Thursday, 4th August 2016: Virgin Media’s next generation modem, the Virgin Media Hub, delivers unrivalled connectivity in customers’ homes in newly revealed study of its competitors.

Powered by the latest AC dual band WiFi technology, the new Virgin Media Hub ensures customers get the best possible Wi-Fi experience from their superfast broadband connections.

In independent WiFi tests, the new Virgin Media Hub was tested alongside rival devices from eir, Sky and Vodafone and found the Virgin Media Hub to be the fastest WiFi device, outperforming competitors on speed and range throughout the home.

What that means for customers is an unrivalled WiFi internet experience that you can enjoy throughout your home. Whether you’re streaming or downloading movies, TV or music, using the Virgin Media Hub and the 360Mbps speed offering, you can download an 8 series TV box set in HD in less than 2 minutes. Download your favourite album in less than 10 seconds and a full movie in 22 seconds.


Bill Blake, Virgin Media’s Head of Commercial and Products said:

“As the number of gadgets that connect to the internet grows, the more people need superfast broadband so everyone in the home can get online at the same time. Therefore the importance of quality high speed broadband in the home is a no brainer. The average Virgin Media home consumes over 100GB of data per month, an increase of over 300% in the last 3 years. Irish connected homes have 8 connected devices across laptops, tablets, smartphones, gaming consoles and Smart TV’s.

““WiFi is one of those unseen forces that people depend on to make all of their connections happen and people only realise it’s there when their connection is frustratingly lost. However, with Virgin Media’s Hub you can be sure of a great connection whenever you want it.

“Our Virgin Media Hub is designed to help customers get the most from their connectivity while experiencing the best in-home WiFi experience and fastest speeds. Life is just too short to hang around and wait.”

Ends-

*Based on YouGov Survey March 2015 https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/4j6yho2tym/Results-for-IAB-Adspend-Study-13042015-W.pdf

Information:

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About the Virgin Media Hub:

The Virgin Media Hub was launched in early 2016 and comes with Full DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem functionality and features the very latest AC Wi-Fi technology. It includes twenty-four bonded downstream DOCSIS channels and eight bonded upstream DOCSIS channels.

The Hub was designed with ease-of-use in mind, featuring a simplified LED display and an install wizard that enables our customers to set up and customise their home WiFi service quickly and easily. It also includes a clever little WiFi card so customers can easily find their WiFi password.

SUPPORTING INFO

The testing was done in Cartesian’s Wi-Fi test house, which looks like this:

The modems were not connected to a network when the tests were performed. Rather, Cartesian used the industry-standard IxChariot tool to generate network traffic and measure the Wi-Fi throughput performance of the modem under test.
 

The average download rate across the different locations within the home was as follows: 

The average download rate across the different locations within the home was as follows: 

Empirical testing undertaken by Cartesian was done in June 2016 on widely distributed consumer modems. Testing was done on Virgin Media Hub (Compal CH7465), Vodafone’s HG658C, Eir’s HG659B, Sky Hub 2, and Sky Q. Testing was done across multiple ranges using a MacBook Pro, an iPad Air 2 and a Samsung Galaxy S6. Channel bandwidth for 2.4GHz was HT20. Channel bandwidth for 5GHz was HT80.

The download throughput average was calculated over 3 test runs, where data is transferred from router / access point to client. Vodafone HG658C & Sky Hub 2.0 can only transmit in the 2.4GHz band and hence cannot be tested for 5GHz performance.

Multi-client (concurrent dual-band) testing encompassed the measurement of simultaneous throughput between the router and all clients, which were placed in locations of varying difficulty (1 Easy, 1 Medium and 1 Hard) within the test house. Where the router was capable of supporting 5 GHz, tests were conducted using both Channel 36 and the (high-power) Channel 100.

Download an 8 series HD TV series in less than 2 minutes - based on 8* 600MB (4800 MB in total) 45 minute HD episodes over a wired 360Mbps connection
Download an album in less than 10 seconds - This is based on 12* 30MB (360 MB in total) 4 minute songs over a wired 360Mbps connection
Download a movie in 22 seconds - This is based on downloading a 1GB SD movie over a wired 360Mbps connection