Switching from Virgin but...

[rh0475]

Although retired for 20 years, I'm not claiming poverty but  VM's 13.8% price increase sounds greedy. At the same time BT sent me a seemingly competitive offer so I called them to see what I could get.

Our street now has BT fibre so the offer was: free connection, 900Mbit (3 times my current speed from  VM)  , comparable phone and TV service.

Next I called VM to ask what could be done. Their first offer was a reduction of £6 by removing part of the phone package. So I said, "not competitive" and got transferred to "retention department".  They told me I was not comparing like with like and that "VM is 16 times the speed of BT".

Reading about the BT offer I don't understand this bit: "Your Stay Fast Guarantee . Your Stay Fast download speed is: 700Mbps" I thought 900Mbit fibre meant 900Mbit, not "but maybe 700Mbit" - still an improvement on my current 250Mbit at VM so why might I not get 900? There's a pole outside the house with BT fibre, is my speed subject to contention from other users on the street?

[imjolly]

yes there may be contention on your connection at busy times but for vast majority if not all you will get the 900mb

[rh0475]

I should have added: BT ~£65pcm, VM would have been ~£100pcm for poorer quoted speed

[licquorice]

If you want guaranteed full speed from any supplier, you need a business grade leased line. All residential broadband is a contended service. With FTTP, 30 customers share 2.5Gbps backhaul. Speed is reliant on the statistics of not all customers using full bandwidth at the same time.

[pippincp]

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@rh0475wrote:
I should have added: BT ~£65pcm, VM would have been ~£100pcm for poorer quoted speed

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I currently pay £20pm for a 250mb connection with VM and have negotiated no price rise. If VM would have been £100 then you are paying for more than broadband.

[DavidM · Accepted solution]

Just an FYI guys - 

Stay on topic and post in the right boards - The BTCare Community Forums are intended for the discussion of issues related to BT products and services.

Cheers

David

[rh0475]

Switched to BT but virgin not decommissioned yet, ran speed test on both (same PC , direct Ethernet cable connection to the router, nothing else connected).  Virgin 250Mbit is faster than BT "gigabit".