[Gllug] Was - Re: Anyone using Virgin Media? - Virgin destroyed Telewest

[Alex Crow]

Justin,

I was with Virgin before they were Virgin - they were Telewest once
(then they merged with NTL then the lot got bought by Virgin).

I was in an original Telewest area and the service was impeccable for
about 5 years - only a few hours of downtime overall and speed was fully
as advertised. Pings were fast and life was good - I had never had to
make any kind of complaint.

I know the TW cable infrastructure was much better than the NTL one
though, so after the merger although you could get bb on NTL it was much
less reliable. Telewest had already invested in upgrades for digital TV
years ago where as much of NTL was still on analog.

When I heard of the Virgin buyout I immediately looked for another ISP.
Why you may ask? Because other than Virgin Atlantic (which I had the
great pleasure of flying on once from LA-London, clean 747, wonderful
flight and even the food was good) Virgin make promises way over what
they can keep - on Virgin West Coast (which I use a lot) we were
promised seat-back video in all coaches plus free WiFi years ago and it
never got there; the Pendolinos, while very safe and fast, had a problem
for years of leaking sewage from the toilets that would make anybody
with the misfortune to get a seat near the vestibule rather nauseous
(since fixed on the Pendolino but *still* revolting on the Voyagers, had
to suffer the stink of shit-soaked carpets for 5 hours on a Glasgow to
Birmingham train, and that was in First bloody Class, still sans WiFi!).

Virgin only seem to put the money in their flagship stuff, like
Atlantic. Everthing else they do is flogging at the bottom line. Even
the Sky packages are supposed to be better.

Oh yes, I have a story from work too - back in the Telewest days we
ordered a 100Mbit fibre LES circuit. They waived the install fee and it
was ready in less than the 6 weeks lead given. Superb. BT wanted 8K
install fee and 3 months lead minimum.

FFWD to now - we need the 100Mb upgraded to 1Gb. Ordered in June last
year (post-Virgin) and all that was needed was to change the media
converters at each end to 1G (it was already duplex Single-mode fibre).
We still don't have it. They even professed ignorance of the order just
before Christmas!

RIP Telewest, you are sorely missed...

Alex



On Sat, 2008-03-01 at 10:26 +0000, Justin Perreault wrote:
> Woohoo, just signed my life away for a flat in Crawley and so I am in
> need of a broadband provider.
> 
> I am looking at the bundles Virgin( www.virginmedia.com ) has and it
> looks like I can actually reduce my bills by about a tenner a month
> overall for phone, mobile, broadband and I get bonus tv channels to
> boot.
> 
> The modem provided has an Ethernet connection so the questions are;
> 
> Anyone here using them for their broadband over their fibre-optic lines?
> 
> How does the service compare with other providers you have used?
> 
> Any insight appreciated. Tiscali will never see another £ of mine again
> and my current operator ukonline has some interruptions but not too
> many, I expect similar from most providers.
> 
> Justin
> -- 
> If you are an adult, you can choose to act like a child. If you do not
> accept being an adult, you are only a child. -JJJ
> 
-- 
This message is intended only for the addressee and may contain 
confidential information.  Unless you are that person, you may not 
disclose its contents or use it in any way and are requested to delete 
the message along with any attachments and notify us immediately. 

"Transact" is operated by Integrated Financial Arrangements plc 
Domain House, 5-7 Singer Street, London  EC2A 4BQ 
Tel: (020) 7608 4900 Fax: (020) 7608 1200
(Registered office: as above; Registered in England and Wales under
number: 3727592) 
Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (entered on
the FSA Register; number: 190856)


-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug