Virgin Media Discussion Thread

whitecrook · 28 Jan 2026 at 17:20

Vertigo said:
I was under the impression that VM had committed to upgrading their whole network to fibre by 2028?

Also, as I said, the secondary fibre box was installed in our street over a year ago. Why would they install it if they weren't going to offer fibre?

No idea about 2028. If they installed a fibre box in your street and you already have coax, then maybe they just aren't going to offer fibre to /you/. But other houses in your street may not be served by coax. (and i guess if they want to do fibre by 2028 as you say then maybe they won't install new coax anywhere now?)

In my experience, all of these availability map/checker sites are hopelessly inaccurate and I pay little attention to them.

My experience too....

I don't really need any more speed and it was the synchronous aspect that was most appealing so no real point switching, especially with the Hub 5x not supporting modem mode.

People (that care enough) are using SFP+ modules that replace the hub5x apparently with good results these days.

aaronyuri said:
CGNAT isn't a problem unless you are hosting services yourself. For standard Internet usage, CGNAT works a treat. If you are hosting services, you can usually pay to have a static IP from most alt nets.

Unfortunately (or not) I do, I have a business VM account and i do a lot of remote stuff, with site to site vpn and other things that I just don't need CGNAT interfering with. Virgins Static IP system is also insane. I go with the dynamic IP but it's extremely sticky. It hasn't changed in years. Except when I change my device which happened when I upgraded to 1/100 last month and i plugged a udm se in.

ChrisD. · 28 Jan 2026 at 18:58

whitecrook said:
Unfortunately (or not) I do, I have a business VM account and i do a lot of remote stuff, with site to site vpn and other things that I just don't need CGNAT interfering with. Virgins Static IP system is also insane. I go with the dynamic IP but it's extremely sticky. It hasn't changed in years. Except when I change my device which happened when I upgraded to 1/100 last month and i plugged a udm se in.

They generally follow the MAC address (interface) of whatever is connecting, if you plug your old device in you might get the old IP back unless it’s been put back in the pool.

whitecrook · 28 Jan 2026 at 19:05

ChrisD. said:
They generally follow the MAC address (interface) of whatever is connecting, if you plug your old device in you might get the old IP back unless it’s been put back in the pool.

yes this is correct. i don't usually clone my macs as it doesn't matter too much to me what my ip is, just that it's accessible and doesn't change all the time.

Vertigo · 28 Jan 2026 at 19:24

whitecrook said:
No idea about 2028. If they installed a fibre box in your street and you already have coax, then maybe they just aren't going to offer fibre to /you/. But other houses in your street may not be served by coax. (and i guess if they want to do fibre by 2028 as you say then maybe they won't install new coax anywhere now?)

Britain's Virgin Media 02 to upgrade network to fibre by 2028

British cable and mobile provider Virgin Media O2 said it would upgrade its entire network serving 15.5 million premises to full fibre by 2028, stepping up its challenge to BT (BT.L) in rolling out ultrafast connections.

www.reuters.com

whitecrook said:
People (that care enough) are using SFP+ modules that replace the hub5x apparently with good results these days.

Yes which is likely what I'd do if and when the time comes.

whitecrook · 28 Jan 2026 at 19:37

Vertigo said:
Britain's Virgin Media 02 to upgrade network to fibre by 2028

British cable and mobile provider Virgin Media O2 said it would upgrade its entire network serving 15.5 million premises to full fibre by 2028, stepping up its challenge to BT (BT.L) in rolling out ultrafast connections.

www.reuters.com

I just spent all of 2 minutes looking in to this. That link btw is very old 2021 and refers to project lighting. This was the expansion of their network. It seems now that there is something called project Mustang, and this is the migration/upgrade of existing coax to fibre. And its supposed to be done by 2028 when they will turn off the coax. So I guess from my POV, i will keep the 1/100 going until 2028 and then either upgrade to the 'FULL FIBAH' or check out alternatives.

Vertigo · 28 Jan 2026 at 19:45

whitecrook said:
I just spent all of 2 minutes looking in to this. That link btw is very old 2021 and refers to project lighting. This was the expansion of their network. It seems now that there is something called project Mustang, and this is the migration/upgrade of existing coax to fibre. And its supposed to be done by 2028 when they will turn off the coax. So I guess from my POV, i will keep the 1/100 going until 2028 and then either upgrade to the 'FULL FIBAH' or check out alternatives.

Yeah, whatever they're calling it, the plan is clearly to phase out HFC as it's now ancient and limited tech.

Broken Hope · 28 Jan 2026 at 20:59

They are definitely adding new cabs and such in Nottingham and that has always been coax, they have been ramping up over the past few months adding more and more fibre cabs.

