Traffic management
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 and Size: XL 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
Size S M M
(After 10Mb upgrade) L XL XXL
Downstream max speed 2Mb 2Mb 10Mb 10Mb 20Mb 50Mb
Upstream max speed 256k 256k 512k 512k 768k 1.5Mb
Daytime Management
Downstream
When does it apply? 9am - 9pm 10am - 3pm 10am - 3pm 10am - 3pm 10am - 3pm N/A
Threshold 200MB 1000MB 1500MB 3000MB 7000MB N/A
% Throttled 75% 50% 75% 75% 75% N/A
Maximum Throttling Duration 12h 5h 5h 5h 5h N/A
Upstream
When does it apply? 9am - 9pm N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Threshold 100MB N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
% Throttled 50% N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Maximum Throttling Duration 12h N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Evening Management
Downstream
When does it apply? 9am - 9pm 4pm - 9pm 4pm - 9pm 4pm - 9pm 4pm - 9pm N/A
Threshold 200MB 500MB 750MB 1500MB 3500MB N/A
% Throttled 75% 50% 75% 75% 75% N/A
Maximum Throttling Duration 12h 5h 5h 5h 5h N/A
Upstream
When does it apply? 9am - 9pm 3pm - 8pm 3pm - 8pm 3pm - 8pm 3pm - 8pm N/A
Threshold 100MB 200MB 400MB 800MB 1400MB N/A
% Throttled 50% 50% 75% 75% 75% N/A
Maximum Throttling Duration 12h 5h 5h 5h 5h N/A
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.
