.

    3. Avatar photo Regorimabitbackward says:

      @John says. I disagree reading about cable tv on other websites there seems to be a worldwide downtrend in cable tv subscriptions, and I read recently even virgin media o2 have lost tv customers. I suspect people are getting wise to alternatives ie cord cutting, and the increase in streaming services, even the BBC and ITV linear tv are showing concerns about streamers. Cable company’s are trying to fight back vmo2 with their new streaming box, sky with their sky glass tv etc. on the grounds this allows customers to start stop subscriptions monthly and put all their subscriptions in one place. So it would seem that cable tv company’s will be will looking more towards broadband and telephone services ie becoming an isp, and less towards tv in this ever changing world.

    4. Avatar photo An Engineer says:

      ‘then give you the same DOCSIS hub as everyone else. It is extremely stupid. It means at some point they’ll have to go thru and upgrade everyone again to PON, even their FTTP customers.’

      It makes perfect sense. Allows them to use a single set of CPE. Contrary to your belief, Tom, the largest multinational cable company in the world does have some staff with some idea what they are doing. Use of RFoG is a standard transition phase for cable companies building or overbuilding with full fibre.

      They aren’t going to upgrade everyone at once. People order or are upgraded for free to shiny new XGSPON-based services and get moved then. Upgrading everyone at once or in bulk is impossible.

      ‘And 2028…? Really? 2028?? They’re already getting killed by FTTP providers, unless they switch everyone by 2025 at the latest they’re going to struggle to stay afloat.’

      How do you propose they do this? Magic? Thanos style finger snap? I appreciate that in Tom-world acquiring 6 million XGSPON ONUs to cover just the current customer base, access to properties to install them, redoing internal wiring to replace legacy coaxial extensions, etc, is a 5 minute job but in the real world it’s a tad more labour intensive than that.

      I’m ignoring entirely the task of building the FTTP network to connect those ONUs, the supply chain issues and chip shortages that are slowing everyone’s FTTP deployments and the work required both in the field and at hub sites.

      The 2028 timescale is to have XGSPON orderable by the entire customer base. People will still be running on DoCSIS for years after that, just as people were still running on ADSL years after FTTC became available to them and FTTC years after FTTP became available to them.

      You probably won’t see VMO2 selling anything XGSPON this year. Given this overlay network is going to be in place for a while and the architecture of it represents a fundamental change from the existing one they aren’t going to rush for the sake of a few thousand, or even tens of thousands, of geeks wanting symmetrical sooner. If you’ve other options move, VMO2 aren’t going to be offering you XGSPON in the very near future.

  18. Avatar photo Don’t worry about it says:

    Having been with vm before it was vm they have been year over year going downhill in service and price. However I will say they have always been superior to the likes of BT and sky. So given the opportunity to move to something symmetrical at a non extortionate price I too will be moving. TV is not a requirement for anyone these days we only need internet and phone. Dream scenario would be someone offers 10Tbps+ this decade + phone and allows us to lock in to a 15 year contract break out clause being downtime for more than 5 hours. For this I’m sure most of us will be willing to pay £70/pm with no thought of moving to another isp even if a competitor came a week later with 30% discount. Also lowest latencies have to be a given.

  19. Avatar photo Richard says:

    I moved to an area where Virgin is currently the only fibre provider. They’re already 2.5 months late providing me a service, with both their cabling and customer service outsourced appallingly. I will gladly move to any other provider once they become available. Feels like a company that has grown complacent with local monopolies and who will quickly lose out to competitors.

  20. Avatar photo Gavin says:

    I know some people don’t like regulation. But the reality is regulation as kept OR on their toes and kept them improving technology and handling complaints.

    Meanwhile VM managed to avoid most regulation and now slow responses to fixing problems, and the unaccountable customer service is being exposed.

    I hope they are motivated enough to make those improvements. Because it’ll be a good move for everyone.

    1. Avatar photo An Engineer says:

      As broadband goes VM are subject to the same regulations as other large ISPs with regards to compensation, complaint handling, etc. The main regulatory differences between Openreach and VM at a network level are Openreach’s obligation to wholesale and to provide access to ducts and poles.

      Can’t directly compare the two anyway. None of us are paying our broadband bill to Openreach, they are not a retailer and their actual ‘prioritised’ performance levels are very low – 110 Mbit/s on gigabit full fibre. VM are a fully vertically integrated operator.

