Virgin 1Gb now available.

loyatemu · 20-08-2020 1:00am #1

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/virgin-makes-gigabit-internet-available-across-its-service-1.4334185

TBH I don't see the point of 1Gb for domestic users, 500Mb should be sufficient for 99.9% of subscribers (I downgraded to 250Mb and didn't notice any difference). But anyway, it's now (or shortly) available to VM subscribers.

ArthurG · 20-08-2020 8:14am

Can’t find any reference to it on their website.

TheQuietBeatle · 20-08-2020 8:17am

If working at home it's definitely useful.

lotas · 20-08-2020 8:21am

also mentioned on Silicon Republic: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/virgin-media-gigabit-broadband

no mention of it on their website yet, and their business class is still listed as limited to 400mb (even though i got upgraded to 500 last week...). Now to figure out when business customers get 1Gb... double upload bandwidth would be very welcome!

JDxtra · 20-08-2020 8:28am

TheQuietBeatle wrote: »

If working at home it's definitely useful.

How? A stable connection of 50 to 100mb is plenty even with kids at home streaming, gaming etc. I've 40+ active devices on my network and even at peak times it's only using 20Mb download.

Gigabit broadband is just a flashy headline.

colm_mcm · 20-08-2020 8:30am

It’s just Mickey waving to show that cable can match fibre speeds by competitors.

Mav11 · 20-08-2020 8:42am

JDxtra wrote: »

How? A stable connection of 50 to 100mb is plenty even with kids at home streaming, gaming etc. I've 40+ active devices on my network and even at peak times it's only using 20Mb download.

Gigabit broadband is just a flashy headline.

Quality and stability is far more important than headline speed.

lotas · 20-08-2020 9:19am

Mav11 wrote: »

Quality and stability is far more important than headline speed.

yea, quality and stability is high priority, but having to upload or download a 20GB VM, having 100Mb/s up and 1Gb/s down, vs having 100Mb/s down 10Mb/s means its going to take at least 10 times longer to download or upload something... And yes, in my line of business moving 20Gb vms around the place is somewhat normal... I agree, its not for everyone, but you also dont have to sign up for it either...

JDxtra · 20-08-2020 9:32am

Yes, you can be pretty sure most consumers will not need to upload 20Gb files too frequently!

But, home users will sign up for this package thinking it will help their home broadband. When in reality, their issues are more likely due to local wifi issues, device issues or capacity issues with their employers systems.

JDxtra · 20-08-2020 9:34am

It's listed on their web site now...

€60 a month / €85 a month after 6 months

https://www.virginmedia.ie/broadband/buy-a-broadband-package/

lotas · 20-08-2020 9:36am

yea, but more and more games are getting larger and larger... not a gamer myself, but heard that Microsoft Flight Simulator downloads 150Gb when it starts up first time, and that Call of Duty (i think) had 80Gb updates...

gibgodsman · 20-08-2020 9:37am

I love all the posts from people who have no idea about how internet works, 1GB is absolutely great for most people, good luck streaming 4K easily with a 100Mb connection.

You want to jump on the game streaming bandwagon with Stadia or Xbox Cloud Gaming? That 250Mb will struggle BAD.

If your using your internet to its fullest, steaming in 4K, downloading games, watching on multiple devices, 1GB is a huge benefit, those suggesting 100Mb on 40+ devices is a good idea, id love to see how bad your kids ping is in anything they play online

irishgeo · 20-08-2020 9:38am

JDxtra wrote: »

Yes, you can be pretty sure most consumers will not need to upload 20Gb files too frequently!

But, home users will sign up for this package thinking it will help their home broadband. When in reality, their issues are more likely due to local wifi issues, device issues or capacity issues with their employers systems.

or the **** modem they supply.

boars · 20-08-2020 9:44am

i have 350mbs,

My only issue with the 350 is that the Suberhub Router is a piece of cheap crap regarding the wifi (it cant handle more than 9/10 wireless devices). I went into the settings and put it into modem mode, connected my own €150 router from amazon and wifi is perfect.

Are they releasing a different router with the 1 gig broadband?

To be honest 350 is more than enough for my needs at this time however, there are only two of us in the house using it- however I will probably upgrade in about 5 years i'd say when baby gets older.

JDxtra · 20-08-2020 9:46am

gibgodsman wrote: »

I love all the posts from people who have no idea about how internet works, 1GB is absolutely great for most people, good luck streaming 4K easily with a 100Mb connection.

You want to jump on the game streaming bandwagon with Stadia or Xbox Cloud Gaming? That 250Mb will struggle BAD.

