Weak

This is slightly old news now, but Virgin Media have started capping broadband speeds during peak times. If you go over the limit (which varies depending on package) between 4pm and midnight then you’ll have your download capactity at least halved, with upload similarly crippled.

I’m on their 4Mb service, which means that if I download over 750MB between those times, my download is halved to 2Mb and upload set to 192Kb for four hours. What’s annoying is that the four hours doesn’t end at midnight, so if you hit the limit at 11:55PM, you’ll be capped until 3:55AM. What annoys me about this scenario is that it isn’t so much a means of traffic management, more a punishment for exceeding their limits.

A further annoyance is that it doesnt take into account how much you use on other days. I am almost certainly within what they’d consider to be the top 5% for usage, however if I was just using the service one night to download a large file, and merely checking my email on other occasions, then I would be at a disadvantage because of this.

I suppose ultimately it doesn’t matter - nothing I download is of that great an importance that I need it instantly. I just found it frustrating that my download speed halved last night while downloading stuff from their newsgroups.

References:
Virgin Media Introduce Speed Caps
Virgin Media Caps Are Driving Me Crazy

Ad:

house cover life insurance home insurance online mortgages