I have to say that I’m pretty happy with my Virgin Media broadband connection. It’s been very stable since it was installed about 5 months ago, and the download speed is fantastic for large files (see below).
There is however one problem, and that is latency.
64 bytes from linx1.thn.fubra.net (195.66.225.33): icmp_seq=130 ttl=53 time=19.8 ms 64 bytes from linx1.thn.fubra.net (195.66.225.33): icmp_seq=131 ttl=53 time=32.1 ms 64 bytes from linx1.thn.fubra.net (195.66.225.33): icmp_seq=132 ttl=53 time=17.9 ms 64 bytes from linx1.thn.fubra.net (195.66.225.33): icmp_seq=133 ttl=53 time=18.3 ms 64 bytes from linx1.thn.fubra.net (195.66.225.33): icmp_seq=134 ttl=53 time=34.3 ms 64 bytes from linx1.thn.fubra.net (195.66.225.33): icmp_seq=135 ttl=53 time=24.9 ms --- linx1.thn.fubra.net ping statistics --- 135 packets transmitted, 134 received, 0% packet loss, time 134014ms rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 16.495/24.077/51.969/6.580 ms
Ping times fluctuate wildy from 16ms up to about 50ms. When I had their 10MBps service, I definitely remember getting sub 10 millisecond pings, but with the 20Mbps service they are taking twice as long. I guess the central pipes are just a lot more congested nowadays.