If your using your internet to its fullest, steaming in 4K, downloading games, watching on multiple devices, 1GB is a huge benefit, those suggesting 100Mb on 40+ devices is a good idea, id love to see how bad your kids ping is in anything they play online

Sorry, but you are mistaken. Netflix 4k uses 15Mb/s. Two Xbox gamers in the house, ping times are 10ms to 15ms (wired) and 15ms to 20ms (wifi). I use a wifi mesh, not the VM device which helps.

Multiple streaming devices (security cameras and servers), never a single issue.

Only plus for me switching to 1Gb would be faster upload speeds (100mb versus 24mb currently).

Wanderer78 · 20-08-2020 9:50am

colm_mcm wrote:

Itâ€™s just Mickey waving to show that cable can match fibre speeds by competitors.

I was informed by a virgin tech, that a large proportion of their network is actually fibre, including to the home, this true? Think we re on a 250 line, no need for 1gb, 250 is more than enough

Yggr of Asgard · 20-08-2020 9:54am

Does someone know if this is a different modem to the current hub?

JDxtra · 20-08-2020 9:55am

Yggr of Asgard wrote: »

Does someone know if this is a different modem to the current hub?

Yes, it will be a new modem.

loyatemu · 20-08-2020 9:55am

we have customers with 100s of users on 1Gb connections and they never max the connection out, they don't even come close.

I'd be interested to know if anyone manages to download an Xbox or Steam game at > 500Mb/s.

Wanderer78 wrote: »

I was informed by a virgin tech, that a large proportion of their network is actually fibre, including to the home, this true? Think we re on a 250 line, no need for 1gb, 250 is more than enough

it's mostly hybrid fibre/cable (HFC) - fibre to a box somewhere in the area, coax cable into the house. The speed attainable over the coax bit is dependent on the version of DOCSIS running on their equipment and how they decide to dimension the network. VM may also be installing fibre to the home in new estates.

lotas · 20-08-2020 9:56am

Wanderer78 wrote: »

I was informed by a virgin tech, that a large proportion of their network is actually fibre, including to the home, this true?

the core network is Fiber. Depending on the area, the Fiber could end at the top of the road, or could run down the eves of the house and terminate outside your house. but from there on, its copper...

colm_mcm · 20-08-2020 9:57am

Wanderer78 wrote: »

I was informed by a virgin tech, that a large proportion of their network is actually fibre, including to the home, this true? Think we re on a 250 line, no need for 1gb, 250 is more than enough

A huge proportion of their network may be capable of having FTTH but as it stands they have HFC Coax from the node to the customers outlet box.

Maybe they’re retrofitting fibre but it isn’t plug and play for most customers I’d imagine.

Wanderer78 · 20-08-2020 10:00am

lotas wrote:

the core network is Fiber. Depending on the area, the Fiber could end at the top of the road, or could run down the eves of the house and terminate outside your house. but from there on, its copper...

Tech said it was fibre to my house, I'm not convinced though, but shur I ll worry about that in a couple of decades

Alun · 20-08-2020 10:01am

I'm still on the old 240 Mb service and for downloads that suits me fine, no need for anything higher, but a better upload speed would help with cloud backups certainly.

circadian · 20-08-2020 10:01am

loyatemu wrote: »

we have customers with 100s of users on 1Gb connections and they never max the connection out, they don't even come close.

I'd be interested to know if anyone manages to download an Xbox or Steam game at > 500Mb/s.

You'd need to have decent quality hardware to manage those download/write speeds. There's absolutely no chnce an Xbox or Ps4 would come close to utilising even 250 Meg connection. I remember downloading forza on PC and xbox (both wired connections.) and the xbox took hours longer.

I wouldn't be surprised if Steams CDN could handle that as long as there isn't a hight load on their end. The COD downloads are petty quick outside of massive updates when everyone's trying to download at the same time.

irishgeo · 20-08-2020 10:04am

boars wrote: »

i have 350mbs,

My only issue with the 350 is that the Suberhub Router is a piece of cheap crap regarding the wifi (it cant handle more than 9/10 wireless devices). I went into the settings and put it into modem mode, connected my own €150 router from amazon and wifi is perfect.

Are they releasing a different router with the 1 gig broadband?

To be honest 350 is more than enough for my needs at this time however, there are only two of us in the house using it- however I will probably upgrade in about 5 years i'd say when baby gets older.

What router you buy?

boars · 20-08-2020 10:09am

TP Link Archer C4000 (ac4000)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07T7NSSFH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I got it at a discount- currently €157.

