Virgin Media Discussion Thread

uscool · 1 Dec 2025 at 12:53

MrBukey said:
My VM connection went from being my primary connection, to secondary, early 2024 when CF cabled the area. I've kept it as my backup line since.

Currently paying just over £36 for M500 upgraded to Gig1 on Volt (though expecting that to drop at any moment because my O2 lines are now all closed), and was looking to switch the secondary line to an OpenReach based line (maybe with Aquiss) now OR have also cabled the area for fibre.

However, I took a look at the VM packages for new customers (knowing I won't get what they're offering them, but just for potential negotiating leverage, or so I thought). New customers can get Gig1 for 3 months free + £29.99 for a month, then £33.99 for 8 months, then £37.99 for 12 months (factoring in mid contract price rises). That's a total of £757.79 for the two years.

They offered me £48 a month as the best they could do for M500 upgraded to Gig1 on Volt. They couldn't understand that I just wanted Gig1, no Volt, because Volt will be dropping off because I no longer have O2 SIMs/lines. That's a total of £1,152 (and not doubt mid contract price rises) for M500.

I'm not going to pay almost £400 more for half the speed of new customers. Aquiss isn't the cheapest, but I can get a 900/100 OR line from them for an extra 12p a month and no mid contract price rises, with only a 12 month contract. Plusnet are £31.99 for 4 months, £35.99 for the next 12, and £39.99 for the final 8 of a 24 month contract with a USwitch special. That's £879.76, and there's a £180 Mastercard reward card - so the real cost is less than £700. So even double-paying for just over a months service with the existing VM line saves money...

You can get it cheaper via TCB
Vodafone 910 works out £24.38 Avg. monthly cost through the 24 months

MrBukey · 1 Dec 2025 at 14:31

uscool said:
You can get it cheaper via TCB
Vodafone 910 works out £24.38 Avg. monthly cost through the 24 months

Ah thanks... That is slightly cheaper through TCB - however, as an existing customer I'm not entitled to it (which is part of my beef with them, and the other being that support is rubbish).

Voda 910 (and any of their offerings for my address) is CityFibre - my main line is already CityFibre and so I need it to be OpenReach or VM.

uscool · 1 Dec 2025 at 14:37

MrBukey said:
Ah thanks... That is slightly cheaper through TCB - however, as an existing customer I'm not entitled to it (which is part of my beef with them, and the other being that support is rubbish).

Voda 910 (and any of their offerings for my address) is CityFibre - my main line is already CityFibre and so I need it to be OpenReach or VM.

Can you not let it cancel and re sign up as a new customer?

MrBukey · 1 Dec 2025 at 14:43

uscool said:
Can you not let it cancel and re sign up as a new customer?

Potentially, but part of me thinks stuff 'em.

Their support is rubbish when things do go wrong, DOCSIS isn't as good as XGS-PON available elsewhere...

I totally get their business model of offering cheap packages to new customers to encourage them in, then hoping a certain amount of people just let it roll over, and offering a slight discount for those bothering to contact them to try and negotiate a deal.

But when there's such a disparity, they're really saying "we don't care too much about renewals, we've priced in what we can get away with". When I'd only got VM available around here for fast connections, I hadn't got much choice.

Now I have, even multiple carriers across different networks for main and backup line redundancy.

Ad_Augendae · 1 Dec 2025 at 20:43

Oh dear....
IN

OUT

Something has exploded :cry:

Nevakonaza · 5 Dec 2025 at 17:21

Anyone else's VM seem rather slow today?

Just running speed tests, I'm getting 47 Down ,32 Up.

Meant to be getting 350 Down & 35 Up.. which usually i do.

Duke · 5 Dec 2025 at 17:29

Nevakonaza said:
Anyone else's VM seem rather slow today?

Just running speed tests, I'm getting 47 Down ,32 Up.

Meant to be getting 350 Down & 35 Up.. which usually i do.

Same package and OK here

Nevakonaza · 5 Dec 2025 at 17:30

Duke said:
Same package and OK here

Seems back to normal now for me, I tried a different server on speed test (Manchester) and getting 385 Down / 38 Up.

thewanted · 11 Dec 2025 at 10:07

I cancelled my contract on Monday but haven’t heard anything from retentions yet.

How long does it usually take for them to contact you? I’ve opted into all of the marketing stuff.

southy1978 · 11 Dec 2025 at 12:36

They didn’t try to contact me. I’ve done that before and got a call from a uk based retentions team within 2 weeks of the cutoff, this time zero communication from virgin media.
I’m kind of glad I’m free of them. Went with a three business 5G broadband and getting 900+ down and 120 up for £21 a month.

AMDPower · 11 Dec 2025 at 12:57

southy1978 said:
They didn’t try to contact me. I’ve done that before and got a call from a uk based retentions team within 2 weeks of the cutoff, this time zero communication from virgin media.
I’m kind of glad I’m free of them. Went with a three business 5G broadband and getting 900+ down and 120 up for £21 a month.

