spirit2674
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Re: Worthwhile to Pursue An Engineer/Technician Visit?
Hi folks. Hope all are well. Just a quick update post. Regrettably, I am still getting daily outages, which can span multiple hours. To say the least, this is not ideal for work from home (WFH) purposes, or general productivity. Here is a Broadband Quality Monitor (BQM) snapshot to demonstrate today's outage (18/06/2025): As the graph demonstrates, today's outage spanned from circa 1700 to 1900. At time of writing, these issues have now spanned circa 26 days, at least. Sadly, I do not have a workable "mobile phone tethering" redundancy option at this time. (That is something I am working on.) So, I am proceeding with a switch to a well-known OpenReach provider. A rudimentary glance at various relevant online forums (including Reddit) suggests outages are not wholly uncommon with VM, as of June 2025. That is unfortunate, as my early experience of this network (spanning back to my early contracting, in my area, with "pre VM" NTL) was one of reliable provision. Once again, I encourage a root and branch reappraisal, at boardroom level, of VM's current strategy on broadband provision, with an emphasis on 24/7/365 service up-time and reliability.Re: Worthwhile to Pursue An Engineer/Technician Visit?
Hi there @pete_at_home, many thanks for your post. I will do those things today -- thank you very much for your suggestions. Sadly, I've had a poor run of connection performance recently, at what was quite an important time, and so, I've decided to draw a line under my time with VM. Despite a fix to an issue that was estimated to be implemented on 16/06/2025, unfortunately, I had more outages that day and today (17/06/2025). Here is a Broadband Quality Monitor snapshot to demonstrate (17/06/2025): I've had a decent run overall with VM (starting with contracting with NTL), and for many years, had no pressing issues in terms of connection reliability. So, I must give VM credit for that. Recently however, the connection has not been performing well. I had initial conversations with an alternative large-scale/established provider today, and they were straightforward and efficient. As an aside, a pleasing aspect of the proposed solution was a redundancy option, which initiates an automatic "mobile signal" connection, via an extra unit connected to the main router, should the standard fibre connection fail or have an outage. For anyone in a similar position, and considering a similar move, here is my opinion (and that is all it is). Assuming you are out of contract with VM, I would, on balance, recommend running 2 services concurrently, until the alternative option is fully up-and-running. This is a different strategy to a standard "switch" protocol, which relies on very precise timing. While there is additional expense to my own approach, I feel that the risk of being left without a connection (should anything go wrong with a traditional "switch" method) is greatly reduced. Having worked for a large-scale telecommunications company, I am aware that switches can (and do) go wrong, with very inconvenient results. I am hopeful that all goes to plan. Thanks again to everyone who has posted in this thread. Please also bear in mind that there are a number of posts that I have not responded to, as I simply cannot see them, due to some problems with this forum's management of layers of "nested" posts.Re: Worthwhile to Pursue An Engineer/Technician Visit?
Hi there @Steven_L, many thanks for keeping tabs on my issue and thread. Very much appreciated. Sadly, after a lull of "okay" connection performance for a few days, my "poor connection quality" issues have started back up again. Here are some Broadband Quality Monitor snapshots to demonstrate. 10/06/2025, going into 11/06/2025 12/06/2025 Needless to say, from a "work from home" (WFH) perspective, this is extremely problematic, and causes me consternation and various professional problems. I have checked the VM Service Status checker page here, and a fault is registered, with a fix date of 16/06/2025. Here are some screenshots to demonstrate: My Plans and Some Commentary on VM's General Broadband Strategy Regrettably, I feel this is the final push towards me leaving VM, and joining up with an OpenReach provider. At time or writing, many choices are now available to me on that front. Most likely, my main picks are going to be either BT or EE (I tend to favour established firms over the smaller/newer providers). There are some factors behind this decision: (1) Historical VM email service outages, that caused me some serious problems a number of years ago. I learned from these problems, and migrated my email services away from VM to Proton Mail (paid-for provider) and Google Mail ("free" provider). Note: other email providers are of course available. (2) VM price rises at regular intervals, and yet, plateauing -- and sometimes degrading -- broadband service up-time (reliability). From a work from home (WFH) perspective, I cannot tolerate or endure regular downtimes. I need 24/7/365 up-time. I am pretty sure I am not the only customer who has this perspective. (3) The apparent need to "play games" on a yearly basis, to secure a reasonable price point for the provision of VM broadband services. Some call this the "yearly dance" with VM. I don't have the time, energy or inclination to play games of this nature. I repeat: I don't "play games" with companies, and have no interest in doing so. I expect a reasonable price-point, year on year. If I get that, I will remain with the company. Some might call this "straightforwards dealing". I believe many VM customers are beginning to form a similar mindset. Moreover, many competing companies in the marketplace are beginning to recognise this, and I feel VM are well behind the curve in that regard. The "yearly dance" is just so inefficient and time-wasting, both for VM colleagues, and customers alike. All things considered, I would like to thank the VM forum/community team members, who have been excellent on these forums over the years, and who have been a far superior point of contact to other VM support avenues. I feel they do a very good job. I would also like to thank the many "everyday" forum members who have helped me, both recently, and in the past. If I get the chance, and assuming my switch is a "go" (a broadband service availability checker for my postcode indicates it should be), I may post back with my experiences of a switch, and perhaps some new Broadband Quality Monitor snapshots. My advice to VM upper/senior management: Focus on service reliability. 24/7/365 up-time should be the aim. Forget about braggadocio on top-line speeds. Reward your support staff and technical staff with adequate compensation. These are the people that actually make your company work. Remember that you are a technology company, not some kind of media and marketing company. Completely remove the strategy of the "yearly price-point dance". It is a complete waste of time for everyone, and merely leads to ill-will. Adopt straightforwards price points and straightforwards, efficient dealing. Thank you for reading my post folks.
