Openreach 900mbps vs Virgin Media 1gig

[Wa7d1]

So I am moving into a flat and I need a new broadband. I’m interested in the 1gig ones and ping matters alot more than speeds to me.

On Uswitch I have 2 options to choose from:

1. Openreach FTTP (Talktalk, Vodaphone, Plusnet, etc) - 900 mbps

2. Virgin Media - 1000mbps

I don’t know which one to go with as they both have very similar price points. Ping matters the most to me and if anyone tried either or both please share your experience.

 

[Anth]

My vote would be on TalkTalk FTTP. They had very low pings and a rock solid connection for the 20-months I was with them. Their customer service is probably the worst I have ever encountered. But their service is top notch. - That was why I switched away from them, their customer service was that bad

I have friends who have Virgin and they have nothing but horror stories to report on them. They seemingly oversubscribed their services so at peak times their internet drops to a crawl. I have seen the same complaints countless times across forums.

If it is the same price I would take up one of the Openreach FTTP any day of the week.

Another issue with Virgin, they may offer you a good introduction deal but when that runs out you will pay significant prices with no real way to renegotiate as there is no competition on their line.

With Openreach you can outside of your contract with TalkTalk switch to Vodafone or Sky or anywhere else and keep the prices low.

 

[Koda]

Unless you're in a XGS FTTP Area for Virgin Media, their latency will be considerably higher than anything Openreach can offer you. And even then I tend to not recommend them due to the customer service being the worst in the industry.

Openreach is definitely going to be the better option for you since you care more about stability and latency over speed. I would personally be going for BT/EE/Plusnet due to the fact that it's all Openreach and BT's own equipment all the way back which is the least likely to be suffering from capacity issues and generally makes for a rock solid and stable connection - Plus UK customer service if you have a problem.

With that said, as someone has already said above me TalkTalk tends to be one of the best if you want the absolute lowest pings. Just for me personally, as a customer of theirs during the data breach I experienced the absolute worst of that company all the way from management at the top to customer service on the frontline it was a completely disorganised mess that just made a bad situation worse. I promised myself that I would never deal with them again, and even years later would struggle to recommend them to others.

 

[nsmhd]

As others have said Openreach FTTP will be the better option if latency is key for you.
On a Plusnet FTTP line right by the sea in the middle of nowhere gets 10ms and been rock solid and speed has always been consistent and bang on what they pay for.

 

[Lucian]

So I am moving into a flat and I need a new broadband. I’m interested in the 1gig ones and ping matters alot more than speeds to me.

On Uswitch I have 2 options to choose from:

1. Openreach FTTP (Talktalk, Vodaphone, Plusnet, etc) - 900 mbps

2. Virgin Media - 1000mbps

I don’t know which one to go with as they both have very similar price points. Ping matters the most to me and if anyone tried either or both please share your experience.

OR FTTP! Stay away from Virgin.

 

[Matt_2k34]

I ran both for ~2 years side by side. Using the VM line for all the garbage (my lab, downloads etc.) and BT for devices I actively used (gaming machine & mobile)

Same property, both fttp and BT would be around 7ms latency, VM about 14-19ms latency depending on time of day. Same router, 10gbit interface out into my LAN. Virgin router in modem mode.
Jitter was all over the place on VM, as soon as anything was using the connection the 19ms would become ~30ms. BT would rise to about 12/15ms under load.

Virgins network in my opinion sucks. Even though its "fast" it feels bursty - like browsing web pages are a long pause, followed by an instantly loading page. On BT that experience doesn't exist.

Virgins support also sucks, It's one reason they're gone (another is I was expecting an altnet who have now decided to not bother). As soon as anything goes wrong (which seems common) they're useless.

Have just successfully taken VM through the ombudsman for my partner who had raised several complaints because they'd shafted her on a house move. (basically locked into a new contract at out of contract pricing for 2 years...) - and to be fair they've said they'll sort - but it took getting CEDR involved and she's now working through the compensation maths to see if it's worth it.

I would not encourage anyone, to sign up with VM unless there is no other option to get faster than 80mbit.

BT is expensive, I'd use Plusnet or another BTOR reseller to bring that down.

 

[Dassa]

Hi,

As a general point, provided the link isn't loaded to capacity, ping times should be the same whatever speed FTTP service you buy so if it is just the ping time that is important you may be able to save some money.

 

[miggle]

You could always call up EE to see if you could get the 1.6GB service.
Had mine installed last week. That ping is a bit off in the speedtest.. Normally get lower than that, but i blame Cowes for that.

 

[Zaite450]

From my experience with Openreach it really depends where you live in the country. The latency is generally roughly proportional to how far away from London you live, as most PPP sessions breakout there.

I'm about 40 miles north of London and my typical gateway latency has always been about 5ms (regardless of whether it is Fast Path ADSL2, Fast Path VDSL2, and now FTTP).

The parents in Edinburgh see about 20ms gateway latency with their Fast Path VDSL2.

Bottom line is that from my experience it's just down to how far you live away from the LNS. I can't speak for Virgin, never used them.

 

[insertfloppydiskhere]

From my experience with Openreach it really depends where you live in the country. The latency is generally roughly proportional to how far away from London you live, as most PPP sessions breakout there.

