Virgin Media Broadband Size: XL Broadband

Review of Virgin Media Broadband Size: XL

STOP PRESS! This package is now available for just £29 a month for the first 6 months, saving you £48! Alternatively, take it with a Virgin Media home phone package(see details here) and get it for £20 a month for the first 12 months (+ £11 a month for the phone package).

Forget the amazing special introductory price for the first year (which makes this package extraordinary value) the Virgin Media Broadband Size XL package is fast. Really fast. Fast enough to blow Richard Branson's floppy hair right back, in fact.

Is it a good deal though?

While you have a choice of two introductory offers that make it temptingly affordable in the first 6 months or 12 months (read our full review of the special offer package here), Virgin Media Broadband XL is slightly pricey.

However remember that you don't need line rental to get this package, so you can safely subtract £11.75 a month from the cost to see a more realistic figure.

See what we mean about being more than affordable?

Being cable there is, unfortunately, a £30 one-off connection charge, but Virgin Media throw in a modem for free.

And its performance? Despite inheriting NTL's famously shaky cable network, reports of the Virgin Media 20Mb package are about average for a company of this size (some love it, some hate it and the ones who are just content say nothing!), but Virgin Media's once shamefully unreliable, but now quite good, technical support is free from June 1 2008 (previously 25p a minute).

Fortunately, with Virgin Media's 30-day moneyback guarantee, you are safe to try it all for yourself and see.

	Virgin Media Broadband Size: XL is currently offering just £29 per month for the first 6 months (saves £48 per year!).

A little more detail

Broadband

			Special Note..	Any good?
Package Name:		Size: XL	-
Connection Type:		Cable	-
Max Speed:		20Mb	-
Usage Limit:		Unlimited	Fair use policy applies
Hardware:		Modem	-
Anti-virus Protection:		Yes	Part of PCGuard Total package (which includes PCguard features as well as extra Anti-Spyware, Identify Theft Protection and Parental Control features)
Firewall:		Yes	Part of PCGuard Total package (which includes PCguard features as well as extra Anti-Spyware, Identify Theft Protection and Parental Control features)
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	-

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	20Mb
Usage Limit	Unlimited
Monthly Price	£37.00
Set Up Cost	£30.00
Min. Contract	12 months

	Bundle details:
	Phone: Not included
	TV: Not included
	Mobile: Not included

	It is best suited for:
	Web surfers wanting a well priced unlimited cable broadband package with some of the fastest UK broadband speeds available

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."