Is Virgin Broadband Any Good?
CommentsVIRGIN are one of those sprawling, multi-tasking brands that seem to move effortlessly from flying planes to floristry but should you trust them to provide your broadband?
We aim to find out in this review. But first...
Virgin Media for beginners
Let's start off with a quick run down of what Virgin Media have got to offer, before comparing them with other providers.
Virgin Media broadband
| Size | Max Speed | Usage Limit | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| L | Up to 10Mb | Unlimited Fair use applies |
£13.50 | |
| XL | Up to 30Mb | Unlimited Fair use applies |
£18.50 | |
| XXL | Up to 50Mb | Truly Unlimited | £25 | |
| National | Up to 20Mb (non-cable) | from 40GB | £7.99 |
National broadband is Virgin Media's offering for those that fall outside of its cable broadband area.
Note that the service is provided through BT and prices vary because Virgin passes on the cost of supplying different exchanges to customers. We found prices could vary by around £3 a month depending on area.
You can check availability through our Virgin Media postcode search.
Add calls
The prices in the table above assume that you also take Virgin Media line rental (£14.60).
Just line rental gets customers inclusive calls to UK landlines and Virgin mobiles at the weekend only.
Other landline options are available: phone L adds around £4 to the cost of broadband bundles and offers inclusive evening and weekend calls; phone XL adds £8 and offers inclusive anytime UK calls.
Most importantly, however, note that any of the the provider's cable broadband deals are available without a home phone line. Broadband-only costs slightly more each month.
Add TV
TV options are based on the number of channels you'll have available:
- TV M+ - 65 channels
- TV L - 100 channels
- XL - 160 channels
A V+ HD box is available free with all Virgin Media TV bundles, a TiVo box costs £3 more each month, for more information on hardware see our battle of the boxes guide.
Pre-made broadband bundles are also available from the provider which can offer significant savings. The broadband, TV, calls and mobile saves £9.01 a month, for example. A VIP broadband bundle is also available.
Comparing Virgin Media deals
More important than these details, though, is why you would go with Virgin Media rather than one of their competitors.
Below, we've laid out some areas where Virgin are leading the market, and some where they're falling behind.
Market-leading
Speed
This is a big plus, maybe the biggest. Virgin Media own the UK's largest (but not only, now that BT have launched BT Infinity) fibre optic cable network and cable connections offer the fastest broadband.
Ofcom's last large-scale independent research recently found Virgin Media delivering average speeds of:
- L (up to 10Mb): 9.6Mb
- XL (up to 20Mb*): 18.0Mb
- XXL (up to 50Mb): 45.6Mb
*now up to 30Mb
Given that the the average up to 20/24Mb ADSL2+ connection is only providing an average 6.2Mb speed those figures speak for themselves and it's certainly a difference you'll notice.
Price vs. closest competitors
Virgin Media's prices compare well with their closest competitors. Put pretty much any of their most popular deals head-to-head with big providers and there'll only be a few pennies in it. For example:
| Deal | Price | Line rental | Month total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virgin Media Broadband: XL, TV: M+ & Phone: L | £24 for 6 mnths £29 | £13.90 | £38.90 | |
| Sky See + Speak Freetime + Surf Unlimited | £27 | £12.25 | £39.25 |
See our full Virgin or Sky guide for more price comparison of the two.
No phone line required
Virgin are the only provider that currently offer broadband phone-line free. It's a bit more expensive (£7.50 a month more with L, £10 more with XL and XXL) but that's less than line rental and, when you factor in potential landline call costs or line installation fees, could be a lot less overall.
Beaten elsewhere
Traffic management
Almost all providers manage the traffic on their network, it keeps speeds consistent for everyone. But not all providers make such a song and dance about their speeds.
Traffic management will slow down high-bandwidth activities like streaming video at peak times (except on XXL where only uploads are managed) so bear that in mind.
In addition, Virgin Media have a fair use policy (FUP) which can slow or stop the heaviest users. See our guide to fair use policies for more if you think you'll be affected.
Price vs. the cheapest deals
Is Virgin broadband any good for the cheapest cheapskates? Afraid not. There are cheaper deals out there:
| Deal | Broadband | Line rental | Month total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primus Saver | Free for 3 mnths £5.99 | £11 | £15.99 | |
| O2 The Basics | Free for 3 mnths £8.50 |
£7.66 | £16.16 | |
| Plusnet Value | £3.24 for 9 mnths£6.49 | £11.99 | £18.48 | |
| Virgin Media L + Phone M | £5 for 3 mnths £13.50 |
£13.90 | £27.40 |
Customer service
Unhelpful call centre staff and less-than-speedy installation seem to be Virgin Media's biggest customer service gripes.
But Virgin Media is huge. It's no coincidence that highly-rated companies like Be broadband, Zen broadband and Plusnet have stayed small.
The majority of customers have a positive experience and bad service is by no means endemic - when they had a problem with their fancy new routers they'd sent out software updates within a week, for example - but is Virgin broadband any good when you want great service? We'd have to say no.
What's the best Virgin Media deal?