MarkeR · 29 Jan 2026 at 08:47

Upgrade offer for my 1gig, £1 less than I am paying just now for the next year, then £2 more April 2027. Accpeted it in the offers section of my account, cost over the two years is near my hourly rate, absolute no brainer to accept than arguing over the phone to someone..

aaronyuri · 29 Jan 2026 at 09:48

MarkeR said:
Upgrade offer for my 1gig, £1 less than I am paying just now for the next year, then £2 more April 2027. Accpeted it in the offers section of my account, cost over the two years is near my hourly rate, absolute no brainer to accept than arguing over the phone to someone..

Call during work hours! Get paid and save money...

chrcoluk · 30 Jan 2026 at 14:47

Yeah apparently the India IT team have finally done a fix to allow Mustang areas with a coax installation to order FTTP.

But of course many areas have not yet had the works done (such as my area).

These coax areas do still benefit from a much more competitive gig1 package though, as gig2 is now the flagship.

Also I noticed on smallprint for the netflix offer, if you already have a netflix account thats not the basic ads included account, they will still take over the billing of the account, so better value than having them give you a new netflix account which is just the bottom tier.

Slackworth · 30 Jan 2026 at 18:01

It's weird currently - on my street we were part of the Mustang original trial area in Stoke so the box has been installed for a long time now but never been offered an upgrade to Gig2, nor does it offer it online even as a new customer "moving" into our address. However if I select a house which doesn't have Virgin at all currently in the same street, it offers me Gig2 as an option. Just seems they want to avoid having to rip out the Coax at this stage in favour of looking after new customers (standard)!

Does the Gig2 option support Modem only mode yet as I know that was an issue for the Hub5X?

aaronyuri · 30 Jan 2026 at 18:06

Slackworth said:
Does the Gig2 option support Modem only mode yet as I know that was an issue for the Hub5X?

Modem mode is unreliable as hell and limits you to a 1Gb port on the 5x anyway. The better option is an SFP-PON and your own router. See: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/virgin-xgs-pon-thread.19010232/

Slackworth · Saturday at 09:33

Ah nice, thanks for the heads-up. I might ring and see if I can get us changed to Gig2 when the contract is up in March then as OR are still 12 months off installing FTTP.

Noxia · Wednesday at 23:56

Roads currently being dug up for Openreach 1.6GB. Will be nice to not just have Virgin as n option for a gig or more.

whitecrook · 2026-02-05T14:24:23+0000

Slackworth said:
It's weird currently - on my street we were part of the Mustang original trial area in Stoke so the box has been installed for a long time now but never been offered an upgrade to Gig2, nor does it offer it online even as a new customer "moving" into our address. However if I select a house which doesn't have Virgin at all currently in the same street, it offers me Gig2 as an option. Just seems they want to avoid having to rip out the Coax at this stage in favour of looking after new customers (standard)!

Does the Gig2 option support Modem only mode yet as I know that was an issue for the Hub5X?

Virgin are installing as part of mustang across the country. But they aren't gonna 'turn it on' until they can fully offer it nationwide or something. With the exception being apparently that if you don't already have virgin then they may activate you as a new customer, but if you already have coax then no chance until they decide to switch on, which we dont know when this is yet, but it seems to have a deadline of 2028.

So yes, they are not interested in upgrading or allowing existing customers to get fibre. Only new customers. Existing customers need to wait until 'they are ready' which could mean until Bob in the city 200 miles away can get it then they will switch it on in you street.

Slackworth · 2026-02-05T14:32:06+0000

That's annoying but always been the same that new customers get the best deals and new products first where Virgin is concerned. I don't particularly want to leave Virgin totally as both Sky's and Virgin's new TV offering with Streaming boxes only isn't what I want as I like old school recording. That said, if you can't offer us their Gig2 service, I'll jump to Lightspeed or OR are due to install some time this year as well.

whitecrook · 2026-02-05T14:34:19+0000

Slackworth said:
That's annoying but always been the same that new customers get the best deals and new products first where Virgin is concerned. I don't particularly want to leave Virgin totally as both Sky's and Virgin's new TV offering with Streaming boxes only isn't what I want as I like old school recording. That said, if you can't offer us their Gig2 service, I'll jump to Lightspeed or OR are due to install some time this year as well.

do you have a sat dish ? Just get a freesat box and ditch sky/virgin tv, unless you need the premium channels i guess.

Slackworth · 2026-02-05T14:37:22+0000

We watch a few premium channels but probably around 80% Freeview/sat channels like the main 5 plus Dave etc. We don't have a dish already so would need to install one. I'd probably ditch the TV from Virgin but the rest of the family watch more premium stuff so outvoted on that one. That said we only have the package we do with Sports and Movies because Virgin gave us a decent deal. If I was paying full price it would be gone in seconds!

uscool · 2026-02-06T16:43:02+0000

Decent deal currently on
Virgin Media Fibre Broadband 1Gig (1Gbps) £23.99pm (24m) £27.99 (April 27) + £110 Bill Credit

No April 26 increase, making it £21.41 per month through the 24 months

Was on virgin media before can't complain about the service had the older hub in modem only and used my own router do they now give hub 5 which can be put into modem only ? Hub 5x is the one you can't ?