Great router- 3 different bands (2x 5g, 1x 2.4g).

2x phones on one of the 5g
everything else on the other 5g
nothing on the 2.4g at the moment.

Much easier port forwarding settings and other custom options. Everything about it is better than the superhub 3.0. Better security, better parental settings, can create guest network. 5 stars, would recommend. took 10 minutes to setup.

Just to add- it doesn't matter how fast your internet speed is or how expensive your home router is- if the devices you are using aren't equipped with a decent internal network card or have bottlenecks at the cpu level you wont get faster internet speeds.

dhaughton99 · 20-08-2020 10:22am

Bet everyone’s bill goes up by €3 next month to pay for this. Gamer or not!

stevek93 · 20-08-2020 10:30am

Wanderer78 wrote: »

Tech said it was fibre to my house, I'm not convinced though, but shur I ll worry about that in a couple of decades

It isn't it is copper to the house, now correct me if I am wrong but I don't think I am.

mad m · 20-08-2020 10:32am

dhaughton99 wrote: »

Bet everyone’s bill goes up by €3 next month to pay for this. Gamer or not!

And then the phone calls start to say I’m cancelling yada yada:D

Bubonic · 20-08-2020 10:37am

Are any details of the new modem known? Like does it bridge and so on?

beauf · 20-08-2020 10:39am

With downloads your often limited by the server your downloading from, not your connection.

bk · 20-08-2020 10:55am

Brilliant that VM are now finally offering this. It means that over night something like 40% of homes in Ireland have access to 1Gbps if they need it! Fantastic.

This means a lot of Ireland is finally catching up with the best speeds in Europe (Asia is a different story). Between this, Siro, NBI and Eir's Rural and Urban FTTH rollouts, there is light at the end of the tunnel for most people in Ireland to get at least one option of truly high speed broadband as good as anywhere in Europe.

Having said that, I agree with what others are saying, that most people don't really need this speed. I've been working from home for years as a software engineer and I'm on VM 250 and I find it perfectly fine for my needs. Sure I wouldn't mind having 100mb/s upload for the odd VM image upload, but I'm not sure it is really worth an extra €20 for that. If work paid for it cool, but otherwise not really worth it IMO.

I'd also warn people that you are unlikely to actually get see real world 1Gb/s speeds unless you have absolutely tip top gear all round. Ideally you will want to be using gigabit ethernet to connect your pc to your router. If using wifi you are unlikely to see these speeds, you would probably want to invest in a high quality wifi router and also your laptop and other devices need to support newer wifi features to get even close to 1Gb/s over wifi. And even after all that, you will most likely be limited by the download speed of the servers you are connecting to, your works VPN servers, etc.

Having said all that, I'm delighted for the niche users who can actually benefit from this and need it.

bk · 20-08-2020 11:00am

Hold on a second, it looks like VM have just changed their website and they are now saying that this has only 50mb/s upload speed, NOT 100mb/s like it said just a few minutes ago!!!!

The Real B-man · 20-08-2020 11:00am

What planet are they on €85 with a 10mb upload :rolleyes:

bk · 20-08-2020 11:03am

On the question of which router, they say they are using a new V2 router, but from the pics on the site, it looks to be the Hub 4 router that they use in the UK for their 1Gig service.

bk · 20-08-2020 11:06am

Crazy, if they aren't offering 100mb/s upload, then this product is pretty much pointless to most people. Stick to 500/50 if you need higher upload speed and save money.

theteal · 20-08-2020 11:20am

I excitedly looked up the UK site. M500 is still the top plan for us over here

Feasog Dearg · 20-08-2020 11:24am

loyatemu wrote: »

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/virgin-makes-gigabit-internet-available-across-its-service-1.4334185

TBH I don't see the point of 1Gb for domestic users, 500Mb should be sufficient for 99.9% of subscribers (I downgraded to 250Mb and didn't notice any difference). But anyway, it's now (or shortly) available to VM subscribers.

Agreed - the most important thing is low latency and stability. We were on VM for years and it was decent, but have recently moved to SIRO (VF) and the difference is incredible. Instant media, all the time, on the 300MB plan.

paddydriver · 20-08-2020 11:27am

Mav11 wrote: »

Quality and stability is far more important than headline speed.