We get asked this question a lot so let's address it here.
It's hard to answer very precisely so let's just note two features that make Virgin Media really begin to stand out.
Up to 100Mb or 50Mb broadband grabs headlines but users will really be able to see the difference at 30Mb XL broadband and, unless they're gamers or serial downloaders, won't need anything faster to get on with their usual online activities.
It also means a big difference against competitors.
According to Ofcom's latest independent speed tests, just 14% of customers on 20Mb or 24Mb ADSL services get average download speeds of over 12Mb while, on average, Virgin Media deals are delivering 90% of that 30Mb.
Our best Virgin Media deal also includes the TV L package.
It's our favourite because users really start to get the benefit of a pay monthly digital TV subscription. It offers 100 high-quality channels; catch-up with iPlayer, 4OD and ITV player; films on demand from 99p and a free set-top box with live pause and record.
Virgin's M+ TV includes about 65 channels and that means not much more than with a Freeview box which is - obviously - free forever after the set-top box.
All in all
All in all, we reckon the pros have it: Virgin provide a reliable, fast broadband service along with a huge rosta of bundle options so that you can get the exact services that you want.
Comments
Warning to potential XXL users: Virgin now operate traffic management on ALL packages between 9am and 10pm on newsgroups and P2P traffic. My XXL broadband goes from 50Mb down to 2.5Mb when this is in effect every day. This was largely unannounced from Virgin who went back on their promise of offering 'truly unlimited' downloads some months ago.
Virgin XXL 50Mb is only traffic managed on uploads for those connections which have already had a speed upgrade from 1.5Mbps up to 5Mbps up. The resultant management for upgraded heavy up-loaders then only get slowed down to 1.75Mbps.
Virgin Media do employ traffic management on file sharing activity, such as Peer to Peer BitTorrent, etc.. But the majority of Internet users shouldn't notice a problem with this unless they're engaging in file sharing. For example, normal Internet activity such as BBC iPlayer, streaming movies and regular downloading of music, or online gaming is not affected by this.
Additionally, it should be looked at in fair comparison, because file sharing traffic management is becoming quite widespread, even providers such as Eclipse will slow down users who are doing a lot of heavy P2P downloading/uploading.
Normally where this applies ISPs are now saying that people who want to use P2P should do so outside of peak hours when they don't restrict this traffic. For Virgin Media this would be from midnight to 5pm during the week and midnight to midday on weekends.
P2P can be scheduled, so this seems quite a fair approach to us.
I totally agree with Brenna! Anything would be better than this!
While using Virgin broadband for two months my modem has broken once, and the Internet disconnects or slows down frequently, regardless of the time of day.
I can't understand why they only emphasize traffic management at peak times. My Internet disconnects unexpectedly early in the morning, during the daytime and during the evening. It isn't a matter of time or traffic, but Virgin's customer service centre still doesn't respond with a proper explanation except to repeat the traffic management period.
This is the worst broadband and customer service I have ever experienced. Please consider other broadband companies when you make a decision because your time and money are precious.
I changed from Sky to Virgin about 6 months ago... and I wish I hadn't.
The signal gets "dropped" at least a couple of times a day. Sometimes for a whole day I have no wireless at all and each time I waste 30 mins to 45 mins on the helpline (which is very good by the way, they try their best).
I wouldn't suggest signing up for broadband from Virgin - it is unreliable, and if you were running a business from home you are asking for trouble.
Virgin Media broadband is quite frankly the worst broadband I've ever wasted money on. It is incredibly slow - much of the time not even reaching 1Mb - and rendering it completely useless.
I work from home in academic research and so have to spend all my time in libraries, pubs and cafes with free wifi because I'm stuck in a contract with these clowns and can't even check my email at home without having to exercise the patience of a monk. They don't respond to emails and right now I'm on hold with them to demand someone come here and fix this ongoing problem. I've been on hold for over half an hour and counting. I have had it with Virgin. Do not use them - anything would be better than this!
I've had Virgin Media broadband for several years and have largely been very pleased with the service and the support staff. My one piece of advice would be to monitor your bill very carefully and make sure that it matches the commitment they made. I just arranged for my daughter and her flat mates to sign up to their XL 30Mb service (without a phone) as there are seven of them. I also decided to upgrade from L 20Mb to XL 30Mb myself and in the end the only way I could get them to match the price was to speak to disconnections.
Terrible! Over sold network, full of lies and empty promises!
Phone line is mandatory with all Virgin Media packages. I only want broadband but have to have phoneline - what a rip off? They're the only company that can do it but they won't.
You can definitely get Virgin Media broadband without a phone line if you're a new customer. We're 100% on this one.
Click through from any of our standalone broadband reviews to double check the exact pages on the Virgin site where services "without a Virgin Phone line" are listed.
Perhaps, for some bizarre reason, they don't want to offer it to you as an existing customer?
Virgin Media are rubbish, I took my tenancy on 7 months ago and applied to Virgin for the complete package. They wouldn't accept me as a new customer because there was debt linked to my address even though I have never had Virgin. It seems they can be picky. Now I have BT and no problems at all.
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