What is broadband traffic management?
You might have noticed that during some hours your broadband service isn’t as superfast as you’d like it to be. That’s because your internet service provider applies a traffic management policy.
This means that at certain hours your broadband supplier is likely to slow down your connection to stabilise the service at peak hours (when most people come online, for example after work).
Broadband providers try to be as transparent as possible about what traffic management techniques they apply. Virgin Media announced yesterday that it was planning to review its own policy as the growing popularity of smartphones and tablet computers such as the iPad make peak hours last longer than ever before.
According to Virgin Media’s representative, Mark Wilkins, people don’t log off until after 10PM.
“This is mainly due to people watching TV and streaming content over the internet instead of shutting down their PC and watching TV before they head off to be,” he stated.
What does this mean to me?
Virgin Media stated that it would push its peak hours from 16:00-21:00 to 17:00-22:00. In other words, the download speeds are going to be slower than normal during this time, you might have to wait longer than usual for a film to download or see the buffering sign every now and again.
The broadband provider also said that it was willing to introduce more “more dynamic and generous” traffic management solutions which would benefit the consumer make the broadband provider different from everyone else.
Is there a Virgin Media package for me?
Virgin Media has a wide range of great value deals, all of them with fibre optic broadband. Here’s our pick of the top three cheap broadband bundles:
Virgin Media Essentials Collection
This broadband deal includes TV Size: M+ (TiVO 500GB box included) as well as superfast download speeds of 30Mbps and home phone size: M. Comes with free installation.
Virgin Media Premiere Collection
This broadband deal includes TV Size: L (TiVO 500GB box included) with superfast download speeds of 60Mb and home phone size: M. This deal comes with a free installation and access to Spotify Premium for three months free.
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This broadband deal includes TV Size: XL (with TiVO 500GB box) with super speedy broadband of up to 100Mbps as well as home phone size: XL. Sky Sports and Movies are included and the installation is free.