BT Broadband vs Virgin Broadband

[ayresc]

Just wondering if anyone has experience of both of the above? Also has BT Broadband been incredibly slow over the last 3-6 months?

After several painful calls to India I just can't deal with them anymore, I can't even watch iPlayer!

My speed here is crazily slow, after a check on www.speedtest.net I'm running at 0.48 MB, which even in the Highlands would be slower than slow.

Is Virgin's call centre UK based?

[Willard]

Virgin is supposed to have really poor customer service too. Generally only becomes a decent deal when you sign up for tv, phone too. Who's your mobile provider? I'm with o2 for my mobile, I also use their broadband and it's been great. Also cheap because I'm already a customer. Orange do something similar....

[ayresc]

Cheers, I'm with Orange but I think they ultimately use the same BT phone line to supply broadband.

They all seem to have poor service, yet currently I'm getting poor service and dire connection speed.

Is the Virgin speed that much better and doesn't anyone else have slow speeds on BT?

[spanglysteve]

I'm on virgin and it's great. Just done a speed test and on my "upto 10mbps" connection and it registered 9.7mbps. I feel you can't really go wrong with virgin. But as mentioned above it can be a bit pricey if you only take broadband and you'll get much better value if you take phone, tv and broadband with them.

[Supe]

Your download speed really is slow.Reason might be as simple as virus in your computer.Check this link http://www.wikihow.com/Maximize-the-Speed-of-Your-Internet-Connection, there is some basic solutions to make sure that it's not your computer or router which cause that problem.

[ianr]

It's important to compare like with like. There are two distinct broadband types: via the phone line (ADSL) and via dedicated broadband cable (which may also include broadband phone or TV in the package). Cable is inherently a lot more capable than ADSL.

My understanding is that in ED Virgin (virginmedia.com) are the only available cable provider. But Virgin also provide an ADSL service (using the BT phone line), for which they sometimes use the name Virgin National. Check here for more information on availability of providers and services.

My experience of Virgin National ADSL http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,595742,622835 isn't much better than the OP's current experience of BT. So I wouldn't recommend jumping as a guaranteed quick and easy solution. Though I do believe the Virgin 0845 helpline is UK-based.

[trizza]

Am with Virgin - the cable service (not through copper telephone line). It seems more reliable than the ADSL2 service I had in SE1 and I think the cost is reasonable - am a happy virgin customer! No links etc.

[karter]

We have virgin as mentioned in another thread. Just make sure you have the up to date equipment as is where we had problems. I dont think location matters anymore when it comes to copper and we are near the police station box.

For the tech side explanation we need the penguin to come on to this thread.:))

[ayresc]

-- moved topic --

[Magpie]

Where Virgin has its own fibre cable, then it will currently offer faster speeds than BT, as fibre can inherently transmit faster speeds. As mentioned above, BT currently provides service via copper, and the speed declines the further you are away from the exchange. I get my broadband from Sky, provided over BT's copper, but get speeds of up to 14mbps as fortunately I live very close to the exchange which I think is on Milo road.

Edit to say that if you are consistently getting lower speeds than that advertised then you can complain to Ofcom, who take this pretty seriously as they have criticised providers on numerous occasions on this issue

[Siduhe]

ayresc Wrote:

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Also has BT Broadband been incredibly slow over the last 3-6 months?

Just to answer this bit, not in my experience. In fact, it's been much faster as the ED exchange near the Plough was upgraded. We're regularly getting 15mb download speeds (again the Plough end of Lordship Lane).

[Adam]

Virgin has generally been fine over the years for me - and I do get about 9.6Mbps (speedtest.net) on my '10meg' service. BUT recently it has been patchy - losing the service for a few hours. I use it for work, so I can't afford to have an unreliable connection. And the customer service in India is shockingly bad. Has anyone else experienced loss of service at all?

[ayresc]

Thanks for your advice, very helpful.

I'll have a look into it...

[fishfoot]

Hi as a virgin customer with tv broadband and phone

it can seem pricey but with the fiber optic cabe broadband is more reliable and also not pron to drop out in bad weather,we used Bt for many years and the service doesn't compare also the call centres varies we try soling and if we end up with the Indian ( which sometimes we don't understand what they are saying eventhough their English is good but not clear at times) call centre we redial and usually speak to one in Scotland (being Scottish I do understand what they say sometimes) but I would give ofcom a call just to inform them of the kind of service that you receive and see what happens

best of luck

[ruffers]

Dulwich is on the Fibre To The Curb upgrade schedule for BT - http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/LSDUL , essentially as I understand it that Infinity thing they're advertising.

Someone says distance to the exchange doesn't matter over copper any more - really not sure that's right.

What I would do though is contact BT and make sure your connection is configured properly before you jump ship. Ours was set at a maximum of 6Meg a year or so ago, incorrectly. They sorted it and our speed virtually doubled.

[ianr]

You can get a lot of useful information from your modem-router's log, particularly the line stats and reported error rates. There's guidance available on getting and understanding these, such as this on the Kitz site.

[Magpie]

Distance always matters over copper - they can upgrade equipment at the exchange or roll out fibre closer to the home (at the green street cabinets), this will increase the speed but the further away you are the slower the speed. The same is not true over fibre, although in some cases repeaters are need on route to maintain the signal.

[spanglysteve]

Well as sods law would have it, after me posting above how reliable virgin is that's now 2 nights in a row where I've had no internet. It was back this morning and out again this evening. All virgin can tell me is that there is a fault in the area. Well duh!

[Marmora Man]

I'm experiencing poor connectivity with Virgin too. Their help line is remarkably unhelpful with barely comprehensible spokespersons in Mumbai (or somewhere on the sub continent) simply mouthing standard script from their computer screen.

For info their complaints dept address is:

Customer cConcn Department

Matrix Court

Swansea

SA7 9AB

I like the change of title to "Customer Concern" - a truly ironic (moronic) change. I don't have concerns I am spitting mad and angry - I want to make a complaint.

[Digby]

Their customer concern centre now says the fault is listed on their system to be fixed April 14. This is after support said it would be fixed April 8, 9, 10 and 11. It all started on April 7 and they cannot give details, but I think it concerns SE21 and 22. Due to a move, snow, and their usual shoddy installation procedures and scheduling, since December we've had 42 days of outage.

[twofourseven]

We are on Virgin on a 20Mb line. I;ve run tests on it and it is great - over 19.5Mb download and 1.5Mb upload. I had an issue with the speed of the line a week ago and they sent somebody down within 24 hours. Yes, call centre was a bit of a pain - click this for that and then this, but when they got here it was good. I used to be on the Sky broadband and that was shocking. If you don't go for Virgin then BT is good.

[jimbo1964]

Up until recently I was very happy with our Virgin broadband service but it's becoming increasingly unstable. It's just gone off again at home.

[firth]

Oh dear I have read this late but glad I have as I want dearly to leave Talk Talk/Pipex/Bulldog as their only contact number is an 0871 which on my mobile is expensive calling them to fix my land line so all these 08 numbers should be cheaper when from a land line. I use " say no to 0870" frequentally.

Scott