Virgin Media shows off stylish 50Mbps cable modem

This truly may be a world's first: a cable modem you don't feel incredibly pressured to relegate to the rear of your networking stash. Yes friends, that succulent device you see above is Virgin Media's shockingly stunning 50Mbps cable modem, which unsurprisingly relies on DOCSIS 3.0 technology in order to provide such 1337 speeds. It's still not as speedy as Ambit Broadband's channel bonding modem, nor can it hold a candle to whatever Sigbritt Löthberg had going on in Sweden, but 50Mbps isn't anything to sneeze at. No word on pricing just yet (don't worry, you'll pay it), but it should be available for UK-based speed freaks before the year's end.

[Via TrustedReviews]

[Jhongerkong @ Nov 8th 2008 6:45PM]

If there was a modem with speeds of 1337kbps, id buy it in an instant

[Jeremy W @ Nov 8th 2008 6:50PM]

That's pretty damn slow...

[Jhongerkong @ Nov 8th 2008 6:51PM]

So what? its fucking l33t

[GenBanks @ Nov 8th 2008 6:59PM]

You should have made it 1337mbps

[computer.dude.28 @ Nov 8th 2008 7:05PM]

1337kbps is NOT l33t.
Using l33t is NOT l33t.
50Mbps is.

[nerdtalker @ Nov 8th 2008 7:35PM]

I think you just failed at units. If it were 1337 gigabits/sec, I'd call it leet. Kilobits just implies you're another moronic script kiddie fucktard.

[iEye @ Nov 8th 2008 8:10PM]

I love the internets!

[tom @ Nov 8th 2008 10:48PM]

@iEye

You'll love it even more when this tech gets to Comcast. What is the cap again? 200Gb? You'll speed up and be cut off in NO time =P

[heffeque @ Nov 9th 2008 10:57AM]

Interesting... in Spain they're starting to roll out 50 and 100 Mbps through EuroDOCSIS 3.0 (Cisco EPC3000 capable of doing +200/120 Mbps) and Virgin Media is giving out an outdated version of DOCSIS 3.0 that has a maximum output of 50 Mbps? How lame is that?
Oh, and no cap.

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Nov 8th 2008 6:51PM]

Even better if they upgraded their boadband speeds. They're falling behind.

[CongoJoe @ Nov 19th 2008 6:44AM]

What do you think that modem is for?

[Gregory @ Nov 8th 2008 7:01PM]

Falling behind the up to 8Mbps connection that the bt network offers?

[r3loaded @ Nov 8th 2008 7:00PM]

Erm, last time I checked, VM were actually the fastest consumer broadband provider in the UK, with their 20Mbit connection. And yes, you actually get the full 20Mbit, unlike certain DSL-based providers who advertise 24Mbps, but give you less than half of that...

[Brian @ Nov 8th 2008 7:04PM]

Virgin provide both Cable and ADSL broadband, the Cable they provide to the door which is where this 50Mb baby will be used. They also provide ADSL which is BT's copper to the door and Virgin provide the backbone which is much slower than the 20Mb of their current Cable offering.

[Joe @ Nov 8th 2008 7:55PM]

We subscribe to 10Mbps on Virgin, but never get more than about 6.5.

[Samboini @ Nov 8th 2008 7:58PM]

Guys, I pay £18 per month with Be broadband and get ~22 meg unlimited. Virgin comes nowhere near.

[Eldiablo @ Nov 8th 2008 8:24PM]

They might offer 50mbps but you'll only get it if the day has a Z in it.

[Vanillacide @ Nov 9th 2008 7:00AM]

I have Virgin Broadband 20Mbps package (with 768Kb upstream) and it always hits this speed on tests, and I can do plenty of simultaneous downloads to use the full bandwidth, this cable modem service is far superior to any ADSL one in my area.

