I had some spare time today, so I spent it by re-configuring my EyeTV. If you don’t know what EyeTV is, it’s probably the best DVB-T client in the world!
So, after having realized, that you need a huge antenna here in the UK to actually get some signal, I set that back up. Now, turns out you also need to tilt that in the correct angle to get any signal. But once that is done:
Woop woop! 392 channels!
So, I’ve been in the UK for nearly a year now, and I thought I would share my thoughts on UK broadband.
Why now? Well, I was listening to Spotify, and heard a Virgin Media Broadband ad. Then Alex bugged me yesterday trying to explain why Virgin Media is crap, etc. etc.
So, as it stands, there are 2 technologies available in the UK to the consumer. Cable or ADSL.
So, I have the Broadband XL package from Virgin Media, which gives me 20Mbit/s down and 768kbit/s up on the paper. About 3 months ago, I would’ve said that I would go with ADSL any time. However, since the launch of Virgin’s DOCSIS3.0 Network, the DOCSIS1.0 network became usable. I am now always getting the speeds (90-100%) I should get on paper.
Now, I heard people complain about the traffic caps. Now, being on Broadband XL, and consuming a reasonably high amount of traffic, I often exceed the limits. Basically, they cap your speed to 25% if you exceed 6GB from 10am – 3pm and 3GB from 4pm-9pm.
In all fairness though, 25% of 20Mbit/s is still 5Mbit/s, which is about the same as you can get on ADSL here in Egham.
So do I like Virgin Media? Hell no. It’s the worst internet access I have ever used! But there isn’t any better offer on the market. Yes, the speedcap is annoying, but it’s still better than ADSL.
The thing that’s missing here are alternative ISPs that provide FiOS on their own infrastructure. What about Virtual ISPs on the fibre? That would allow them to have their own routing and peering, however Fibre accross most of the UK? It’s been done on ADSL for a long time. There has to be an alternative to Virgin Media, and ADSL on BTs horrible infrastructure!
It’s the lesser of two evil.
About a week ago, the RHUL German Society went to a ‘Weihnachtsmarkt’ in Kingswood.
We quickly realized that this was a joke. It had nothing to do with a real German Christmas Market. It only consisted of a few huts, and it was difficult to find german stuff.
However, apparantly there are some Christmas Markets in the UK that are closer to a real German Christmas Market. This aired yesterday in the German News, so I had to put this in. I’m sorry that this is a German Video, but I just can’t be arsed to write subtitles.
What do you do when you’re constantly filmed? You try to capture the attention of the person who’s watching.
