cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Gig2 on HFC

josh94
Superfast

Hello,

Are there any plans to let HFC users upgrade to Gig2? I think it is very unfair to us that we are unable to upgrade our packages to this given we are absolutely sure the network can take it. We as users have a right to use faster speeds and we are just being neglected at this point. I need the extra speed for my zoom meetings and online gaming.

With Openreach announcing that from March areas will start to go live with gigabit upload using their existing GPON virgin are now very behind with no reason.

Once upon a time VM marketing used to be able to claim UK fastest, now you are not. I think a lot of people will be moving soon now that OR have picked up pace on their rollout.

nexfibre infills are great, but without an overbuild why would anyone stay considering the retention dance needed at renewal?

16 REPLIES 16

Tudor
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

"We as users have a right to use faster speeds" you have no RIGHT to increased speeds. You signed a contract with VM and they will abide by it.


Tudor
There are 10 types of people: those who understand binary and those who don't and F people out of 10 who do not understand hexadecimal c1a2a285948293859940d9a49385a2

I did, however at the end of it they will put the price up 150% yet provide me with less options than other ISPs. Virgin used to be fast now it’s just second best, and that’s if you’re just competing with OR. 

 

I need the faster speeds in my house. It’s a pain getting by when others have such faster options.

nodrogd
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

1) Upgrading to 2Gb on HFC will cause a lot more contention issues. At present the coax network segments are shared by up to 500 people per fibre node.

2) Broadcast TV services use a huge chunk of spectrum that would be needed for symmetrical services. These are still currently used by over 3 million customers who VM might lose if they switched them off.

VM 350BB 2xV6 & Landline. Freeview/Freesat HD, ASDA/Tesco PAYG Mobile. Cable customer since 1993

I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media. Learn more

Have I helped? Click Mark as Helpful Answer or use Kudos to say thanks

IPFreely
Fibre optic

Last two posts on thread: https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Speed/2gig-on-Docsis-3-1/td-p/5557226 should fill in some gaps. 

I think they might be loosing more than 3m users if OR can provide faster speeds than them now for BB only users. Additionally, with Sky now using Cityfibre as well as OR, looks like Sky will be the go-to provider unless VM can magically come up with 'UKs fastest broadband provider' again.


@nodrogd wrote:

2) Broadcast TV services use a huge chunk of spectrum that would be needed for symmetrical services. These are still currently used by over 3 million customers who VM might lose if they switched them off.


You know how you can't buy TV on its own and haven't for years, you have to have a broadband service? There's a reason for that. Most of the TV channels are IPTV. The boxes in use that aren't old as the hills and should have already been retired are software convertible to all-IP. Cable companies have already gone all-IP on existing set tops. VM could leave a couple of QAMs for sport and very key channels, 16 MHz of a 1 GHz or at worst 860 MHz plant.

No-one's talking about symmetrical anyway. VM have been installing mid-split networks more than capable of 200 Mbit up since at least 2016 and all the latest wave of upgrades were mid-split. If STBs couldn't handle the return path going up to 85 MHz they'd have broken the TV service in those areas. Mid-split is easily capable of 200 Mbit upload tiers and that's all that VM need before Mustang is extensively rolled out.

The knowledge you're sharing is way out of date.


@nodrogd wrote:

1) Upgrading to 2Gb on HFC will cause a lot more contention issues. At present the coax network segments are shared by up to 500 people per fibre node.


Like Gig1 did? Ah, no, it didn't. They added extra capacity through an OFDM downstream and on the upstream an extra SC-QAM and an OFDMA channel. Where there wasn't room they upgraded the return path. This saves them a job for Gig2. Virtually no downstream capacity issues at all, only upstreams that were creaking before Gig1 went to 100.

I guess you didn't have the time to read the replies on the other thread on this topic where another poster explained why you are mistaken.

Irndeath
Dialled in

You need to get everyone in your area to sign up to BT fibre so that your area gets full fibre then all jump ship.

BT are just now putting the boxes on the poles ready for service, a lot of this road will move to BT for sure when its available, its too expensive and not the fastest anymore so no reason to stay unless you are mid contract with a TV box. Out of contract too expensive better off with a sky bundle with fibre.