Virgin media are currently upgrading everyone Upload speed and preparing the exchange for the new 100mbit. Going by the PDF it says my area is not due till Aug 2011. I just by sheer luck tested my speed and got the speed above. Basically its 50mbit download and 5mbit upload. Of course this also means they will throttle back my torrents and news server downloads.

Although a bit slow of the mark to report about this, Virgin media (my Current ISP) is all set to bring out a new faster service of 100mbit connection to the home. This service will have a 10mbit upload rate and while there is no restriction as such on the service, they will be bringing in a general degrade of speed on upload for Torrents and such. Why will anyone need such a fast connection, fast in fact as most office LAN connection and the upload is faster then most have on ADSL for download.

New Modem / Router

They have worked with cisco and will be introducing a new combined cable modem and router. This is actually capable of the full 400mbit speeds which Virgin say they will eventually offer in the future.

You can see the picture of the new hub here, looks like the 50mbit one in a way with its shiny black surface and will not look out of place in the living room.

Pricing

How much will this amazingly fast speed cost you then? –The 100Mbps services will be available from £35/month for customers with a telephone line (£11.99/month) and those with other Virgin Media services may see further discounts. The product is available on a standalone basis for £45/month for those just wanting broadband. Activation will cost £30 and installation £40. These prices are set at a highly competitive rate in what appears to be a clear signal that Virgin intends to retain its premium position in the UK consumer broadband market.

Traffic Management

Network-level protocol based traffic management will be in place which protects the quality of service for quality-sensitive applications such as video streaming. This will mean that during peak times (5pm-midnight on weekdays and noon to midnight on weekends), peer-to-peer protocols and newsgroup downloads may be shaped to manage capacity, however it is not expected that subscriber-based traffic management (i.e. managing heavy users) will be in place at this time.

Upload increase

Virgin are currently increasing all tiers to a 10:1 ratio, this means for example my 50mbit service will get a full 5mbit – which is nothing shabby. I have complained for years how 768K does not cut it for streaming, uploading YouTube video’s or sending large files. Finally we start to see speeds we can be proud of.

My Thoughts

I have been with Virgin (previously NTL) since it first come to my area and in that time I went from 512K all the way up to the top tier service at the moment 50mbit. I shall be honest and say the 20mbit service if left un-capped in peak time would have worked for me. The 20mbit service comes with 768K Upload and while this is not great, it is just about workable. The only reason I paid the extra money for the 50mbit service which included the cost of install and activation (about £70) was to get away from the restrictions in place. I just so happened to need a new router and this was another reason.

I cannot see off the top of my head what I could do with the 100mbit service, the 10mbit upload is very nice to have and I could almost run my own webhost with that sort of speed but I cannot for the life of me see myself paying another £70 for yet more equipment. I will probably pass this one up to be honest.

Full credit to Belkin for coming up with a router that stands out from the crowd. Based on the N1 model this N1 Vision stands vertically, so that you can clearly see the LCD display.

Belkin has ditched the usual array of flashing activity lights and instead has used a monochrome LCD display to keep you up to speed with the doings of your router, starting with the initial configuration. It’s much easier to check the power is on and the cables are plugged in when you have a message that spells out the situation.

Once up and running, the display allows you to monitor upload and download speed, see how much bandwidth is being used, allow guests access to your secure network and check out who is connected to your network without referring to the Belkin Networking Utility on your laptop. The guest feature is very neat, as the press of a button will generate a temporary password for visitors to your home or office that allows them access to the network with the minimum of hassle.

Easy to set-up

The most useful features of the N1 Vision come into play when you’re setting up the network; so once you’re finished the screen loses a part of its value, but that’s no problem as you can switch the display into a different mode and it becomes a digital clock. The fact is that most routers would benefit from a switch to disable the array of flickering activity LEDs, but Belkin has made it a reality.

The router part of the equation is an excellent example of second-generation Pre-N or Draft-N hardware that provides good coverage in conjunction with the F5D8053 USB adapter.

You can plug the adapter directly into your laptop or you can use the one-and-a-half metre extension cable, which has a solid base that stands the adapter vertically to give it the greatest possible chance of sniffing out a wireless signal.