April 13, 2017

Superhub 3s becoming public wi-fi

Interesting but not necessarily good news if your broadband struggles at peak times.
https://arstechnica.co.uk/business/2017/04/virgin-media-wifi-public-hotspots/
For now only Virgin Media customers with the latest Super Hub 3 (Hub 3.0) are being opted into the new public Wi-Fi service. Virgin is trialling an update to the older Super Hub 2ac routers, too. The ISP says it will add "hundreds of thousands" of hubs by "later this year."
This won't be popular if download speeds drop due to network contention.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The subscriber's traffic will take priority, plus the subscriber will be able to disable the "public" wifi but they in return will lose access to others' wifi hubs whilst out and about.

Scott McCarthy said...

It's exactly the same system as BT use. You can opt-out, but you lose the ability to use other people's wi-fi. It sounds like a classic "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" deal.

juicestop said...

Virgin Media promises that "your home network is completely separate from Virgin Media WiFi traffic, meaning the broadband connection you pay for is exclusively yours, and just as secure."

Nialli said...

Virgin Media also 'promise' that I'll get the 200mbps download speeds I pay for, but most evenings I'm lucky to get a quarter of that due to local contention. How exactly they can add the burden of additional users on the network and not affect service to the paying customers is my question, and surely it would be better if there is the capacity to do so to ensure that we get the download speeds we pay for consistently, including peak times?
This smacks of keeping up with BT's offering: I've had to use BT-FON occasionally and have found tethering to my phone a more useful and cost effective solution, even though the 4G in my neighbourhood is patchy at best.

Anonymous said...

I don't know how many members of the public will need WiFi in my cul-de-sac.

Scott McCarthy said...

What's your address? I'll sit outside you house later and download some UHD movies. 😀

Unknown said...

Opting out does not stop you from using the feature elsewhere. I have opted out and it actually states that on the page as you do it!

WWW.ASKASTARA.COM said...

I have had a very unpredictable experience with the wireless speed as it seems to get really slow in the early mornings and it's extremely frustrating and all last night connections kept breaking. The reliability needs to change as I run a business and this is just not good enough.

Mike P said...

I work from home - like many folks these days.

I just subscribed to Virgin Media Business (still in the first month) and not once did anyone explain that there are little to no parental controls. When I called them to explain the circumstances and that I would prefer to switch to a residential service. There would be no loss of revenue - in fact the residential service is higher priced.

I was informed that they are two different companies.

Really?? I'm pretty sure there is only one Virgin. Maybe for tax reasons, but they don't seem to understand their brand.

When I requested to cancel as is my right within 14 days I was told that I could not. The contract is dated a month prior to the installation.

This smacks of SCAM styled business practices.

The good news is that I can now share this poor practice and experience with Virgin (aka write crap about them) and I’m still on the moral high ground! AND it will stay on the internet FOREVER!

And while I do not think this post will stay up long (if at all) here, it (and hundreds more in the months and years to come) will last on the internet forever.

Way to go Virgin - turning a happy new customer with simple request into an disgruntled adversarial relationship.