The new Virgin Media Hub has finished in first place for broadband speed and reach in an independent test, carried out by Cartesian. The new modem is available for free to new and existing customers.
With the Olympics just around the corner, it seems that everyone is in the mood for a bit of healthy competition. Ireland’s energy companies are cutting prices to out-do one another, banks are upping their cashback offers for new mortgage borrowers and just about everyone I know is battling it out on Pokemon Go.
Virgin Media are showing their competitive spirit too and are excited to share the news of the latest feather in the cap for their broadband products.
In June, independent research company, Cartesian, carried out a controlled test to discover which broadband provider is currently offering the best speed and range in Ireland.
And, you guessed it, the recently-launched Virgin Media Hub finished in first place in both tests!
The test results
A ‘test house’ was used by Cartesian to carry out the comparison. The house, which has two storeys, brick walls and is located in an area with generally low broadband usage, is structured to reflect the challenges faced by typical homes.
The latest modems from eir, Sky, Vodafone and Virgin Media were each connected in the test house and upload speed, download speed and reach were all measured. A Samsung Galaxy S6, iPad Air 2 and Macbook Pro were all used as test devices and data was captured three times to ensure results were reliable.
The Virgin Media Hub came out on top for speed, with an average download speed of 283 Mbps, which was 40% faster than second place.
The Cartesian test also recorded the average speeds generated by each provider in the test house’s ‘hard-to-reach’ areas, such as an upstairs bedroom. The Virgin Media Hub came out on top again, with an average download speed of 109 Mbps even in the bedrooms’ nooks and crannies.
The Virgin Media Hub
The Virgin Media Hub was launched in January 2016 and boasts AC dual band WiFi technology and full DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem functionality. And it’s thanks to these features that the provider aced the Cartesian test in June.
There are a lot of variables that can affect the actual speed a certain device gets. Things like the number of users, router location and thick concrete walls can all have an impact. The Virgin Media Hub is well-placed to overcome these traditional broadband obstacles and is more likely to reach the connection speed you’re paying for than any of its predecessors.
Free to new and existing Virgin Media customers
Sounds good, right? You want it, don’t you? Well, the good news is that the Virgin Media Hub is completely free to new and existing customers who are on the provider’s 240 Mb or 360 Mb plan.
All you have to do is get in touch with the provider and they will either send a Hub out to you or arrange for a technician to call out to your home to install one. It’s a no-brainer, really!
If you’re not a Virgin Media customer, you can switch to the provider here.
Greater speed for greater demand
The average Virgin Media household consumes over 100 GB of data every month, which is a 300% increase on the past three years. And with increased demand for online content comes a need for increased speed and more reliable connections.
The new Virgin Media Hub will allow customers to get closer than ever to those market-leading speeds of 240 Mb and 360 Mb that the provider offers.