Peak hours is 5pm to 9pm -- four hours of the day -- and if you download more than 3GB or upload more than 1.4GB during those hours you are throttled to 5Mbps for five hours; I simply do my large downloading during the day or overnight, i.e. outside this four hour window.

I did have a speed problem in the past, and some connection dropping, but their customer service quickly identified the cable modem as the cause (it was old and the high speed kept crashing it) and they couriered me a new one immediately; they were really helpful and solved my problem right away.

As to their fibre-optic advertising, I read that in new housing developments such as some in North Kent, they are installing fibre to the house rather than copper.

[Vanillacide @ Nov 9th 2008 7:05AM]

And I gets single digit pings in some TF2 servers, and most of the commercial ones are less than 20. PING!

So yep, pretty happy with this service. :)

[Hman @ Nov 9th 2008 7:28PM]

Wow dude you are leet!

[KAIKAI @ Nov 8th 2008 6:58PM]

that has to be the SEXIEST modem ive EVER seen

[frank Da Tank @ Nov 8th 2008 7:01PM]

Those are two words I never thought I would see together. lol.

[--------- @ Nov 8th 2008 7:33PM]

I don’t get it.

I always want my “networking stash” to look as much like commercial gear as possible. If I could afford all top line rack mounted Cisco stuff I’d be using it. In no way would I consider a stylized My Little Pony/Star Wars collection modem cool. In fact, if I were forced to use this box I’d probably hide in back of the stack or somehow try to make it look a little more serious.

Form follows function for us PC guys…

[zoara @ Nov 8th 2008 8:03PM]

@-----
Sounds to me like form doesn't really follow function in your case; in fact quite the opposite - you seem very interested in what it looks like but don't mention anything about how well it works.

You're sounding like the anti-fashion brigade who insist that they don't care about fashion yet are very careful to never wear anything fashionable. They're just as much fashion victims as the people who only wear what's fashionable.

[Jhongerkong @ Nov 8th 2008 7:02PM]

HAHAHAHAH BITCHES IM FIRST

[Jhongerkong @ Nov 8th 2008 7:02PM]

Oh shit, sorry bout that but my idiot cousin took my pc

[GenBanks @ Nov 8th 2008 7:03PM]

lol, I ranked you up for that

[GenBanks @ Nov 8th 2008 7:02PM]

I've heard virgin throttle a lot and delivery sub-par speeds and reliability across the board. I'm with Be on their 24mbps package and getting about 14mbps according to speedtest.net with pings of 10< to all the TF2 servers I play regularly on so I'm very happy with it. I no longer feel the pangs of jealously when I read news like this, compared to when I had a really crappy 2mb connection :)

Still, that's a pretty sexy modem.

[Smi @ Nov 8th 2008 7:09PM]

Virgin media do have some funny throttling but only if you're a crazy heavy bandwidth user. So, you're on their 24mbps package and you're only getting 14mbps? I'm on Virgin's 2mbps package (yes, I know) and I get almost exactly 2mbps speed on speedtest. Other people with faster connections similiarly get exactly what's advertised. Plus, their customer service are just lovely.

That's a damned sexy modem, too!

Click the read link if you haven't, there's a few more pics...then take a scroll down to the comments and read the first two. Nice to see that Techradar is populated with intelligent people!

[Galen @ Nov 8th 2008 9:00PM]

I was on virgin 4mbps (though apparently we'd been upgraded to 10) up til about a month ago, and it was a load of balls. The internet died at least once a day, and we had a 700MB limit before we got throttled, which is ridiculous seeing as my household consists of 6 people, and on my own i normally download 700 in a day. so we switched to o2 broadband which has been vastly superior, no throttling, and much higher speeds on 8mbps. richard branson's a wanker.

[)ROFL( @ Nov 8th 2008 8:16PM]

That's funny. I'm on a 6(or 8?)MB/s plan from Comcast, and I get about 400-900KB/s down.