      Once VM start to wholesale FTTP then it gets more interesting and direct comparisons can be made between them, CityFibre and Openreach and will be by ISPs deciding who to use, where.

      From our point of view in day job a combination of all three depending on the situation is going to be the way to go.

  21. Avatar photo cheesemp says:

    VM are laying in my town currently I think (some cabinets have gone in) however so are two altnets (trooli and giganet) so be interesting to see how they compete. Plenty of crappy fttc customers to snap up seeing as though bt seem uninterested.

  22. Avatar photo Tazz says:

    Moved over to giganet on cityfibre from gig1 vm and it was the best move I ever made low latency and great speeds up and down

  23. Avatar photo Phil C says:

    On top package with VM (with the usual 18 month threats to leave before getting the same deal as new customers), the internet works “OK ish” kids have only ever experienced VM connection so don’t know how bad it can be compared to a dedicated connection (not coax).

    However, for my £89 a month I get 1Gig (ish) broadband, top package TV (Movies, sports, etc), and a unlimited SIM for one of the kids. Now we moved the rest of the household mobiles to O2, thats saved another £25/M.

    I did a price comparison with Sky/BT sports/Cityfibre (Vodafone and ZEN) but it was double the cost monthly, even without the included SIM.

    Yes I know that the VM connection isn’t the best, but the kids are quiet, and I can work from home all day with a few VPN drops during the day (that may or may not actually be caused by the remote VPN kit).

    I’d love to try one of the other providers on FTTP when it eventually arrives here (Cityfibre, Grain and BT all planned or building), but the cost is a major factor, I’d pay a bit more for a top quality connection, but cant see them getting close to VM’s current pricing.

  24. Avatar photo Mazzy says:

    I have left VM after 5 years because the customer service is awful, the cancellation process was long and protracted but got it done eventually and the price is a bit high for what I need. The down speed is good but the up speed is a bit of a joke, 50meg up on a 1gig down.

    What really made me want to leave was the fact that I had a major issue with the broadband and for at least 3 weeks it was virtually unusable, speeds going all over the place, modem rebooting randomly, latency through the roof and the customer service was abysmal and so unhelpful they didnt tell me what was going on. Calling them and trying to find out what was going on and when a fix will be done was a chore to say the least. And that is one of just a load of issues that have plagued me for a long time.

    After that I decided to go. There is G.Network outside but the landlords of our bulding are stubborn and really dont want anything changing, I cant even get a smart meter fitted let alone a new ISP. I am (hopefully) going to VDSL, not a great option but its better than the standard broadband, and TV to Sky, they will have to come out and change the cable over from VM to Sky and that going to be a cost of £30 for a couple of minutes of work. I will miss the 1gig down speed and would have stayed with them but the poor almost non existant customer service just made me go “enough”.

  25. Avatar photo drew says:

    I work for BT, and unfortunately I do not have FTTP in my area so I cannot get FTTP with them, been with virgin media for 20+ years, Virgin media – > Blueyonder -> Telewest communications. City Fibre has just finished building FTTP on my street and as soon as I can order it, and im getting rid of Virgin Media.

  26. Avatar photo JT says:

    I’m desperate to leave my 1gig but their £240 early termination charge is insane (after being a customer for many many consecutive years). They are more expensive than BT fibre, have worse latency, under half the upload speed, the hub 5 is no where to be seen. Crazy.

    1. Avatar photo Peter Smith says:

      Same here, iv been with them for 25 years and I think openreach have started to put fiber in my street but I’m that desperate to have full fiber I am will to pay the £240, stupid but desperate, sick of the latency, packet loss, jitter, and with no hub 5 in sight yet for 1 gig customers it’s gonna be goodby as soon as I can.

  27. Avatar photo Mdc says:

    I have moved to Brsk. Virgin are hemorrhaging customers near me and they are desperate. The WhatsApp message trail is astounding, I had to type the statement “please process my cancellation” 8 times. They did everything they could to not do as I instructed. Even when they did eventually get them to do it, I still got called up to try and get me to change my mind. People need to look at the upload as well as the download. 100mb sounds great until your teams calls are a load of crap because there are two of you working from home, and you’ve only got 10mb upload. DOCSIS is dead, and VM need to get both their technology and their staffing up to scratch, because both are awful. It also becomes tedious to do the hours of been on hold every 12 months to sort out the latest massive price hike by threatening to leave.

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