I'm about 40 miles north of London and my typical gateway latency has always been about 5ms (regardless of whether it is Fast Path ADSL2, Fast Path VDSL2, and now FTTP).

The parents in Edinburgh see about 20ms gateway latency with their Fast Path VDSL2.

Bottom line is that from my experience it's just down to how far you live away from the LNS. I can't speak for Virgin, never used them.

Virgin's latency is really inconsistent, I average around 20ms, but the jitter is a lot higher (could be because I'm doing it on WiFi but I doubt it).

 

[Starwar]

My vote would be on TalkTalk FTTP. They had very low pings and a rock solid connection for the 20-months I was with them. Their customer service is probably the worst I have ever encountered. But their service is top notch. - That was why I switched away from them, their customer service was that bad

I have friends who have Virgin and they have nothing but horror stories to report on them. They seemingly oversubscribed their services so at peak times their internet drops to a crawl. I have seen the same complaints countless times across forums.

If it is the same price I would take up one of the Openreach FTTP any day of the week.

Another issue with Virgin, they may offer you a good introduction deal but when that runs out you will pay significant prices with no real way to renegotiate as there is no competition on their line.

With Openreach you can outside of your contract with TalkTalk switch to Vodafone or Sky or anywhere else and keep the prices low.

I agree go to Openreach FTTP instead of VM. Mind you, here is no OR FTTP yet but VM does indeed have 1Gig but I wouldn't join them, never will. I am on OR Sogfast solid 150/30 all day within the last 5 weeks now.

 

[Ionide]

If you care about ping, Openreach with a solid ISP is the clear winner..

VM speed is inconsistent, and the latency/jitter is terrible, I'd take FTTC over 1Gig from VM if those were my only options and I needed good ping.

 

[Troys5g]

My VM on wifi . I'm coming to the end of my contract @ the end of January so thinking I'll switch over to FTTP that has just been available here this year . I don't game so all in all VM wasn't to bad for me. But I'm in a area that has low use of VM . Wasn't for the price increase out of contract I'd probably stay.

 

[Lucian]

My VM on wifi . I'm coming to the end of my contract @ the end of January so thinking I'll switch over to FTTP that has just been available here this year . I don't game so all in all VM wasn't to bad for me. But I'm in a area that has low use of VM . Wasn't for the price increase out of contract I'd probably stay. View attachment 9195

Your ping on VM is higher than mine on Three 5G (in the morning ) .

 

[carl_pea]

Average ping for VM can be around 20 - 30 ms for HFC, depending on the area.

I'm on VM (Gig1) and I'd honestly suggest Openreach.

 

[i.h]

From my experience with Openreach it really depends where you live in the country. The latency is generally roughly proportional to how far away from London you live, as most PPP sessions breakout there.

This depends entirely on who the ISP actually is & how they have chosen to build their network. Most ISPs (or more accurately their chosen wholesale provider) handle the PPP much closer to home, and you can normally spot this if you can see the router's logs as it negotiates the PPP session.

It's been a very very very long time since my PPP logs (in a location far away from London or a major city) said anything other than the location of the nearest town, which is simply where both Openreach and (in my case) BT Wholesale have their equipment. I have less experience with TalkTalk Wholesale but I noticed the same on lines I've used - the hostname clearly indicated a town about 20 miles away, though not the nearest.

 

[Zaite450]

This depends entirely on who the ISP actually is & how they have chosen to build their network. Most ISPs (or more accurately their chosen wholesale provider) handle the PPP much closer to home, and you can normally spot this if you can see the router's logs as it negotiates the PPP session.

It's been a very very very long time since my PPP logs (in a location far away from London or a major city) said anything other than the location of the nearest town, which is simply where both Openreach and (in my case) BT Wholesale have their equipment. I have less experience with TalkTalk Wholesale but I noticed the same on lines I've used - the hostname clearly indicated a town about 20 miles away, though not the nearest.

I did qualify my post with "From my experience". I've only ever used smaller ISPs that break out in London. My last paragraph covers your situation as I suspected the larger providers have a presence in more locations

 

[Troys5g]

Your ping on VM is higher than mine on Three 5G (in the morning ) .

May have to fire up my ZTE MC801A with a 3 sim then

 

[WKDRED]

Virgins network in my opinion sucks. Even though its "fast" it feels bursty - like browsing web pages are a long pause, followed by an instantly loading page. On BT that experience doesn't exist.

Funny enough my experience is opposite on web browsing, because VM is a natural 1500 MTU and not using an obsolete PPPoE protocol, it has faster web browsing due to no MTU negotiation delays. Granted this can be mitigated for most destinations with baby jumbo frames.

But in regards to the OP with latency been the prime priority, I would go FTTP.

VM (if in an area not over utilised) is typically better for throughput stability, and less risk of packet loss when under load. But has less stable latency due to DOCSIS trait's.

 

[Matt_2k34]

Funny enough my experience is opposite on web browsing.

Be curious over what equipment. because VM FTTP in Router mode, is the same experience I received via Modem Mode & pfsense / opnsense.

BT FTTP - although required PPPoE tweaks to get full line speed / performance (more an issue with PPPoE implementation on those OS' as its single threaded). Once they're added its really no contest. (obviously fairest test is BT Hub vs VM Hub)

Was tested with a VM Hub 3, and 4.
BT was tested via ONT directly with pfsense/opnsense