FAQ - Traffic - National Broadband

Traffic Management FAQs

What is our Traffic Management Policy?

We want all our customers to get the best service possible from their broadband. That means a speedy and reliable service for everyone, not just a few.

When someone is downloading an unusually large amount over a long period of time, it can slow down the internet 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 monitor our network's performance. And, if someone is downloading a large amount of data and impacting others, we may moderate their speed during peak times (4pm till midnight weekdays and 10am to midnight on the weekend). This ensures that the service doesn't get slowed down by people on our Unlimited service using more than their fair share.

What is 'traffic management' and what is the National broadband Traffic Management Policy?

Broadband speeds for our Virgin Media National service are affected by a number of factors. Distance from the telephone exchange is the main factor, but certain applications can also slow down speeds. We are now prioritising certain traffic types so that, if a phone line can't support all of the applications at the same time, not all traffic is affected.

So, using VoIP, gaming, viewing web pages and video streaming take priority over file sharing networks and peer-to-peer traffic. Doing this means that applications such as iPlayer are more likely to work at higher streaming rates at peak times, and we do not need to regulate speed at peak times which results in a better experience for all our customers.

How does traffic management work?

To keep things simple, let's use the example that one of our customers has a broadband service that can support up to 4Mb.

As long as the demand on the connection is less than 4Mb, everything will get through to the customer. If the customer has a 4Mb service, and multiple people are using PCs, laptops and wireless devices (which means the demand is exceeding 4Mb) the connection will be traffic-managed in the following order:

VoIP and gaming applications - these get the highest priority, because these applications need the fastest delivery and reliability.
Applications like BBC iPlayer, ITV Player and 4oD - because any disruption to these causes that annoying picture pixilation or freezing. Our customers told us that they'd prefer reliability when watching shows online.
Web pages, email and peer-to-peer traffic - web pages and emails should still be delivered quickly. Peer-to-peer traffic might be a bit slower at certain times of the day but as they're not usually 'real time' applications like VoIP, gaming and video streaming, they can usually cope with a temporary reduction in speed.

What is 'Application Management' and how does it work?

Controlling the amount of bandwidth allocated to certain applications helps us provide the best possible experience for the majority of our customers. We only apply this to applications that don't rely on time, and this is part of our Traffic Management Policy.

For example, peer-to-peer file sharing is an application that tends to use a huge amount of bandwidth, as files download or upload in the background. This means it can continue to work effectively with temporarily reduced bandwidth.

How can I tell if I'm being traffic-managed?

The vast majority of users (around 95%) shouldn't notice a change in their broadband service at all. If you think that you're being 'traffic-managed' you can check your speed using an online speed checker. If you want to check how much you're downloading, you can use a DU Meter. DU Meters are available at http://www.hageltech.com/dumeter/ and www.tucows.com.

What are abusive users?

As with all service providers Virgin Media has to deal with customers who want to side-step our Traffic Management Policy in order to take get more bandwidth at the expense of other customers. To safe guard the service for all customers Virgin Media monitors the amount that customers download per hour during our peak times (4pm and midnight on weekdays and 10am and midnight at the weekends).

During our peak times, if we see that a particular customer is downloading excessive amounts within a one hour period which could be having a detrimental affect on other users then we will restrict that customer's actual throughput speed to 512Kbps until midnight of that day. At midnight the throttle will be automatically taken off the line and returned to its normal speed.

This is used to make sure that a very small number of customers aren't overusing our network and slowing things down for everyone else. It's unlikely that you'll be affected by this if you are using your service for normal services such as surfing the web, e-mail, video streaming, VoIP etc.

Will the traffic management policy change?

From time to time, we might review our Traffic Management Policy to make sure that all our customers are getting the very best from their service. Any changes will be published on our website and added to the policy document. We reserve the right to modify this traffic management document at any time, without prior notice and solely at our own discretion. Any changes will take effect when posted on our website.

This Traffic Management Policy forms part of our Terms and Conditions.

Virgin Media National Broadband