VIrgin Media introduce traffic management

The recently formed telecoms giant Virgin Media are steaming ahead in the world of broadband and will soon be introducing download speeds of up to 20Mb on some of their broadband packages. As one of the only ISPs to offer such fast connection speeds their popularity is growing immensely.

Until recently Virgin Media were one of the few companies to offer truly unlimited broadband without restriction. However, in conjunction with the hike in download speeds, they are also finding it necessary to introduce a traffic management policy.

Many companies solve the problems associated with contention (whereby bandwidth of the internet signal available to you is shared with other individuals in your area and so can be severely affected by heavy users), by imposing restrictions such as fair usage policies and usage caps or charges to their broadband packages. However, Virgin Media have chosen to take a slightly different approach to ensuring all their broadband users can enjoy the super fast speed they were promised.

Their traffic management policy will only affect those who are classed as being among the top 5% of heavy users as they are deemed to download such a large amount of data that it significantly disrupts the service for other users.

The scheme will work by moderating the speed at which the top 5% of users at any one time will be able to access the internet during peak hours (4pm - midnight). The extent to which any one users speed is slowed will depend on the package they subscribe to. However, the slowed speeds should not be so severe that 'normal' usage will be disrupted, only so that a fair quality of service is available to all users. It is believed that once the traffic management is applied to a connection, speeds will be moderated for 4 hours.

The traffic management scheme is likely to be in place ready for the launch of 20Mb broadband so that Virgin Media's super fast speed will be available to all.