How are you getting 900GB on mobile broadband LOL, are you sitting under the mobile mast? if I can get half these speeds I may switch to this.

yeah I am glad I left them too, they were oversubscribed in my area and could barely get 100mb download and 5mb upload most times during the day specially during peak on their 1gig internet. I would really like to go with Community fiber but they do not offer this in my area. Hyperopic are ok but they have offered me £35 a month to renew contract and £22.50 for new customers and then to raise the price to £37.50 after april.

thewanted · 11 Dec 2025 at 12:59

southy1978 said:
They didn’t try to contact me. I’ve done that before and got a call from a uk based retentions team within 2 weeks of the cutoff, this time zero communication from virgin media.
I’m kind of glad I’m free of them. Went with a three business 5G broadband and getting 900+ down and 120 up for £21 a month.

If I could do this, I would in a heartbeat while I wait for Openreach to install fibre. Unfortunately my house is in a black hole for every mobile network and I’m not prepared to install an external antenna for a stop-gap solution.

southy1978 · 14 Dec 2025 at 16:41

AMDPower said:
How are you getting 900GB on mobile broadband LOL, are you sitting under the mobile mast? if I can get half these speeds I may switch to this.

yeah I am glad I left them too, they were oversubscribed in my area and could barely get 100mb download and 5mb upload most times during the day specially during peak on their 1gig internet. I would really like to go with Community fiber but they do not offer this in my area. Hyperopic are ok but they have offered me £35 a month to renew contract and £22.50 for new customers and then to raise the price to £37.50 after april.

According to the cellmapper website and google maps i'm around 1.2km away from my nearest tower. I'm sure it would go higher but is limited by the 1Gbe ethernet port on the router. The signal to the router isn't even what i'd call brilliant with it going between -80 dBm & -85dBm, With an external antenna i'm sure i could get a really nice setup if it was a permanent soloution.

Loxa · 14 Dec 2025 at 17:15

Ive used VM for years, had some issues with them, being overcharged etc. Doesn't seem like much better out there tbh

AMDPower · 14 Dec 2025 at 18:24

southy1978 said:
According to the cellmapper website and google maps i'm around 1.2km away from my nearest tower. I'm sure it would go higher but is limited by the 1Gbe ethernet port on the router. The signal to the router isn't even what i'd call brilliant with it going between -80 dBm & -85dBm, With an external antenna i'm sure i could get a really nice setup if it was a permanent soloution.

do you live somewhere that is sparsely populated. I live in central london and assume that those speed are not attainable for me due to load balancing. Their website states max 150mb for their business plan, I may try it for 14 days.

Elevon · 15 Dec 2025 at 11:17

Glad I did not renew my contract two years ago with Virgin, I went with Community Fibre 1GB package and needed to renew that last week, got a decent deal for £25 a month until 2027 and the first month free as well for renewal.

Anybody in London area looking for a new broadband ISP, have a look at CF since they have some decent deals at the moment.

brightside229 · 15 Dec 2025 at 14:14

thewanted said:
I cancelled my contract on Monday but haven’t heard anything from retentions yet.

How long does it usually take for them to contact you? I’ve opted into all of the marketing stuff.

They never called me but sent me a text message saying they had a good deal after something like 15-20days - Nope they did not have a good deal lol. I had to cancel the service, wait for it to be disconected and then re-sign up in the same name but different email adress, and got the new customer price. was without internet for around 10 days

Been with them for probs 8 years and this is the first time i have had to do this.

thewanted · 15 Dec 2025 at 14:26

brightside229 said:
They never called me but sent me a text message saying they had a good deal after something like 15-20days - Nope they did not have a good deal lol. I had to cancel the service, wait for it to be disconected and then re-sign up in the same name but different email adress, and got the new customer price. was without internet for around 10 days

Been with them for probs 8 years and this is the first time i have had to do this.

Oh damn. Seems like they might be starting to take the tough guy approach.

I think I’m pretty close to going back to FTTC whilst I wait for Openreach to pull their finger out. I don't want another 24 month contract with VM, and I don’t want to pay their rolling contract prices either.

Gonna miss the speed, but not the packet loss.

Duke · 15 Dec 2025 at 19:22

thewanted said:
I think I’m pretty close to going back to FTTC whilst I wait for Openreach to pull their finger out. I don't want another 24 month contract with VM, and I don’t want to pay their rolling contract prices either.

I would take a year contract but nothing longer as OR have been digging in the local area for ages, so finally gives some options to VM sometime next year. My VM contract runs out in Jan. I can't easily get FTTC as I can't find any BT sockets anywhere in the house since moving here. I'm instead going to test EE 5G on my phone and if the speed/latency is okay I can maybe use that on a cheap router to tide me over until some options come up. Generally can't complain about my VM connection but it would be nice for gaming to have a little lower latency and better upload speed for work.

thewanted · 15 Dec 2025 at 20:39

Duke said:
I would take a year contract but nothing longer as OR have been digging in the local area for ages, so finally gives some options to VM sometime next year. My VM contract runs out in Jan. I can't easily get FTTC as I can't find any BT sockets anywhere in the house since moving here. I'm instead going to test EE 5G on my phone and if the speed/latency is okay I can maybe use that on a cheap router to tide me over until some options come up. Generally can't complain about my VM connection but it would be nice for gaming to have a little lower latency and better upload speed for work.

I was actually considering this earlier. I’ll probably take out a 12 month contract with PlusNet since they have a “fibre promise”.

VM have done a lot of work in our village recently installing those new small green boxes for fibre optic, so maybe within the next year that’ll become an option at which point it won’t be too expensive to get out of the short PlusNet contract.

EE’s FUP is too restrictive for us, and unfortunately our house is in a black hole for mobile signal on any network.