Virgin Media to hike broadband prices by nearly 7 per cent

Does this mean

We will get throttled twice as fast lol

As the justification is that their network is twice as fast as BT's then I am guessing that these increases obviously wont apply to the "National" ADSL service which is no faster than BT and is significantly lower at times due to the traffic shaping and the network issues they experience on the ADSL service. I routinely experience issues even managing to stream a 360 Youtube video on virgin with constant buffering interruptions in the evenings.

I would love to go back to cable again, but no coverage.

So will this 7% rise be in addition to the 11.5% rise BB only subs got gouged with?

As soon as the ink was dry on the transfer of the business they put up BB only subs by 11.5%

I'm on 20Mb as haven't got nor want their useless "super" hub.

They will never persuade me to take a package (I once asked about the phone, they said I needed a BT line !!)

Can't get fibre from BT yet but the projected speeds look good. Might go to a purely mobile solution if I can't go through the hateful haggling process with VM.

Goodbye subscriber time methinks. :-/

Not sure how this is news?

I've been with VM for 1 year (just for Broadband) , in that time they increased my bill by just over 12% whilst still offering the service to new customers for the same price (per month) I paid a year ago. Luckly I have choice, so I can always switch to BT.

Third Price Rise in 12 Months

I only have (cable) broadband with Virgin (no TV, no phone). I'm on the top package of 120mb although I only see 100mb due to my hardware restrictions (Which is my issue - I'll upgrade when they break, honest!).

They have increased the price twice in 2013 to a whopping £39.25.... and now a thrid increase - which would be the third in 12 months...

They also fail to mention that if you want the increase in speed you will have to sign up for another 12 month contract.

The one, the ONLY, good thing for me is I contacted them via online chat (much easier than ringing some foreign call centre) and asked why I was paying more than new customers.

Within 5 minutes they had knocked £5 a month off, reducing it to £30 (yep, I know it doesn't add up - but can we keep it among ourselves?) for the next 18 months - subject to a 12 month contract.

iPlayer, VOIP and browsing for £30/month isn't a bad deal IMHO.

Speed isn't everything

I'm on a "only" 40mb package with Infinity, whereas a friend about 20 miles away is on a 100mb package with Virgin.

So Virgin, tell me why my downloads are quicker at peak times than his? Eh? Eh? Oversubscribed was that? Traffic throttling was that? Back-haul not up to it was that?

BT may not be great, but at least the willy waving is (only slightly) less....

Shame I'm having to pay for the bloody football that i don't want.

Increase prices for faster speeds?

Er... isn't that what they higher tariffs are for? I already pay a ridiculous amount for 60Mb and can't reduce it or the wonderful deal (read: slightly less expensive) will no longer apply. I was happy with 30Mb... hell I was happy with 20Mb, even 10Mb.

I don't need more speed especially when the increase comes with no real tangible benefits. I don't ever recall downloading something and needing it within a set time limit. The benefit of faster speeds is generally faster downloads and higher quality streams without buffering but if I can't get that with 60Mb often what chance does a faster connection have? It didn't change going from 20 - 30 - 60Mb.

Go to love the PR departments

Here, eat some shit but hey, don't worry, it tastes nicer than a rivals.

hmm

I'd rather some basics were attended too. Having little choice I went with a 60mb connections as I'm a long way from the exchange so adsl was getting too poor for HD streaming and BT had no fibre as I'm not luckily enough to be in one of those rural areas that get the attention (SE London - no fibre ...).

I went for 60mb as much to get the new superhub as reviews said coverage and reliability were better but it still needs regular rebooting - at least once a week - for which it has no automatic option. Nor many other features one would expect in a basic router firmware. Slow to reboot too.

Reliability and service are OK - had a few outages but comparable to DSL but I'd rather that was improved before higher speeds.

Speed is ok - I normally get over the 30mb on testing.

here we go...

what's the bets that with prices up 7%, they still mysteriously manage to make no taxable profit in this country now that they're foreign owned?

And upload speeds are.....

Yep, upload speed on this "top-of-the range" product remains at a staggeringly slow 12Mb. And my 60Mb service is still stuck at 3Mb upload. Years after we were promised an upgrade

Didn't mention that, did he ?

Some of the comments here are the same as my experience. Their retentions department buckle pretty quickly. The last two times there has been a price change I've called them and had a reduction applied.

Sure its a pain in the butt having to call, but they don't even question it. Also if you get one of those 'new customer' flyers through the letterbox addressed to the Home owner with a great deal in it, they'll match that, even if you are in the middle of a contract.

I agree tho that their network traffic shaping results in a shocking performance sometimes. Its false advertising speed-wise really.

Decaying Coax Network

Taking a pop at BT's network is a bit rich when all your own company does is milk some ageing re-purposed cable TV infrastructure that relies on a coax loop for the bit from the cabinet to the consumer. Just 48% coverage and no investment to increase it, despite regular price rises; it's pretty obvious that their business plan is just to wring as much cash as they can out of the assets they bought from bankrupt cable TV firms, until it rots in the ground.