Virgin's broadband top speed up again

Virgin Media is once again upping the maximum broadband speed it offers, bringing the fastest speed available in the UK up to 350Mbps. And if you already pay for the company’s 300Mbps then Virgin will upgrade you to 350Mbps for no extra charge.

Virgin introducing the Superhub 3

(Thanks to Matthew Smith for the lead on this story)
Virgin Media's broadband customers may soon have a new Superhub 3 (pictured) according to ISPreview.

Gregor McNeil, Virgin Media’s Managing Director for Consumer, said: "As we roll out our Vivid services with speeds up to 200Mbps across the UK we’ll be future-proofing customers’ connections with a new home router launching in the coming months."

That new router is the Superhub 3, and ISPreview has more of the technical details. It's interesting that the box's white styling (my first thought was 'it's a Wii!') is very similar to the TiVo Bolt we may be seeing in the next few months.

Virgin broadband reliability poll

Just a quick word on the recent broadband poll regarding its reliability: 44% (159 voters) said that they have found VM broadband just as reliable over the last twelve months, whilst 41% said it was less reliable and only 14% thought it had improved. 

That's not great reading for Virgin as it embarks upon yet another expensive marketing campaign boasting about how great everything is for VM customers. With the big speed hike in the offing for many, let's hope VM can sort out some of the basics and give us what we are actually paying for, otherwise it will all end in tears. DNS stability would be a good start, as would Superhub 2 upgrades for those of us still struggling with the original Superhubs.

Virgin launch 50mb broadband on Dec 15th

Just creeping in to 2008, Virgin Media launches its much-heralded 50mb broadband service next Monday (Dec 15th). Details of pricing and download limitations will be revealed then: confirmation here

Virgin making room for faster broadband...and more HD?

Confirmation that Virgin Media is (finally) turning off the legacy analogue cable network is probably the best news VM has announced in many a moon. Full story here and further details here, both reports from Digital Spy.
Virgin Chief Executive Neil Berkett talked at some length to investors last week about the upgrade plans for the network and the imminent demise of the analogue network:

"Relatively modest investment in customer equipment and [headend] ports for channel bonding is required to do this and is included in our current capital expenditure guidance.
"Next year our 20Mbps and 50Mbps customers will move to the DOCSIS 3.0 platform. This will significantly improve the quality of service provided to all our customers, as the 2Mbps and 10Mbps customers will have more bandwidth specifically dedicated to them. This will help push real world delivery speeds as close as possible to the advertised headline speeds.
"We currently only use two 8Mhz channels to serve all our broadband customers. For DOCSIS 3.0 this will be tripled. Each additional channel will be freed up by switching off a single analogue channel.
"Clearly it will not be long before we are in a position to switch off analogue completely, and this will free up significant bandwidth for even higher broadband speeds. We could easily provide 100Mbps if we chose to do so. We have a huge broadband advantage over competing technologies for speed quality, reliability and cost."

So far, so good. Personally, I'm happy with 20Mbps of broadband (when I get it - not as reliable as it used to be but hopefully that will improve as part of the upgrade). But this ain't just about broadband as releasing the bandwidth of the old analogue network will open up opportunities for more TV services too...including high definition linear channels and more on demand content. C4 HD? ITV HD? Sky basics in HD? If bandwidth's not an issue we could well see the former at least soon (even if Sky is a bit of a pipedream still).
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Berkett's recent presentation on the Q1 results doesn't make a single mention of current high definition services, let alone future ones. It's a big gap - when Sky execs talk about the future of their service, it's all HD-this and HD-that. With Virgin, not a word.
But things are moving, and hopefully in a positive direction for every Virgin Media customer. On past experience I wouldn't recommend holding your breath just yet for more HD, but a more efficient network is good for all. Let's just hope Berkett and VM take full advantage of it and don't put all of their eggs - and our money - into just the broadband basket.

Off Topic: VM Broadband support

Anyone who has trouble with their Virgin Media Broadband service will be pleased to hear that the ridiculous premium charge for Broadband support is to be dropped. Here's the story from The Register in full:

Virgin Media will drop premium rate charges to its technical support line in June, less than a year after they were introduced, the firm has confirmed.

An email doing the rounds inside VM says the move last summer to discourage irrelevant calls to the broadband support line has not gone down well. It confirms that the 25p per minute line will revert to a standard local rate 0845 number, or free by dialling 151 from a cable phone.

"This year, one of our key aims is to delight our customers by improving customer service - and boy are we serious about it," the author gushes.

Customers will be emailed about the changes in April and May.

A Virgin Media spokesman said today: "Whilst calls to the premium rate broadband support line are already refunded when there has been a fault with our network, perhaps that wasn't clear.

"We have been working hard to improve customer service and listening to what our customers say, so will now be removing this charge from the outset."

As someone who has a problem every evening when my 20Mb BB falls below 6Mb, I'll be hot on the blower as soon as it's free. Enjoy a happy Hi Def easter everyone!