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British company testing broadband service that's 51 times faster than the U.S. average
As U.S. broadband providers harass customers and strongarm the government to keep their slow, antiquated and obscenely profitable business models of the past, a British broadband provider has a better idea. Virgin Media is testing out a cable system that's 51 times faster than the average broadband speed in the United States. Using the next-generation cable data technology known as DOCSYS 3.0, this little hotshot can bring down 200 Mb per second Internet, video at "full HD" 1080p, and even 3D movies.
It's a pilot project that will be underway for the next six months, now being tested by 100 early-adopting customers in the UK. Even though this kind of speed is not available to consumers yet, this gives you a good look at the true capabilities of DOCSYS 3.0, the next generation of consumer broadband service, which, for example, is already available to 30% of the Comcast network.
Consider that the average broadband download speed in the United States is 3.9 Mb per second, and that 200 Mb per second number will show you how far the United States is falling behind the rest of the world. Keep that in mind the next time Time Warner Cable wants to "educate" you about broadband service.
Via Engadget HD
By xTdub at 8:56 PM ON 05/07/09
I do believe it is "DOCSIS 3.0", with an i. Also, Comcast is looking into this currently and has deployed it to San Francisco and other major areas for preliminary testing. I think they said their goal was get DOCSIS 3.0 to 65% of their customers by the end of 2009.
By bruteoger at 9:35 PM ON 05/07/09
Whats up with this massive leap? Shouldn't there have been a slow progresses? Still gotta say it sounds impressive
By Killian at 12:26 AM ON 05/08/09
That speed sounds fine and dandy but it's only good locally from the provider to the customer. If you go beyond local servers or service providers, isn't international sites capped at 20Mb/s? We got 100 & 1000 Mb/s lines but it's only good for HDTV channels streamed on provider's broadband TV service or local sites or watch HDTV channels while playing XBox Live without a hitch.
By anon at 1:04 AM ON 05/08/09
200Mb is only the speed of the trial that Virgin Media is doing, I am currently on the 2Mb service with Virgin Media and I still get throttled when I download or upload too much.You would have thought that with their fibre-optic system, they would be able to handle a bit more than 2Mb. Their uploads speed are even worse, for me the upload speed is limited to 200Kb, and even for the highest service offered to the public, the 50Mb download, the upload is still limited to 1.5Mb. Virgin Media should improve their upload speeds and it should also stop chasing the peak speeds their systems can handle, and instead offer better speeds for all customers.
There will be some good news though eventually, at least for me because Virgin Media is going to upgrade all customers on the 2Mb service to 10Mb download and 512Kb upload.
By Swagman at 11:05 AM ON 05/08/09
I'm on Virgin 20Mb, and am happy as larry, I don;t really care too much about upload, which is currently 768Kb, I care about the d/l which every time I test is nothing slower than 18Mb/s.....
200 sounds fine, I'm just unhappy they didn't pick me to test it
By yaos at 12:27 PM ON 05/08/09
What's the average speed in the UK?
By Wintursoul at 2:33 PM ON 05/08/09
Just my '2' cents but laying down a network of high-speed data cables in a relatively small area such as the UK is infinitely easier than doing the same in the continental U.S.
However when U.S. customers are ready to pay what is required for ultra-speed broadband then maybe we'll see those speeds here...oh wait...we have to have our $6 coffee and $800 monthly car payments..hmm...dilemma...
By Complete Prat at 3:42 PM ON 05/08/09
UK broadband isn't that good. We have stupid 'Traffic Management' caps placed on us if we download 'too much'. (http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html)
I have a 10Mb/s service with Virgin yet if I download at full speed for ~15mins between 4pm and 10pm, I get capped to just 2.5Mb/s. That's a 75% cap that is in place for 5hours. All we get is a tiny 1.2GB allowance before they cap us. Not only that but they also cap the 512Kb/s upload speed to just 128Kb/s.
I would prefer that they improved the service for their existing customers before trying to trap new customers with their shiny faster than practical speeds!
@ yaos: According to OfCom (http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/features/brspeeds), our average BB download speed is 3.6Mb/s as of Jan'09
By savaged at 4:36 PM ON 05/10/09
Virgin Media - moving ahead but not finishing the job first. I don't think I'm alone in having problems getting the bandwidth promised. How about they get what they sell now working before doing the next thing. I've had an average less than 2Mbps since starting to pay for 10Mbps three months ago! Infrastructural issues are the cause according to their technical support team. With no fixed dates promised for correction.
BT sent me a cocky letter when I switch from them to virgin media, saying I'd regret it. Guess what, they were right.
By crist at 6:31 PM ON 05/30/09
Wow that sounds pretty good. Well now im with Ilink with 15 mb download and 15 mb upload (for real) so i think im doing good compared to everybody else posted here. Im from romania.
By Rstar at 1:05 AM ON 08/29/09
What good is all that speed if they charge so much for it that noone can aford it, or put restriction caps on using it?
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