Selly goes wifi over ‘awful’ Virgin Broadband speeds

Sluggish broadband speeds have left many feeling they are being fobbed off across Selly Oak.

Some students, who pay over £25 a month for 100mb speed broadband, have reported they are currently receiving less than 100th of that speed.

Speaking to The Tab, one household on Heeley Road said they were getting less than 0.5mb, despite shelling out £27.50 a month for their deal.

Heeley road is reportedly one of the worst effected areas

Heeley resident and third year Historian Harry said: “The service we are currently receiving is shocking, none of us in our house can even watch a Youtube video without it buffering every five seconds.

“Last year we rang up due to the same awful speeds and were told our previous 40mb deal was not sufficient for a seven person house. So this year we upgraded to 100mb.

“But now we have even slower speeds than we did before, and when we have rung up to complain the only explanation we have been given is that ‘we are working on it’.

“It’s a joke, and I don’t feel we’d be experiencing these issues if we were living in a middle class area – I feel Virgin is taking advantage of the fact Selly Oak is a student area.”

Issy Yeung, 20 year old Mechanical and Materials student, said: “When I tried to complain, Virgin suggested I emailed them – at that point I knew it was going to be an uphill battle.”

Hundreds more students across Selly have also voiced their anger, posting complaints demanding the issue be resolved.

Many people are looking to switch provider due to the current level of service

Speaking to a Virgin Media technician, The Tab was told a number of factors are contributing to the current low speeds being received.

They said: “There are a number of factors that can affect broadband connectivity. The number of devices connected to the Super Hub at any one time will cause the bandwidth to be shared across the household for example.”

He also suggested the number of new student customers in the area was the main reason behind the problem, as the current provider is unable to cope with increased demand.

He added: “The estimated fix-time to get the utilisation issue sorted is the 25th of February, but there is no guarantee that it will be fixed by then.”

Virgin might want to rethink their marketing campaign at this rate

When contacted regarding the current concerns, Ashley Scott, a Virgin Media spokesperson said: “We have worked closely with Birmingham University in the past to help identify student areas because the demand from such areas can be extreme due to the numbers of people sharing accommodation.

“It is important to gather as much information as possible about patterns of use.

“Our network engineers have previously visited the campus to offer help and advice on how students can make the most of their broadband.

“It is not always understood, for example, that if a connection is shared between more than one device then the speed is shared too.

“We have invested significantly in the area, working with Birmingham University to identify key streets where additional network capacity might be required. There are many factors that can affect broadband performance so we always investigate when a concern is raised.”

Expect to see plenty of these whizzing around Selly

In response to the complaints raised regarding Broadband speeds, Guild VP for Housing and Community, Jack Mably has created an Internet Speed Survey, which can be accessed here.

Speaking about the survey, he said: “I’d advise any students having issues with their broadband to fill out the survey. That way we can present the findings to the relevant Broadband providers and hopefully help provide a solution to the problem.”