View Single Post
  #39 (permalink)  
Old 03-05-08, 02:21 PM
aclivity's Avatar
aclivity aclivity is offline
Shipwrecked & Comatose, drinking fresh mango juice
 

Join Date: May 2003
Location: nr Shevington, Lancs
Posts: 2,532
aclivity is a scuba diver - warm wateraclivity is a scuba diver - warm wateraclivity is a scuba diver - warm wateraclivity is a scuba diver - warm wateraclivity is a scuba diver - warm wateraclivity is a scuba diver - warm wateraclivity is a scuba diver - warm wateraclivity is a scuba diver - warm wateraclivity is a scuba diver - warm wateraclivity is a scuba diver - warm wateraclivity is a scuba diver - warm water
Quote:
Originally Posted by Guffnuts
Was with Virgin ADSL for about 5 months last year. The "no contract" was a pile o' shite, where they charge 50 squids if you cancel within the first 12 months. I was getting these "dial-up" speeds after 4pm everyday and thought 50 quid would be worth it to get rid of the service. I cancelled and they charged me 60p (couldn't even get that right!)

I am now with ADSL24 (an Entanet reseller) and the difference is night and day. No slow downs at peak times and a solid 3Mbit connection. Obviously line contention was not an issue. Virgin just can't provide a decent ADSL service.
so you weren't held to a contract or made to pay a £50 disconnection fee then? I had Virgin.net ADSL ages ago and cancelled when I moved house, similarly I wasn't held to a contract or charged a disconnection fee.

As for your second point, you have misunderstood where the contention comes in. The contention is in the equipment at the exchange, not on the line between the exchange and your connection point. Virgin.net is (or rather was, mostly) a BT broadband reseller rather than using an LLU service. So everyone on the Virgin.net service in an exchange is using a shared service, and is therefore contending - usually at a contention ratio of around 50 to 1. Entanet is a layer 2 tunnelling protocol (L2tp) seller, essentially meaning that they have equipment in the local exchanges; they can control the contention separately.

Virgin.net is investing in some local loop equipment, so the situation is changing.
__________________
The first rule of diving: Anyone can call the dive for any reason.
Digg this Post!Add Post to del.icio.usBookmark Post in TechnoratiFurl this Post!
Reply With Quote