Virgin Media M125 fibre broadband package

Dan Howdle | April 15th, 2024

The M125 is one of these packages, perfect for small households. With an average speed of 132Mbps, this package manages to top many competitors’ average speeds, despite being entry-level when compared to other Virgin Media services. We’ll cover the key points of the package in this quick guide, to help you decide if the M125 deal, and its features, is the right one for you.

Key features

Here’s the key information that you need to know about Virgin Media M125.

Price	£26 per month
Download speed	132Mbps
Upload speed	20Mbps
Broadband	Bespoke cable network
Home phone	None, Evening & Weekends, Anytime
Parental controls	Yes: WebSafe
Router	Virgin Media Hub 3
Packages available	Broadband only, Broadband & phone, Broadband, TV & phone
Contract length	18 months

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Full price breakdown

The Virgin Media bill credit will be applied to your first bill. Any remaining balance will be applied to subsequent bills until the credit is used.

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Who is Virgin Media M125 for?

The M125 package sits at the low end of Virgin Media’s broadband range, which offers package options between 54Mbps and the ultrafast 1130Mbps. M125 is a fine choice for small households, comfortable supporting 5-9 active devices at any given time. For lone dwellers, M125 should support online gaming, and streaming on multiple devices at once.

Here’s who we think will especially benefit from the M125 broadband package:

• Small families, and households of two to four occupants – 132Mbps should be plenty for the average household or shared flat. You may experience slower speeds at peak times, or when multiple devices are using data-intensive services like Netflix or Zoom, and may prefer to consider a package with higher speeds if this will be the case
• Freelance working – The M125 package is ideal for those living alone, especially those who work from home. The package offers ample speeds for conference calls, though upload speeds of 20Mbps mean larger files may take longer to upload. Access to wifi at over 3.5 million Virgin Media WiFi hotspots also means you can take your work on the go with ease
• Casual gamers – Gamers who play multiplayer online games should have a pretty seamless experience on the M125 package, and patches and updates should only take 5-10 minutes to download depending on size. Household with multiple gamers, or players who stream their gameplay online may wish to upgrade their package to M250 or M500 for an uninterrupted connection
• Home entertainment – Speeds on the M125 package are ideal for making use of popular video & music streaming platforms. Whether it’s catching up on the latest Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ shows, or casting music to every room in the house for your next party, M125 should suffice for most modern conveniences. Opt for a package with Virgin TV to maximise the range of TV series and movies available to you
• Short-term lets – Though far pricier than its fixed-term counterpart, the M125 package is also available on a rolling monthly basis, for those who need added flexibility, or who can’t commit to an 18-month contract

How does M125 compare?

Is M125 a good package for gamers?

While it may seem to be at the slower end of Virgin Media packages, you may be surprised to learn that gaming online (let's take a multiplayer FPS like Call of Duty as an example) can make do with as little as 1Mbps and still play fine. This is because the amount of data being transferred back and forth during gameplay is actually very, very small.

However, many gamers now download new titles rather than buy them off the shelf in a box, and these games can often be huge. And that's where speed is going to be more important and relates to how long you'll have to wait for your game to download. Here are some example download times of some recent(ish) videogame releases, along with how long they will take on a 132Mbps connection (which M125 offers):

Game Title	File Size (GB)	Download Time on 132Mbps
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	30 GB	31 minutes, 12 seconds
Red Dead Redemption 2	110 GB	2 hours, 2 minutes, 6 seconds
Call of Duty: Warzone	100 GB	1 hour, 51 minutes, 36 seconds
Cyberpunk 2077	70 GB	1 hour, 18 minutes, 5 seconds
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	60 GB	1 hour, 7 minutes, 12 seconds

The most important factor when gaming online is actually broadband quality, not speed. Jitter, latency and packet loss are the primary things broadband providers will want to minimise to provide a smooth gaming experience. Virgin Media is excellent in this respect.

What's included with M125?

