BROADBAND hogs in Feltham are to blame for connection problems according to Virgin Media.
A number of Virgin Media customers in the Feltham area have reported "unusably slow" broadband speeds in the evenings and at weekends.
The organisation is now having to plan works to resolve the issue, it is hoped they will take place in mid December.
A spokesman for Virgin Media said: "We've been investigating an isolated issue affecting a few customers in the Feltham area resulting in slow broadband speeds at certain times of the day.
"This has been caused by a small number of extremely heavy users using more than their fair share of resources during peak periods, negatively affecting the service for others. Whilst we are taking steps to manage this excessive usage by contacting customers who are using their connections to the detriment of others, relief work has also already been planned in for mid-December to manage this increased demand."
A Virgin Media customer posted a comment on an internet forum to ask for help with the issue.
He said: "My internet connection is unusable in the evenings from about 5pm till 11 pm and all day weekends, I have now been told my area is oversubscribed.
"Do you really think that's fair to me and everyone else who is paying you our money?"
The company says less than 5 per cent of its customers in the Feltham area are being affected by this issue.
The spokesman added:"We would like to apologise to them for any inconvenience this has caused".
Virgin Media do not have download limits, and does not charge customers for usage beyond predetermined levels.
A traffic management policy is operated at peak times. In extreme cases where customers are being detrimentally affected by the behaviour of others Virgin Media writes to extremely heavy users to ask them to be considerate of other users.
Virgin Media was unable to specify how many customers have been adversely affected or which parts of Feltham the issues had been reported in.
