Virgin Media, one of the leading UK broadband providers, dominates in terms of speed. Fibre options range from 50 Mbits/sec to 1130 Mbits/sec, which exceeds even the fastest services from BT, EE, TalkTalk and Vodafone. Based on the results of this year’s Expert Reviews Best Broadband Awards, Virgin swept the Speed award by a wide margin. Virgin Media is the only national broadband provider with its own street-level network, so it can deploy its latest technology earlier and deliver higher performance than its Openreach-based competitors.
A shortlist of broadband providers should include Virgin Media broadband if speed is important to you. There are two things that may put you off Virgin Media. Firstly, it isn’t available in many areas, so if you live outside a major city, you may not be able to use it. Secondly, the customer service and support appear to be lacking. Customers of Virgin Media are relatively dissatisfied with customer service and value for money, and only 55% would recommend it to a friend, the lowest percentage of any major ISP.
Virgin Media Reviews M50, M100, M200, and M350
Virgin emphasizes speed above all else. Virgin offers its M50 fibre service, which boasts an advertised average speed of 54Mbits/sec, though upload speed is rather slow at just 5Mbits/sec. It is currently more expensive than the M100, M200, and M350 services, which have download speeds of 108Mbits/sec, 213Mbits/sec, and 362Mbits/sec, respectively, and upload speeds of 10 to 36Mbits/sec. Each of these plans comes with a setup fee of £35 per month, and they are all broadband-only plans. The cost of a landline and free weekend calls is approximately £9 per month, depending on your package.
Virgin Media Coverage Review
One of Virgin’s biggest problems is its lack of coverage, as many parts of the UK are inaccessible. In the UK today, services are available to about 60% of households, although not all of them are able to enjoy the fastest speeds. Although Gig1 covers only about half of Virgin Media’s national footprint, it still represents more than 7 million premises, with upgrades slated over the next few years.
Virgin Media’s Customer Satisfaction and Performance
Virgin’s latest speed test results for its fibre services are good, but Ofcom doesn’t cover Gig1 or its 900Mbit/sec OpenReach alternatives. BT’s 300Mbit/sec service is slower than the M350 and M500 services.
Virgin Media customers we surveyed had few complaints about speed. Over 37% are very satisfied with the speed of their connection, while another 41% are satisfied, putting Virgin ahead of every other major ISP surveyed. BT and Vodafone are the closest competitors. A strong point of the ISP is its reliability, as 70% of customers are satisfied.
Customer service at Virgin Media was rated as good by 37% of respondents, while value for money was rated as good by 34%. As a result, it is the lowest ranked of the major UK ISPs.