What is the cut off mark for Virgin Media STM?
Apparently from Virgin Media's website, bandwidth usage is monitored from 4pm to 12 midnight on a weekday, and 10am to midnight on weekends, and if you download excessively during these peak periods, your broadband speed will be reduced, for cable users this is halved for the next 5 hours (and monitored from 10am to 3pm, as well as 4pm to 9pm all on the same day).
However there are suspicions that that is not the case at all, and STM(Subscriber Traffic Management) is being implemented regardless of usage even during off peak hours. The suspicion is that STM is implemented if you download in a continuous stream of 10 - 20 mins during these peak hours (so watching a 10 minute youtube clip puts you over the threshold), which will then mean you will be throttled for a week (if you are on adsl), Virgin Media are not quite clear exactly what triggers the throttling, or when indeed the throttling begins, but the suspicion is that it begins immediately on surpassing 10 -20 mins of continuous downloading during these peak hours.
Imagine having to drive your super fast sports car, you are paying for, for 10 - 20 mins and you are told because you used it for 10 - 20 mins at its optimal speed, you are now forced to walk for the entire week from4pm to midnight. Hardly fair whichever way you look at it.
If you are being Traffic Managed, be sure to let us know when it occurs, and for how long, and if the speeds reduction is as advertised by Virgin Media, or much worse.
However there are suspicions that that is not the case at all, and STM(Subscriber Traffic Management) is being implemented regardless of usage even during off peak hours. The suspicion is that STM is implemented if you download in a continuous stream of 10 - 20 mins during these peak hours (so watching a 10 minute youtube clip puts you over the threshold), which will then mean you will be throttled for a week (if you are on adsl), Virgin Media are not quite clear exactly what triggers the throttling, or when indeed the throttling begins, but the suspicion is that it begins immediately on surpassing 10 -20 mins of continuous downloading during these peak hours.
Imagine having to drive your super fast sports car, you are paying for, for 10 - 20 mins and you are told because you used it for 10 - 20 mins at its optimal speed, you are now forced to walk for the entire week from4pm to midnight. Hardly fair whichever way you look at it.
If you are being Traffic Managed, be sure to let us know when it occurs, and for how long, and if the speeds reduction is as advertised by Virgin Media, or much worse.
