Virgin Media Community

[Andrew-G]

There is a firmware upgrade for the Arris CMTS that improves DocSIS 3.1 latency even more.

We keep on being told this (ie about Low Latency DOCSIS) by non-official posters, but the simple reality is that it was announced as a standard in 2019 but it's not been delivered yet, and there's no sign of it being delivered.  VM's strategy is to go down an XGS-PON route, and that won't deliver any benefits until it's real PON rather than RFoG.  None of those posters have answered the question as to VM would pay a penny to test and roll out a fairly drastic network change to a technology that they're sunsetting*, and to solve a problem that probably less than 10% of VM's customers perceive, understand or care about.  And even if VM did plan to use LLD, when would that be given that we've not seen a commercial 2-2.5 Gbps offer despite user testing back in 2020?  One poster has said that LLD is being tested by VM, but big deal, we already know some improvement could be delivered by LLD, but technical testing has no bearing on building a business case that justifies new hub firmware plus CMTS upgrades and likely licence fees.  VM's homebrewed firmware is bad enough normally, imagine the risk when dabbling at low level packet scheduling.   And finally, why distract expert technical resource to piffle around with LLD when they're already running large scale PON trials in at least three locations? 

One our regular LLD enthusiasts has it down as a really easy software change, and that begs the question, if it's so easy, cheap and risk free why haven't VM done it?  Even allowing it's a minority interest that would be a good PR win.  Imagine you're VM's head of technical architecture.  You're under severe and continuous pressure to keep an ageing technology working, you need to keep adding capacity all across the network, you're trying to do fringe build outs as the last residue of Project Lightning, new build incumbent networks with large housebuilders, you've got PIA build out outside the existing footprint, resources are limited, costs are rising, you're running field trials of XGS-PON on thousands of existing customers, and you then have to deliver and implement an XGS-PON network upgrade strategy over the existing assets with near enough no interruption (with investors watching this very closely indeed).  VM's proposed changes to infrastructure ownership threaten more scrutiny of technical operations and strategy, and the mere mention of wholesale access creates new SLA and performance dilemmas.  Region by region you're seeing competitors installing more modern optical networks some years before VM have any meaningful coverage.  In the meanwhile you've got 21CV phone changes rumbling on (and the botched Hub 5 firmware causing ghost calls), and much more besides - what would you say to some clown walking into your office and proposing a network wide LLD roll out to placate a few whingeing gamers?

* Excuse the business-speak 

[jpeg1]

And all the while, Openreach are pressing on with their reliable, well proven FTTP network.  Which gives potential customers a wide choice of suppliers based on price and service. 

I suspect that at least some senior Virginmedia technical staff will be checking their retirement dates. 

[Andrew-G]

I suspect that at least some senior Virginmedia technical staff will be checking their retirement dates. 

In principle yes, although my own experience of management grades in companies of this size is that it's a whirling mass of internal politics, every manager looking to hop to the next promotion (or hop out of a role that's too difficult but before failure is apparent), and then there's everybody watching for the next round of golden handshakes on voluntary terms.  If you've a reasonable few year's service and on a high enough grade the pay offs can be marvellous, although at contact centre employee or a field tech salaries the same offer rarely looks attractive.

[jpeg1]

Oh yes!  I personally did extremely well out of such a reorganization.  I retired very early, with a bigger payout than if I'd stayed working for it until normal retirement.  It allows me now to pick and choose which consultancy jobs I will actually enjoy.

Will VM staff benefit that way when the US owner wants to downsize the UK staff? 

[Andrew-G]

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@jpeg1 wrote:

Oh yes!  I personally did extremely well out of such a reorganization.  I retired very early, with a bigger payout than if I'd stayed working for it until normal retirement.  It allows me now to pick and choose which consultancy jobs I will actually enjoy.

Will VM staff benefit that way when the US owner wants to downsize the UK staff? 

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I must say I've also done well out of leaving large companies (and the other half is currently pushing for "VR + early" deal).  In the case of VM depends on what the local practice is - US culture is to pay the minimum and scr3w the employees, Musk/Twitter style, but VM's UK based management probably make the call as they have full P&L authority, and will obviously want deals that line their pockets now, or maintain a generous precedent for the future.  Also Lutz, given his nationality, is unlikely to be somebody who believes in the UK's grim statutory minimum.  I'd guess it's a months pay per year of service with perhaps an upper limit of 1-2 years salary, as those terms are pretty common across large companies.

And at the moment and for the next year or two all the cost of VR or early retirement across VMO2 will be met from the merger "cost to capture" pot, so it won't even hit exec bonuses, in fact getting rid of people will likely hit those targets.  I'd imagine that anybody in VM who either thinks they can get another job (consulting or full time) or who wants to put their feet up is scrabbling to try and get their role "in scope" for a voluntary exit, but as it'll be selective lots of people won't be offered it.

[IPFreely]

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@Andrew-G wrote:

BQM - Aware it has an IP: don't care. 

You might not care, the mods will and it should be blocked.  They're only doing their job, but if you simply used the Thinkbroadband "share" facility then it won't be a problem.  Like this:

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Indeed. It's a rather odd thing that an IP address is apparently private information when it's handed to every site a person accesses by necessity but there we go. It's even more hilarious given that Khoros is a giant data sink collecting all kinds of metrics and profiling users but an IP address is a bridge too far.

Anyway dull as it is here's a fairly standard decent alternative network BQM:

[Andrew-G]

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@IPFreely wrote:

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Indeed. It's a rather odd thing that an IP address is apparently private information when it's handed to every site a person accesses by necessity but there we go. It's even more hilarious given that Khoros is a giant data sink collecting all kinds of metrics and profiling users but an IP address is a bridge too far.

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Agree with you on all that - amusingly VM will be pimping customers' data left right and centre as per the laughable VM "privacy policy" and those unfamiliar with it should read especially the fun bit "who we share your information with and why".  As far as I can see the only people VM might not share all our data with are Battersea Dogs Home or the Donkey Sanctuary*.  Anybody using pods can presumably expect Plume to be even more rapacious in their harvesting and re-sale).  

Nice BQM, by the way.

* Although if Battersea Dogs Home and the Donkey Sanctuary merge, then yes VM can share our data with them, by virtue of the permission "Organisations in a corporate restructure, merger or acquisition". 

[IPFreely]

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@Andrew-G wrote: Nice BQM, by the way.

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8G symmetrical. QoS not required 😉

[Andrew-G]

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@IPFreely wrote:

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@Andrew-G wrote: Nice BQM, by the way.

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8G symmetrical. QoS not required 😉

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Sounds industrial.  You're not running Jodrell Bank or the Daresbury rocket science lab are you?  But great for CSGO.

[IPFreely]

Awful for CS:Go. No flux capacitor powered QoS / BWM right now. My bufferbloat must be off the scale.

Might limit it to 56k, just to be sure.

More seriously latency is not as low as some as everything goes through Manchester but it's very stable. If you'd care to see the setup carrying the traffic I'll pop some network porn in showing the two cabinets in a bit.