Virgin Media £4.50 Broadband (Broadband & Phone) Broadband Bundle

Review of Virgin Media £4.50 Broadband Special Offer

STOP PRESS! Hurry, this offer ends on June 30th 2007! It is the UK's cheapest broadband package, so don't miss out.

VIRGIN Media are storming ahead in the home broadband market, and this limited edition package is, frankly, stupendous value for money.

You pay £15.50 a month and get broadband (size M) and phone (size M) and your line rental included! In other words, the broadband alone only costs £4.50!

Think about it, if you are paying £11 - or £11.75 to be exact - to BT for your line rental anyway, you may as well switch to Virgin Media and save yourself at least £130 a year, if not more.

So you'll get Virgin Media's cable broadband speeds of up to 2Mb with no download limits. You'll also get a free modem and a wealth of security features from Virgin Media's excellent PCguard package.

Remember that this is cable broadband and the benefits of it are huge when compared to normal ADSL broadband which comes through the copper wires: you'll never experience a slowdown in speed just because you live far from the telephone exchange and because the line is not shared, your connection should remain consistently fast even during peak times, such as evenings.

If you are comparing this Virgin Media £4.50 broadband package to the Sky, TalkTalk or Tiscali packages - who all offer very cheap broadband when taken in conjunction with a home phone plan - remember that they all use copper wire ADSL, and Virgin Media is the only broadband provider currently offering a fibre-optic cable connection.

Like all Virgin Media's cable packages, there is a one off £30 setup fee.

The Virgin Media Size M phone package included in the bundle gives you free unlimited local and national calls at weekends and considering you won't have to pay line rental anymore, you are effectively getting this call package for the princely sum of zero pounds!

Remember that you will need to be in Virgin's cable-supported area in order to take up this excellent, limited offer. This is checked live, online when you sign up for the package.

As a final note, there has been a lot of bad press for Virgin Media as they initially struggled to take over the old NTL legacy. We are pleased to report that customer service has improved markedly and that the performance of the service is, once again, steady. So steady in fact that they've been nominated for Best Consumer ISP at this year's internet 'Oscars', the ISPA Awards.

Virgin Media has also - rightly - received a lot of flack for the costly technical support of 25p per minute. However as of June 1, technical support is free!

If you are in any doubt however, Virgin Media have a brilliant 28-day moneyback guarantee, which should absolve you of any hesitation in at least giving them a try. The savings are massive.

	Virgin Media £4.50 Broadband (Broadband & Phone) is currently offering £20 off your first bill when you sign up online.

A little more detail

Broadband

			Special Note..	Any good?
Package Name:		Size: M	-
Connection Type:		Cable	-
Max Speed:		2Mb	-
Usage Limit:		Unlimited	Fair use policy applies
Hardware:		Modem	-
Anti-virus Protection:		Yes	Part of PCGuard package (which also includes Firewall, Pop-Up Blocker and Privacy Manager)
Firewall:		Yes	Part of PCGuard package (which also includes Anti-virus, Pop-Up Blocker and Privacy Manager)
E-mail Account:		Yes	Up to 15 email addresses
Webspace Provided:		Yes	55MB of webspace
Domain Included:		No	-
Backup Dialup:		Yes	0845 dial backup
Consoles Supported:		All major consoles supported	-

Home Phone

Package Name:		Size: M
UK Weekend Tariff:		Free to UK landlines
UK Evening Tariff:		3.25p per minute, with 7p connection charge
UK Peak Tariff:		3.25p per minute, with 7p connection charge
International Tariff:		Lower international rates with Talk International (£1.50 per month)

Payment, Installation and Contract

Payment Method(s):		Direct Debit only (other payment methods incur a £5 charge)
Activation Fee:		Free
Installation:		From £30
Minimum Contract:		12 months
Line Rental:		No line rental required
Support:		25p per minute technical support

Actual User Ratings

At a Glance

Our Rating
Max Speed	2Mb
Usage Limit	Unlimited
Monthly Price	£20.00
Set Up Cost	£30.00
Min. Contract	12 months

	Bundle details:
	Phone: Unlimited weekend calls to UK landlines
	TV: Not included
	Mobile: Not included

	It is best suited for:
	Web users looking for a good, simple cable broadband, TV and phone package offering free weekend calls only.

Customer Reviews

Add your own review of Virgin Media broadband...

Remember, the customer reviews below are subjective (and are not the opinions of ChooseISP.co.uk).

John from glasgow writes... 14/05/2008

"Since Virgin have taken over from NTL they've taken a flawfless service and ran it straight in to the ground. I live right beside an exchange so in theory I should be getting fairly close to 4Mb, I'm lucky to get 2 most days. Also lately at any point from 4-12 streaming any type of media results in the connection dropping and sometimes taking 15+ minutes to reconnect. Until they get their act together avoid Virgin."

Martin from London writes... 12/10/2007

"Signed up for Virgin Media XL Broadband 20Mb. I don't even get 1Mb most times, usually lower. The customer service is extremely poor and they are all based in India. There is no email based support, only 25p/min tech number."

Gareth Snow from Worthing writes... 03/10/2007

"We recently had broadband, telephone and also TV installed from Virgin Media and they were excellent. Really good value for money. Also we have Virgin Media's V+ service which is superb!"

S.J. from Manchester writes... 08/09/2007

"When Virgin Media was still Telewest it was great. Now the XL package is £37/month, with fair use policy introduced, the speeds are not consistent and the upload speed is ridiculous for todays isp's. The once free tech help is now 25p/min with 10p connection charge (to India!!). If I had a BT line I would try another broadband provider."

Jason Hines from Epsom writes... 12/08/2007

"So far so very good. I signed up to the VirginMedia 3 for £30 bundle in April and so far have been amazed. I had heard bad stories but took the risk as they offer a moneyback guarantee. Thankfully I never had to use it. I still find it amazing that I get all this for £30. Highly recommended."

Hazel Wykes from Birmingham writes... 11/08/2007

"We thought we'd give Virgin Media a try just to see how it compared but were so dissatified with it, that we changed back to BT. We are now on BT Total Broadband Option 3. Its top class, everything about it is excellent. It beats Virgin Media all round."