As standard, Virgin Media’s broadband contracts have unlimited downloads and uploads, and there’s no quotas or data restrictions either. So no worrying about coming up short after a weekend-long Netflix binge or after downloading a large update to your favourite game.

The M125 package is supplied with the Virgin Media Hub 3. Now six years old, this router features standard networking features, but with Virgin now issuing Hub 4 and Hub 5 with more advanced packages, the Hub 3 doesn’t sport all current features. For example, Hub 3 uses Wi-Fi 5, now almost a decade old, with more current devices employing newer Wi-Fi 6 technology. Wi-Fi 5 will still serve you well on a package like M125, especially if you won’t have too many devices connected, and Hub 3 still offers impressive wifi coverage, even across larger spaces.

Your Virgin Media broadband connection is compatible with other routers, however, should you wish to buy your own and benefit from more advanced networking features, or a more reliable connection with a larger number of devices.

Virgin Hub 3 router specification

• Tried and tested wifi – The Wi-Fi 5 technology (802.11ac) used by the Virgin Media Hub 3 was first introduced in 2013, and has been the standard until the recent introduction of Wi-Fi 6 in devices like the Hub 5
• Intelligent channel selection – Hub 3 will identify the best connection for your device, selecting the fastest frequency and wifi channel available, automatically
• Smart wifi Technology – To ensure consistent wifii across the home, the Hub 3 monitors your network connections, and will boost the signal to devices it detects are further away from the router
• Dual band – Another industry standard, Hub 3 features one 2.4GHz band and one 5GHz band ensuring low data connections aren’t interrupted by larger, more data-intensive transfers
• Four wired connections – Hub 3 offers four gigabit Ethernet ports, allowing you to link up to four devices with wired connections, ensuring uninterrupted service. Great for consoles.
• Five antennae – Hub 3’s five antennae, though outnumbered by more recent routers, provides good wifi coverage in the home

Extras

Virgin Media’s Web Safe service is made up of two distinct features, Virus Safe & Child Safe. Virus Safe is your first level of protection against viruses, malware & websites known for phishing or hacking risks. Child Safe is Virgin’s customisable parental control feature, which can be used to block your kids from accessing unfriendly sites, or social media platforms. You can time-control when Child Safe is in effect, lifting restrictions after bedtime to allow you full access to all websites and services. Web Safe is a router feature, meaning its safety measures will apply to all connected devices at home. Likewise, this means it will not offer any protection outside the home, or when using Virgin Media WiFi hotspots in public.

For additional security on-the-go, broadband customers can benefit from Virgin Media Internet Security, powered by F-Secure. The award-winning protection can be installed on unlimited devices – provided they run iOS, Android, Windows or MacOS – and offers similar protection to Web Safe. The key difference is the service runs at device level, meaning virus scanning and parental controls can be configured and customised to suit each family member. Broadband customers can receive a free three-month trial of Virgin Media Internet Security, and the service costs only £30 per year after that, or £3 per month on a rolling basis.

Customers gain access to Virgin Media WiFi, Virgin’s public wifi service, which currently boasts over 3.5 million hotspots around the UK, plus over 20 million more worldwide, in all the places you might expect: airports, restaurants and bars, and even throughout the London Underground and Overground network. Use the Connect app to locate your nearest hotspot and take your work on-the-go.

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What we think

Virgin Media is a highly reputable supplier in the UK and services like the M125 offer good value for money plus speeds higher than other competitors, despite being an entry-level package. Virgin Media services are currently available to around 60% of UK households, and growing. With the unique benefit of managing its own fibre network, Virgin offers great speeds, and customers experience fewer service interruptions than competitors with FTTC connections.

Virgin Media’s M125 broadband package is dynamic, and can be bundled with a landline, Virgin TV services plus Netflix Standard included with certain packages, and/or a 5G mobile SIM deal, with impressive data allowances courtesy of O2. Virgin Media regularly refreshes its discounts and incentives on popular packages like M125 too, so savvy customers will benefit from tracking its current offers.