Christopher Jenkins life of a software developer, musician and student.
Broadband Speeds
I am covering exsisting ground, battering on about the same point over and over. But I can allways keep finding stats about broadband to tell people who to avoid and who to go for.
People dont belive me when i say Virgin Media is rubbish.
Apart from samknows.com fantastic review of the broadband sector. speedtest.net can give you some very intresting stats about ISP’s.
I’m with BeUnlimited and I jumped on them as soon as they came into plymouth. You wonder why…? Well have a little look at this. I couldnt ask a better example than that could I? So all of Virgin Media’s “fiber optic” network gives them NO edge… sure they can push TV and phone down it but thats not the way media is going…(On a little note, VM Fiber Network barely extends BT’s, only a few places in london actualy have fiber down the road. 99% of virgins lastmile connections are copper just like everyone else. differnce being its just newer.)
Lets start simple. You connect to your ISP. All data goes through your ISP. So if your isp is based in london/madienhead then your traffic has to go halfway accross the country first, then to the destination then back through the isp to you.
Now thats fairly simple… so whats the problem. We think about this… You have 2.5Million subcribers (Virgin Last time i checked) Every single bit of data has to go through them first. AAARG… So for virgin to actualy provide the bandwidth they say. they would have to have bandwidth which exceeds 25Tbps. Now thats very exspensive. to offer everyone 10Mbps broadband for £16 a month is allmost impossible.
Thats not to say BT or anyone else is perfect.. just think twice about who you jump in bed with before you tie that 12 month contract.
But broadband quality is very linked to cost. Why is orange free BB rubbish? well because its free. Why is virgin slow? because is cheap. Why is BeBroadband/O2 or Aquiss,Titan actualy work and fast? becuase you pay for what you get.
Admitidly if all you do is check emails once a day and browse a few website then. Orange Free BB will be fine. If you acctualy want to use your internet connection then look for something else…
Hope you may be a little more informed please feel to ask any more questions.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Christopher Jenkins on February 10, 2009 at 6:20 pm, and is filed under Technology. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 1 year ago
“So if your isp is based in london/madienhead then your traffic has to go halfway accross the country first”
Welcome to Plymouth.
Seriously, though, basically all of the traffic in the country will go through the same few places, e.g. LINX. If it’s a connection to elsewhere on your ISP’s network, you’ve got a better chance, but otherwise you’re pretty limited.
about 1 year ago
It is still madness, All because of the need to control data and ween profits.
about 1 year ago
Er, no, I think a major part of the issue is the need to, you know, actually have an infrastructure.
The highest population concentration, and most of the major companies, are in the southeast, especially London; that means there’s going to be a lot of telecoms infrastructure there anyway, which means it makes sense to do peering there. To a lesser extent, Bristol, Birmingham, and Manchester are also good places. Plymouth is not, simply because there’s just not enough to gain from doing it.
about 1 year ago
The main reason I wouldn’t go with Virgin Media is that they’re the only cable provider in the UK, so if I wanted to switch away I’d have a pile of useless cable equipment. (Not so bad with a separate cable modem and router, though.)
There are many ADSL providers, so you can switch from one to another and use the same hardware. Of course, it’s all BT underneath, so you’re not *much* better off, but still.
about 1 year ago
Its not just that, but some ISP’s are plain bastards and have limits and throttle your connection, Virgin I’m looking at you.
O2 (BeUnlimited) is so easy going with it, and constant top speeds.
about 1 year ago
Well they have the advantage of being unbundled so they dont use BT’s Kit in the exchange.. although they may use BT’s core. But the real differnce is that they dont give you unnessary crap.
You dont get a be email addres, or free webhosting. these all cost money at the end of the day and has to come from somewhere, you allso have to send your hardware back and pay an setup fee.
So yes its more exspensive than others. but saying that “Anything that is given away has no value”.
dunno its all relative.. there are some rip off companies as we know, BT and Virgin are big ones not to say that the other hundred odd ISP’s dont..
about 1 year ago
Not to burst your ‘Virgin Media sucks’ bubble there, CJ, but the ‘Virgin Media’ speed test refers to Virgin Media ADSL in Plymouth (aka: virgin.net users over the phone line).
Virgin Media cable is still known as Telewest Broadband (their old name) on the Speedtest.net site, which you’ll find is number 2 on the speedtest list.
Also, you’ll find that NTL/Telewest are actually providers of the fastest internet connection in the UK – KillerCreation Networks (as stated on http://www.killercreation.co.uk/network-info).
Sorry. Still, it’s good that Be is able to trump a cable connection!
about 1 year ago
I still stand by VM being poor. I never said Telewest and NTL were crap.
killercreations just has tier 1 peering as does any good server provider, blue box has a major host of tiering from 1 to 3, i bet you’ll find entanet connections have lower latency than the VM stuff. I know multiplay.co.uk are starting to back Be as a matter of course as VM are so protective.
Yet again its false advertisement on VM (allthough there not the only one) by baffeling people with technology but not actualy saying that only 10% of the vm network is fiber to the road and these are “potential” speeds.
We used to have NTL and I would welcome them back anyday, VM have just got issues with providing even though they have the network to do it.
As for speedtest.net im fairly certain the majority of new connections fall under Virgin Media, some old ones may fall under telewest/NTL but now VM covers them all. vm.net is adsl but its not defined on that speed test. Speedtest.net is not a true performance test it was really an observation. samknows.net has real performance test and does inspire some very real questions.
Really i think offcom should be letting resellers on the cable network. I dont want a phone line yet I want a decent BB connection.. i have to pay for a crappy phone like to get that as VM Cable is well balls. And if you can’t agree with that then you’ve never actualy ‘Used’ Virgin Media connection lol
Cheers, Chap!
about 11 months ago
It’s very important thing to do is check your internal phone extension wiring if your connection is slow. Make sure it’s away from large electrical items, and also fit an IPlate or if you can use a pair of pliers remove the bell wire see
http://broadband-speedup.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-to-do-it.html
about 2 months ago
For those that want a faster service but either struggle to understand all the options or don’t want to “tinker with the tech”as suggested in the “bell wire fix” then come and visit Simplifydigital. If you don’t want to sign up online then you can call us 7 days a week.