Virgin Media Community

[JESC77]

I’m afraid I’ll be leaving VM in a few months when my contract expires unless they increase the upload speeds. I get what I’m supposed to (35mbps) but it’s just not good enough when I can get symmetrical gigabit internet on the newly installed cityfibre network through one of their partner ISPs for less money. 

Working from home and the need to upload large files is annoying so can’t wait to change.

Everyone (who can) should vote with their wallets and ditch Virgin until they sort it out, then hopefully they’ll get the message.

[Andrew-G]

VM's technical architects are well aware, and if they could do it tomorrow they would.  But the existing DOCSIS technology is limited by its history, and changing to symmetrical would be theoretically possible with a further network upgrade that would be hugely expensive and probably for very modest returns.  Chances are we won't see that until VM deploy XGS-PON (FTTP), and that's years away other than for a lucky few triallists.

High upload speeds are like high download speeds - everybody wants them, but relatively few people will pay that much extra for them, making investment cases difficult.  For the altnet fibre providers, they've got the luxury of a clean sheet of paper when choosing a technology, and no investment in old technology.

[JESC77]

It’s my understanding that DOCSIS3.1 supports upload speeds of at least 1gig. 

[jem101]

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@JESC77 wrote:

It’s my understanding that DOCSIS3.1 supports upload speeds of at least 1gig. 

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True,  the 3.1 specs do specify upload speeds of up to 1 gig, (note the up to proviso and possibly 2 gig depending on the implementation), but that implies that the provider has the right kit installed and working - and these things aren’t cheap.

Currently VM do not use DOCSIS 3.1 for the upstream just 3.0, yes they probably could offer a speed increase, but not without serious risk of increasing congestion and latency in some areas. 

Be honest, it’s a marketing exercise, isn’t it? Realistically nobody (OK a few people), even bother about upstream speed, you have the choice between a 80 Mb/s (symmetric) and a gigabit connection (no mention of upstream), which one of these do you think the vast majority of people will opt for?