The home-entertainment war will intensify this week when Virgin Media launches
a campaign to retain customers disappointed by the loss of Sky channels from
its packages.
Sir Richard Branson’s group, formerly known as NTL Telewest, will initially
target high-end users by doubling their broadband speed from 10Mb per second
to 20Mb for an additional £2 a month, making it the fastest mainstream
broadband service in Britain.
However, critics have branded it a marketing gimmick because all but the most
sophisticated users will notice little difference between the new speed and
that of Sky, which is 16Mb for its top package.
The new Virgin service, which will come into effect by the end of May, will
potentially allow users to download an MP3 song in about two seconds, or a
DVD-quality film in about half an hour, if everything works at the optimal
speed.
At 16Mb you could download a song in about three seconds and a 5GB film in 45
minutes — not much slower. With a standard broadband speed of 4Mb, however,
it would take three hours to download a film, and one-and-a-half hours at
8Mb, which is where Virgin starts to come into its own.
Aamir Baloch, head of telecoms at Firsthelpline.com, a comparison site, said
there is currently little difference between 16Mb and 20Mb download rates.
“At the moment, very few of us would need such high-speed broadband
connections. Only those heavily into online gaming, or downloading large
music or video files, or watching TV over the internet, would need them,” he
said.
“However, in a year’s time we might all be watching TV via the internet, and
these kinds of speeds may become the norm.”
The spat between Virgin Media and Sky — partly owned by News Corporation,
ultimate owner of The Sunday Times — started when the latter withdrew Sky
One and other channels such as Sky News from Virgin customers at the
beginning of the month, following the breakdown of talks between the two
firms.
The 3.5m Virgin Media customers are now unable to view programmes such as The
Simpsons and 24.
Other shows such as Nip/Tuck, which are produced by Fox, a sister firm of
BSkyB, can be viewed by Virgin customers only after they have been broadcast
by Sky.
Virgin has hit back by establishing links with other content providers such as
Warner Brothers. The move will allow Virgin Media customers to watch new
episodes of popular shows such as The West Wing, but it is not clear whether
this will be enough.
Virgin Media is believed to be losing about 100 subscribers a day as a result
of the ongoing war.
Virgin Media said it will allow its TV customers, and those with both TV and
broadband, to cancel their contracts during March without having to pay off
the full term.
However, this offer does not apply to customers who have subscribed to
broadband services only.
Virgin customers who wish to leave for Sky and who only want TV should go for
the latter’s basic package. This costs £15 a month, and the satellite dish
comes free. You will also need BT line rental for the digibox, which costs
£125 to set up, as well as £11 a month line rental — a total of £26 a month.
A switchover could take around a month to complete.
Sky’s key TV, broadband and phone package, the 8Mb “See Speak and Surf”, costs
£37 including the BT line rental. The satellite dish is free but there is a
£20 activation fee. You get free evening and weekend landline calls as well
as Sky One.
Virgin’s three-for-£30 package comes with 2Mb broadband and free weekend
calls. The TV package has fewer channels, and does not include Sky One. So
you pay slightly more with Sky but get faster broadband and a wider choice
of programmes.
Sky is cheaper than Virgin if you go for its premium package, however.
Virgin’s top stand-alone broadband package currently costs £35 a month and
£85 a month if you subscribe to its VIP — Very Impressive Package — deal,
which also comes with more than 100 TV channels and free landline calls at
any time.
It is not clear if the extra £2 a month for the 20Mb speed applies only to
stand-alone broadband customers.
Sky’s premium package offers TV with all its premium-rate sports and movie
channels, free evening and weekend calls to UK landlines and 16Mb broadband
for £79.50 a month.
Virgin customers could alternatively have a hybrid package by keeping their
broadband and phone line with Virgin and switching their TV subscription to
Sky.
A hybrid package will cost £37 for Virgin’s 20Mb broadband; £11 a month for a
phone line with free weekend and evening calls and £15 a month for the
basic, Sky TV package that includes Sky One — a total of £63 a month.
If you are happy to stick with Virgin, you should still demand compensation
for the loss of the Sky channels. Either dial 150 from your Virgin Media
landline or call 0800 052 9403.
Depending on the package you have, it is possible you will be offered a free
upgrade for six months, but there are no guarantees.
Analysts say it is difficult to choose between the two. Jason Lloyd of
Mon-eysupermarket.com said: “Sky has far better content, but Virgin is
better positioned to offer faster and more reliable broadband services.”
Unlike Virgin, which delivers broadband through a fibre-optics system, Sky
uses BT’s copper-wire network to deliver its broadband services.
Fibre-optics can potentially deliver 100Mb per second, while copper-wire
technology is limited to about 32Mb.
Sky will never be able to offer speeds of more than 32Mb. “This is Sky’s
potential Achilles heel,” said Lloyd.
“Services via a fibre-optic network are better quality in terms of speeds or
download capabilities.”
BT is planning to upgrade its broadband network to fibre-optics, but customers
are unlikely to see any real benefits until 2008.
Virgin Use Trottling, and more people use the internet at night, but virgin is not affected by the number of users at night than BT's copper wires are. but if lots of people are using a certain site at night it will slow it down, but the main issues in throttling.
Nigel Tatschner, Nottingham, UK
Virgin media 20mb? More like 8mb! During peak times your lucky to get 4mb. If you get their 20mb package, the download speed is the same as the 10mb package. The only difference is the upload speed is very very slightly more with the 20mb. If your an online gamer this provider sucks! Very expensive.
Gareth, Bournemouth, England
well i am with virgin at the mo broadband up to 8mb and phone calls the only problem is that between 5pm and 2AM I ONLY get 200kbps which is no good to anybody so how can they say that they will deliver 20mbps when i been intouch tomany times now about my speed , they tell me to do a speed test with bt which will not comply just keeps failling , there on line help is never there ! , i am worst off now i wished i had kept the 1mbps line always got 1mbps
p corah, horsley woodhouse, derbyshire
I'm not too worried about whether I receive Sky One or not and I was happy with the cable product. But I had to leave Virgin Media due to the truly awful non customer service . So far I'm very impressed with Sky.
David Norwood, Reading, England
I escaped from what used to be NTL , last November. Despite several long phone calls, they still haven't repaid me the £78 they owe me. I class this as most dishonest. They are not organised and are quick to pass the buck. If Mr Branson is going to increase internet speeds, it should be offered to ALL their customers, as they don't do that now. Lond suffereing customers are leaving because they're left with rubbish internet speeds, while others are upgraded every time they sneeze.
Jacqueline, Sunderland,
I sent a letter of cancillation on the 24/02 and I have not heard anything from Virgin I did manage to get through to customer service 13/03 (if you can call it that!) only to be told that my letter was not logged onto my account details and that they are very busy with wait times of around 1 hour to cancillation department. Anyway I have cancilled my Direct Debit, they will ring me as soon as they do not get any money!
ROBERT DOUGLAS-JONES, Newcastle Upon Tyne,