Compare Virgin Media Packages in Gloucestershire

Virgin Media is one of the UK's biggest home entertainment and communications providers. It offers mobile phone services (both pay as you go and contract); land line telephone services; broadband internet services; and digital and analogue TV services.

Virgin Media can trace its history to Croyden Cable in the early 1980s, which expanded throughout the UK by acquiring regional franchises, becoming Telewest in the mid 1990s. NTL had done a similar thing in other parts of the country around a similar time, and the companies were able to combine services in 2005 with a takeover of Telewest by NTL, allowing them to operate throughout the country.

The company continued to operate the separate brands in separate areas until shortly afterwards a further merger was agreed with Virgin Mobile. This now allows for 'quadruple play' services (NTL/Telewest had previously only offered internet, land line and TV services) and allowed the company to make use of the expertise and goodwill associated with Richard Branson's Virgin brand.

The company offers one of the UK's most popular broadband services, which was previously known as the 'Blue Yonder' service from Telewest. A telephone line is not required for Virgin Cable Broadband, although there is a discount for customers taking the service alongside a Virgin phone line or Virgin TV.

The company introduced what is said to be the UK's fastest maximum broadband service in late 2008, offering speeds of up to 50 MB per second, gaining widespread media attention. For those living outside a cable area, the company also offers broadband delivered via a standard phone line (similar to other 'ADSL' broadband providers, e.g. Tiscali, Orange), and there are still bundle packages available if you combine this with Virgin's telephone service.

Virgin's TV service offers the opportunity to receive over 50 extra channels, including music, entertainment, documentary, news, childrens', food, movies, sports and world channels. Virgin customers also have access to premium movie and sports channels (e.g. Sky Sports), making it a competitor with satellite for those who want a range of channels.

There are smaller packages available for those who want the core channels only, which can work out very cheap when combined with telephone or internet. Virgin also offers some of the latest digital technology to TV customers.

The company has 'catch up' services, via BBC iPlayer, Catch Up TV, and its pay per view service, which offers movies and one-off events, often exclusive to regular channels. Virgin's V+ service allows customers to pause, rewind, and store TV channels, which means you can record one or two channels at the same time as watching another. This can also be combined with the TV schedule function, ensuring that you never miss an episode of your favourite programme.

The company offers a choice of phone packages, all of which offer some degree of free calls (e.g. may be off-peak, weekends only, any time etc., dependent on package), which may be a similar cost to packages with other providers that do not include any free calls. Phone packages are especially competitive with other providers when combined with internet or TV. For mobile phone users, there are also special packages available exclusively for customers of another Virgin Media service (e.g. broadband), with special prices on contract deals and sim-only offers.