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Broadband fibre war of words heats up as Virgin slams BT Infinity launch claims
25 Jan 2010 | 11.29 Europe/London
Virgin Media has hit back at claims from BT that its newly-announced Infinity fibre service is better than the alternative from Virgin Media, particularly on price and upload speeds.
The cable telephone, television and broadband operator has taken the unusual step of going through BT’s claims one by one and also adding a few pointers on why it believes its own XXL up to 50Mbp/s service is superior to the two up to 40Mbp/s Option 1 and Option 2 packages offered by BT Inifinity.
Aside from the obvious difference that Virgin Media’s XXL cable broadband offers speeds up to 50Mbp/s rather than 40Mbp/s, the cable operator claims that BT’s service will be slower as the last stretch to the customer’s house will be over copper wire. While the same applies to Virgin Media, it claims the DOCSIS 3.0 technology it uses over coaxial cable in to the home is 25% faster than BT’s VDSL2 technology over copper wire.
Downloads and fair use
Where Virgin Media is hitting hardest is on the better value tag BT is applying to its newly-launched services. On either of the BT Infinity options customers are limited to either 20GB of data per month or an unlimited package, which is subject to a fair use policy. With no such restrictions at Virgin Media, the operator claims its ‘truly unlimited’ XXL service represents the best value.
While Virgin does concede the BT packages work out £2 or more cheaper per month, it contends that this is for a slower service and when you consider the cost per Mb of speed, Virgin works out around 10% cheaper.
It also makes the rather obvious point that its XXL connections are currently available to half the country, whereas BT’s service is currently restricted to the low thousands of households as it is rolled out. Hence, Virgin Media compares the 4m homes BT says it will have covered by the end of the year to the 12.5m it claims to have covered since last summer.
Broadband add-ons
Looking at the finer details Virgin Media is also quick to point out that it offers 12 month contracts while BT is working to 18 months.
Perhaps more interestingly, though, XXL customers get unlimited back up storage on the network as well as 100 free photo prints per month, which it claims, makes the overall package superior in speed and price, leading a spokesperson to comment:
“We're not sure why people in the UK would want to wait for BT's 40Mb service which hasn't launched yet, when they can already get Virgin Media's great value 50Mb service. Last summer we completed the roll-out of our next generation service to 12.5 million homes and people throughout the country are already enjoying all the fantastic things you can do online with the UK’s fastest broadband service. We’ve been saying for years that fibre optic broadband is the future.”
What about the uploads?
However, upload speeds is a point raised by BT which Virgin Media has not taken on with much vigour, compared to overall cost, speed and value for money.
While XXL offers up to 1.5Mbp/s upload speeds, BT’s two options are offering a choice between 2Mbp/s or 10Mbp/s. As many who have tried to back up data online or upload photographs and video, faster uploads - which are mainly the preserve of businesses with ‘synchronous’ rather than the typical ‘asynchronous’ connections - would be a boon.
The only reference to upload speed, where BT is claiming a clear advantage, is a footnote in Virgin Media’s notes that claims the operator is trialling a cable product that would provide an upload speed of 10Mbp/s which would match the BT Infinity Option 2 package.
The cable telephone, television and broadband operator has taken the unusual step of going through BT’s claims one by one and also adding a few pointers on why it believes its own XXL up to 50Mbp/s service is superior to the two up to 40Mbp/s Option 1 and Option 2 packages offered by BT Inifinity.
Aside from the obvious difference that Virgin Media’s XXL cable broadband offers speeds up to 50Mbp/s rather than 40Mbp/s, the cable operator claims that BT’s service will be slower as the last stretch to the customer’s house will be over copper wire. While the same applies to Virgin Media, it claims the DOCSIS 3.0 technology it uses over coaxial cable in to the home is 25% faster than BT’s VDSL2 technology over copper wire.
Downloads and fair use
Where Virgin Media is hitting hardest is on the better value tag BT is applying to its newly-launched services. On either of the BT Infinity options customers are limited to either 20GB of data per month or an unlimited package, which is subject to a fair use policy. With no such restrictions at Virgin Media, the operator claims its ‘truly unlimited’ XXL service represents the best value.
While Virgin does concede the BT packages work out £2 or more cheaper per month, it contends that this is for a slower service and when you consider the cost per Mb of speed, Virgin works out around 10% cheaper.
It also makes the rather obvious point that its XXL connections are currently available to half the country, whereas BT’s service is currently restricted to the low thousands of households as it is rolled out. Hence, Virgin Media compares the 4m homes BT says it will have covered by the end of the year to the 12.5m it claims to have covered since last summer.
Broadband add-ons
Looking at the finer details Virgin Media is also quick to point out that it offers 12 month contracts while BT is working to 18 months.
Perhaps more interestingly, though, XXL customers get unlimited back up storage on the network as well as 100 free photo prints per month, which it claims, makes the overall package superior in speed and price, leading a spokesperson to comment:
“We're not sure why people in the UK would want to wait for BT's 40Mb service which hasn't launched yet, when they can already get Virgin Media's great value 50Mb service. Last summer we completed the roll-out of our next generation service to 12.5 million homes and people throughout the country are already enjoying all the fantastic things you can do online with the UK’s fastest broadband service. We’ve been saying for years that fibre optic broadband is the future.”
What about the uploads?
However, upload speeds is a point raised by BT which Virgin Media has not taken on with much vigour, compared to overall cost, speed and value for money.
While XXL offers up to 1.5Mbp/s upload speeds, BT’s two options are offering a choice between 2Mbp/s or 10Mbp/s. As many who have tried to back up data online or upload photographs and video, faster uploads - which are mainly the preserve of businesses with ‘synchronous’ rather than the typical ‘asynchronous’ connections - would be a boon.
The only reference to upload speed, where BT is claiming a clear advantage, is a footnote in Virgin Media’s notes that claims the operator is trialling a cable product that would provide an upload speed of 10Mbp/s which would match the BT Infinity Option 2 package.
I think most people will be able to get a 40Mb/s from BT this is not a problem, VDSL is pretty decent and your average cab is not far from the home.
No one cares however about unlimited storage and photo prints, I mean what's the point in unlimited storage anyway when you only have 1.5Mb/s upload?
The Fair usage policy on the BT unlimited package and the traffic shaping are likely to make it a bit poor. And it's true that 20GB on the standard package is a joke for a 20Mb/s connection. You could push that in a couple of hours!
26 Jan 2010 | 12.51 Europe/London
yes, partially agree, although i do find my 5Gb BT vault very useful, even on a rural ADSL connection, so an unlimited vault would appeal to me, personally. I agree that you would need to print an awful lot of pictures every month to make the Virgin Media offer sway you away from a superior upload speed - i'm guessing but i'd imagine 100 prints equates to around £5 to £10 worth of prints per month that most people would never use up.
I guess the real issue, at the moment, is whether to wait for BT Inifinity and most people can't make that decision until they get more info on where it will be rolled out.
27 Jan 2010 | 12.17 Europe/London
No mention from Virgin Media about the number of disgruntled 50Mbit subcribers struggling to reach anything close to 50Mbit/esec. And I wonder how long before Virgin introduce traffic management on their XXL package, just like their other packages. Virgin Media slagging-off BT is like the pot calling the kettle black. I'm no fan of either of these companies, wait until the O2/Be offerings of FTTC appear.
29 Jan 2010 | 14.59 Europe/London
"which are mainly the preserve of businesses with ‘synchronous’ rather than the typical ‘asynchronous’ connections – would be a boon."
This should be "symmetric" and "asymmetric".
03 Feb 2010 | 12.58 Europe/London