We don't like traffic jams
At Virgin Media, we want all our customers to get the best service possible from their broadband. That means speedy downloads for all users - not just a few.
When someone is downloading and/or uploading a particularly large amount of information over a long period of time, it can slow down the broadband speed for other users who might just be checking their email or browsing online. So to make sure our service is fair for everybody, we sometimes moderate the speeds for the top 5% of customers who are downloading and/or uploading an unusually large amount.
This makes sure that the service doesn't get blocked up with people using more than their fair share - which means a lot fewer traffic jams.
What traffic management policies are you applying to the heaviest users?
That depends on the broadband package you're signed up to. You can check out the detail by taking a look at our 'Updated traffic management policy' table below.
It's important to remember that these traffic management policies only apply when speeds are likely to be affected by people using more than their fair share.
In fact, the policies only affect the top 5% of users on a daily basis - those whose usage of the service would affect other users if they weren't managed.
What do the updates to the traffic management policy mean?
To make sure all customers get the most from their connection, we automatically reduce the speed of the heaviest users at peak times during the daytime and evening.
In this updated policy we have increased the thresholds for our Size: L customers.
Why do you have a traffic management policy?
We believe in making sure all our customers can use our Broadband without being slowed down by heavy users. So our traffic management policy is there to keep things fair.
Our traffic management policy protects the vast majority of our customers (over 95% of them) from these heavy users, ultimately providing faster, more consistent speeds for everyone.
Will the policy change again?
The way that our customers use their broadband is changing all the time, so it's possible that in the future we may increase or decrease the thresholds or modify other settings. Don't worry though, we'll always let you know on our website if we're going to make any changes, and we don't expect the thresholds to change very often.
Updated Traffic Management policy
Here’s the detail: Updated 12th May 2009
An example of how this works is that if a broadband Size: L customer downloaded 1500MB of data between 4pm and 9pm, their download speed would be temporarily set to up to 2.5Mb and their upload speed to up to 128Kb for 5 hours.
Always get the most from your connection
To make sure you always get the fastest speeds you can from your connection, we've put heaps of information on our website to help. That includes details about our minimum specification, and some simple steps to tweak how your computer works. It's all really simple, and it's all online at virginmedia.com/minspec.
How can I tell if I'm nearing the threshold?
There are several tools that you can use to check how much you're downloading or uploading. One particularly useful tool you can download is called DU Meter*.
If you'd like to use a different tool, you might like to visit www.tucows.com*
Traffic Management Trial
We are currently undertaking Traffic Management trials in the following areas. To find out more about changes to the policy where you live, click on one of the areas below:
Live in these areas?
The legal stuff
** Please note, these links are provided simply as a convenience to our customers. They are third
party sites, and we have no responsibility for the content of them.
