Virgin Media 3 for £30 (Broadband, TV & Mobile) Broadband Bundle

Review of Virgin Media 3 for £30 (Broadband, TV & Mobile)

GIVEN that Virgin media offer a right festival of services including broadband, phone, TV and mobile, we like how they let you pick and choose to create a bundle package that suits you.

In fact, we'd say that the Virgin Media 3 for £30 family of packages are some of our favourites on the market right now, despite the negative criticism Virgin Media has received.

In this Virgin Media 3 for £30 package you can pay £30 a month and get broadband (size M) and TV (size L) and a Virgin Mobile SIM. The SIM allows you to keep your current number and phone and gives you free talktime and free texts.

So here you'll get Virgin Media's cable broadband speeds of up to 2Mb with no download limits, although a fair use policy does apply. You'll also benefit from the excellent security features of Virgin's PCguard security suite.

Like all Virgin Media's cable packages, there is a one off £25 setup fee, but remember that no line rental is required, so you'll effectively be saving yourself £11 a month straight off the bat.

The standard Virgin Media TV package for this bundle is the Size L package which includes over 85 channels including Virgin Central (Virgin's cool on-demand TV channel where you control what you want to watch, and when), Discovery, UKTV Gold and Eurosport.

The included Virgin mobile package is surprisingly generous, offering a Virgin Mobile SIM with 300 texts and 300 minutes a month to use on any network at any time. This is normally 100 minutes and 100 texts, so its worth grabbing this before they change it back again.

Unfortunately you must live in Virgin Media's cable-supported area in order to get this package. Fortunately this does now cover more than half of the UK. This is checked live, online when you sign up for the package.

	Virgin Media 3 for £30 (Broadband, TV & Mobile) is currently offering £30 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	-

TV

Package Name:		Size: L
Included Channels:		Over 85 digital channels including Virgin1 and Disney Channel
Optional Channel Add-ons:		Add SkyMovies and/or Sky Sports for an additional monthly fee (from £19)
Video on Demand:		Yes, free last week's TV (Films etc. cost extra)
Pay Per View:		Music vids, films and live sports events
Record TV / TV Hard Drive:		Yes (requires £150 installation fee, and £5 p/m)
Hardware:
Extras:

Mobile

Package Name:		Virgin Mobile SIM
Network:		Virgin
SIM / Phone:		No
Free Minutes:		300 minutes
Free Texts:		300 texts

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	£30.00
Set Up Cost	£30.00
Min. Contract	12 months

	Bundle details:
	Phone: Not included
	TV: Over 85 digital TV channels
	Mobile: 300 any-network anytime minutes & 300 texts a month

	It is best suited for:
	Web users looking for a cable broadband bundle that includes digital TV and a mobile phone deal

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."