Latency.. Jitter etc.. Have seen VoIP etc perform far better on a basic Eir 10Mb DSL connection than a 400Mb Virgin coax connection.

lotas · 20-08-2020 11:32am

just been on with Virgin Business and the max plan they currently offer is 500/50 (unofficially) and 400/40 (officially). I am on the 500/50, so happy days. The lad did say that 1Gb would be offered to business by the end of the year... they are testing new modems for business customers now (we dont get the usual VM Hub... mine is a Hitron device which can be bridged on request) but he did confirm that 1000mb/s down and 100mb/s up would be offered...

bk · 20-08-2020 11:34am

theteal wrote: »

I excitedly looked up the UK site. M500 is still the top plan for us over here

They offer 1Gig in the UK in select cities:
https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/broadband/gig1-gigabit-broadband

Wanderer78 · 20-08-2020 11:34am

stevek93 wrote: »

It isn't it is copper to the house, now correct me if I am wrong but I don't think I am.

apologies, i meant its fiber to the house, then copper into the house, apparently

Captain Flaps · 20-08-2020 11:35am

Recently moved from the 250 to the 500mb, even with a decent mesh wifi setup I'm very prone to congestion. The relative speeds I was getting have doubled, but the absolute max I've seen from the 500 wired in is 400ish, with 150-200 being a typical good day and 100-150 being quite common. I'm not sure I'd pay the extra 15 odd euro just to drag my speed up to what's advertised on the package I'm currently paying for.

CoBo55 · 20-08-2020 11:37am

lotas wrote: »

the core network is Fiber. Depending on the area, the Fiber could end at the top of the road, or could run down the eves of the house and terminate outside your house. but from there on, its copper...

Co-ax for the last bit, while being actually made of copper it's very different to the copper twisted pair that people think you're referring to.

bk · 20-08-2020 11:42am

Wanderer78 wrote: »

apologies, i meant its fiber to the house, then copper into the house, apparently

No, it is fiber as far as your local cabinet, a box that would be somewhere in your neighbourhood. It is then coax from the local cabinet to each house in your neighbourhood.

It is called a Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) network. It isn't FTTH.

theteal · 20-08-2020 11:45am

bk wrote: »

They offer 1Gig in the UK in select cities:
https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/broadband/gig1-gigabit-broadband

Indeed, Reading

is the closest but no exactly close

okidoki987 · 20-08-2020 11:47am

It's listed on their web site now...
€60 a month / €85 a month after 6 months
https://www.virginmedia.ie/broadband...dband-package/

If you can get Siro that is an expensive price for first 12 months at €72.50 a month average.
Vodafone 1Gbps for €30 a month, Sky 500mbps for €30 a month, Pure 1Gbps €35 for 12 months on a 12m contract.

CoBo55 · 20-08-2020 11:47am

Wanderer78 wrote: »

I was informed by a virgin tech, that a large proportion of their network is actually fibre, including to the home, this true? Think we re on a 250 line, no need for 1gb, 250 is more than enough

Enniscorthy got rewired completely a few years ago. All new estates that weren't wired with the original co-ax cable are ftth, every premises has a little grey box which has fibre to it. The connection continues into the premises to a box similar to the ont siro/eir use, instead of cat6 to the modem a co-ax cable is used.

Falthyron · 20-08-2020 11:50am

Ugh. When I see VM 'offering' something new, it usually means another price hike is around the corner. Just waiting on that annual +€5 increase email any day now.

bk · 20-08-2020 11:52am

okidoki987 wrote: »

If you can get Siro that is an expensive price for first 12 months at €72.50 a month average.
Vodafone 1Gbps for €30 a month, Sky 500mbps for €30 a month, Pure 1Gbps €35 for 12 months on a 12m contract.

Yes, but SIRO and Eir FTTH aren't available in most VM areas (there is some overlap like in Cork, but not much). So for now VM are the only high speed option for many people and thus they can charge what they want.

Hopefully as we see Siro and Eir rollout urban FTTH over the enxt few years, we will see more competition and better pricing.

CoBo55 wrote: »

Enniscorthy got rewired completely a few years ago. All new estates that weren't wired with the original co-ax cable are ftth, every premises has a little grey box which has fibre to it. The connection continues into the premises to a box similar to the ont siro/eir use, instead of cat6 to the modem a co-ax cable is used.

Ah, yes, that would make sense alright for new builds. Extension to the netowrk, etc.

Thor · 20-08-2020 12:11pm

bk wrote: »

Hold on a second, it looks like VM have just changed their website and they are now saying that this has only 50mb/s upload speed, NOT 100mb/s like it said just a few minutes ago!!!!

Yeah seen 100Mb myself and signed up, and now it shows 50Mb. I'm guessing that is just messed up data on the page as they copied most of the content and terms from their 500Mb service.

Can't be only 50Mb.

Virgin 1Gb now available.

Comments