About Virgin Media
Virgin Media is one of the most well known names in the UK broadband, TV and phone business, and the foremost provider of fibre optic broadband to UK consumers. With the addition of the Virgin Mobile brand they have become the only true “quad-play” provider in the UK.
Virgin offers its fibre optic broadband, cable TV and home phone services via its own cable network. This means that Virgin customers don’t need a BT land line to subscribe to cable products, and they can have all charges including their line rental on a single monthly bill.
Each of Virgin Media’s individual services have their own strengths and many of its 10,000,000 customers will just subscribe to one or two while others enjoy maximum convenience and value for money by opting for triple bundles of broadband, TV and phone.
Virgin Media Broadband
Virgin fibre optic broadband is amongst the fastest broadband services in the UK. In some areas it is available at up to 100Mb, while other more widely available packages have download speeds of between 30Mb to 60Mb. All of their fibre optic broadband packages include an unlimited monthly download allowance.
Virgin Media is widely celebrated for delivering actual “real world” broadband speeds much closer to the advertised “up to” speed than any other UK provider. This is partly due to these services across a dedicated fibre optic network which can maintain much higher speeds than any other broadband technology.
Videogamers can battle online via Xbox, PS3 or Wii with little or no lag time, making for a much more enjoyable online gaming experience. Virgin Media broadband also lets users stream movies and TV programmes at a much faster rate than any other broadband provider thus removing the annoying delays caused by buffering.
When customers subscribe to Virgin Media broadband they automatically qualify for free PC security software and a free Virgin wireless router. Subscribers to up to 10Mb Virgin broadband Size L and their National Broadband packages receive a standard wireless router, while subscribers to any of the faster packages qualify for a free super-fast wireless router which is designed to handle data transfer rates of above 100Mb for when broadband services at that speed become available in the UK.
Virgin Media TV
Virgin Media offers three different TV packages, each of which is available as a TV only package or as part of a bundle with broadband and home phone.
TV Size M+ is the most basic package. It features 75+ channels including the full Freeview selection plus Sky 1, Sky Living, The Discovery Channel and British Eurosport.
TV Size L has an impressive 115+ channels including all of those found in TV M+ plus Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, Discovery Science, SyFy and more.
TV Size XL has 175+ digital TV channels of digital TV. As you’d expect you get all of the great channels found in TV Size L along with a wide range of subscription favourites including Bio, Cartoon Network Too, Comedy Central Extra, Disney XD, ESPN, FX, History, Kerrang! and dozens more.
When you subscribe to one of these TV services in most cases you’ll receive a TiVo box. This set-top box offers fantastic flexibility as it can record three shows at a time, automatically record new programmes based on your previous watching habits and can even schedule a recording for up to 7 days into the past!
Virgin Media phone
There is also a range of Virgin Media phone services that can be taken as part of a bundle or on their own. With a phone service from Virgin you can avoid paying line rental to BT and enjoy some great money saving perks.
Phone Size M is only offered in bundles. Subscribing to this service, also known as Talk Weekends, gives you unlimited weekend calls to UK land lines and Virgin mobiles.
Phone Size L is available either as part of a bundle or as a standalone service. Phone L, or Talk Evening & Weekends, gives you unlimited calls to land lines and Virgin mobiles at evenings and weekends.
Phone Size XL, or Talk Unlimited, is also available as part of a bundle or as a standalone service. As the name suggests it gives you unlimited inclusive calls to landlines and Virgin mobiles all day, every day.
Virgin Media History
Virgin Media’s UK cable network was previously owned and operated by Telewest and NTL. After these two companies merged in 2007 they were incorporated into the Virgin Media brand alongside Virgin Mobile.
The company has since continued to go from strength-to-strength, undertaking a massive programme of cable rollout and launching the groundbreaking Virgin Broadband 100Mb.