[marty k. @ Nov 8th 2008 7:06PM]

It all depends where you live but I've seen more underperforming"fastest-in-the-uk" virgin than be24. I prefer to have 8mbits on fast, without traffic shaping - it "just works", all the time.

[chedabob @ Nov 8th 2008 7:08PM]

I'd be jumping up and down about this if it wasn't for Virgin Media's stupid fucking download caps.

[Jamar @ Nov 9th 2008 10:18AM]

At least they told you. On this side of the Atlantic it took Comcast ages to own up to their cap.

[Si @ Nov 8th 2008 7:08PM]

Only one ethernet port? WTF?

[Smi @ Nov 8th 2008 7:10PM]

Okay, so this is a /modem/ and not a /router./ You know the difference, yeah?

[drumdbeat @ Nov 8th 2008 7:12PM]

Its a modem, only one port needed to have it directed to your router of choice

[Reader @ Nov 9th 2008 6:35AM]

That's embarrassing... I'd make a new profile after that one.

[drumdbeat @ Nov 8th 2008 7:13PM]

I hope to get this... i currently have Virgin's 20MB package...

[Samboini @ Nov 8th 2008 8:00PM]

Does it suck or does it provide?

[drumdbeat @ Nov 8th 2008 8:07PM]

To be fair, my speed on average is about 12 mb, this is through an old 54mb wireless connection from the opposit corner of the house, and the connection is almostly constantly shared between 2 computers. If that has any effect...

But i've never had any problems with connectivity, so thats a plus.

[dotAaron @ Nov 8th 2008 7:16PM]

Id love to have this epic connection, but sadly BT would prefer me not to.

In my area BT basically said "fuck you" to NTL or whatever provider it was back then, and cable was never installed in our area.

No Virgin Media good times :(

[mercurysunblast @ Nov 8th 2008 7:49PM]

It's so easy these days to make a gadget, "sexy." Just make it black and glossy as hell.

[iEye @ Nov 8th 2008 8:09PM]

Not really, the 1st gen iPhone is dead sexy, like a muscle car with a 350 V8...
the new black one looks like shite! like a cheap honda civic with a 1 litre girl scout engine...

[TheMarioBrutha @ Nov 8th 2008 10:23PM]

Throwing on a couple of blue LEDs doesn't hurt either.

[Blank @ Nov 8th 2008 8:14PM]

Virgin Media are a great ISP.. very fair on the customers, such a shame ive bought a new house recently & ive had to goto O2 Broadband, while there good... due to BT's crappy lines (copper wires!) im over a mile from the exchange, meaning im trapped with 13mb broadband, virgins fiberoptic isnt avaliable in the area, im just hoping they expand alot... id certainly sign up if it appeared in my new area.

[matt @ Nov 9th 2008 4:58AM]

Beard.

[Duncan @ Nov 9th 2008 6:01AM]

The thing is that as far as I'm aware of, and the job I do means I do have regular chats to the guys behind the Virgin Media network, they don't do fibre optic to anyones door. They advertise fibre to my door but unless someones recently invented fibre over copper it doesnt exist. The system they use is fibre to a local distribution box and then a shared coaxial feeder from there. Its theoretically capable of a lot but I'm still disputing the advertising they do with the ASA as I still belive its very misleading.

[trickards @ Nov 8th 2008 8:57PM]

Virgin Media are an aweful ISP. I was on their 20mbit plan, which is great for the first 3GB (doesn't take long) then you get dropped to 5mb for the rest of the peak hours. Absolutely shocking and this rule was changed during contract without notifying me.

I wouldn't ever use a Virgin Media service again, their customer support is outsourced, their tech support is clueless and they are ignorant and rude.

Highly reccommend be24! Solid connection, great speed, no capping.

[mirakutea @ Nov 9th 2008 2:19AM]

be24 and O2 are currently the best ISPs available in the UK (O2 uses Be's network).
And they are not even based in the UK... Bulgaria I think, that's why.. they care about service aswell as profit.