[Karma Charger]

Hi, not sure whether this is the correct place to put this but I couldn't find anywhere else...

Last year at my house I was with Sky who were quite good (aside for a few unexplained/random internet cuts). However when all of my housemates (there were 4 of us in total) were on our laptops, streaming etc... buffering did take a bit longer, but not seriously slow. Now 3 of us have moved into a new house (going to start living there properly in September) and I really want to get faster broadband just so as to not have any difficulty in streaming/gaming etc... Obviously looking at the Virgin Media store it is more expensive than what Sky are offering and my housemates are unwilling to pay extra for faster broadband (which I understand tbf). My question is this: if I rang Virgin Media and tried to negotiate a lower monthly cost, how much success would I have? Sky are offering £12.25 for 6 months and £22.25 after that which is much cheaper than what Virgin Media are offering...

Thanks

[neillya1]

(Original post by Karma Charger)
My question is this: if I rang Virgin Media and tried to negotiate a lower monthly cost, how much success would I have?

Probably not much, but you won't really know unless you try. Worth a go

Just be sure to mention the price Sky quoted you, that could sway them in to giving you a discount.

Be warned though, Virgin HEAVILY throttle traffic and so if you have 4 people streaming at once it's going to start going really, really slow.

See my post here about how/when they throttle:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/show...1#post38808441

[Karma Charger]

(Original post by neillya1)
Probably not much, but you won't really know unless you try. Worth a go

Just be sure to mention the price Sky quoted you, that could sway them in to giving you a discount.

Be warned though, Virgin HEAVILY throttle traffic and so if you have 4 people streaming at once it's going to start going really, really slow.

See my post here about how/when they throttle:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/show...1#post38808441

It's 3 of us now, if that makes any difference. None of us do P2P, so is there going to be a problem?

[wibletg]

Virgin at MAX throttle down to 50% of your quoted speed if you're a heavy user (typically 5GB in a 5 hour period)

[neillya1]

(Original post by Karma Charger)
It's 3 of us now, if that makes any difference. None of us do P2P, so is there going to be a problem?

It depends, if all 3 of you are streaming for 2/3 hours then yes, you'll be throttled.

If you aren't downloading or streaming much then honestly there isn't that much point in getting faster broadband, yet if you are streaming a lot they throttle you.... Vicious circle

[alexs2602]

(Original post by neillya1)
Probably not much, but you won't really know unless you try. Worth a go

Just be sure to mention the price Sky quoted you, that could sway them in to giving you a discount.

Be warned though, Virgin HEAVILY throttle traffic and so if you have 4 people streaming at once it's going to start going really, really slow.

See my post here about how/when they throttle:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/show...1#post38808441

Seriously? I've had no issues with virgin in the past. They're 10x better than BT. BT are horrible for throttling, if you want to download p2p much before midnight then you're screwed.

(Original post by wibletg)
Virgin at MAX throttle down to 50% of your quoted speed if you're a heavy user (typically 5GB in a 5 hour period)

Or did you mean this, neillya1? 5GB in 5 hours is quite a lot even for a heavy torrent-er. I have a full 1TB drive, I think I've download 110GB in the last month or so and ok, sure from time to time I'll download a large amount of data in that time span but it's not that often or that unreasonable considering.

Edit: Oh, I reread, but still... Easy way around that is if you're going to dl huge files like that and it isn't urgent then stick it on before you go to bed and it'll be ready when you wake up. Though that said that table says they don't throttle after 9pm. It could be a LOT worse. I think you're being very harsh.

[neillya1]

(Original post by alexs2602)

Or did you mean this, neillya1? 5GB in 5 hours is quite a lot even for a heavy torrent-er. I have a full 1TB drive, I think I've download 110GB in the last month or so and ok, sure from time to time I'll download a large amount of data in that time span but it's not that often or that unreasonable considering.

Well if OP went on the 30Mb package it's a limit of only 3.5Gb at peak times.

3.5Gb in 5 hours is easily do-able with 3 people streaming.

BT say they don't throttle but in reality they're a bitch for it, completely cripple your speeds at times.

No ISP is perfect - I really don't like Virgin's traffic shaping policies but they're still probably the best out of all of them, just making sure OP knows any cons before they buy

[Karma Charger]

Managed to get them to knock off the £50 installation fee Cheaper than Sky now

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my GT-I9100