Gabriel Vanca | April 15th, 2024

Virgin Media M350 fibre broadband

Virgin Media is one of the UK’s leading ultrafast broadband providers, offering speeds from 50Mbps all the way to 1Gbps, in both broadband-only packages as well as bundled well with phone, TV or O2 mobile SIMs.

The M350 package is one of Virgin Media's mid-tier broadband packages, but still faster than what most households can get from other providers. In this quick guide, we’ll take a look at what the package is offering and help you figure out if it’s the right deal for you.

Key features

Here’s a quick summary at what you can expect to find with Virgin Media M350.

M350 Fibre Broadband

New customers only 36Mb upload speed 99.86% network reliability

More Info

• 362Mb average speed
• Unlimited monthly downloads
• Zero one-off cost
• 18 month contract
• No phone line

£35.00 per month (prices may change during contract)

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£35.00 per month (prices may change during contract)

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Who is Virgin Media M350 for?

With Virgin Media, customers can choose any package between the entry-level 50Mbps package and up to the ultrafast 1130Mbps Gig1 tier. The M350 sits in the middle and is going to be a good fit for many households. You will have no trouble videoconferencing, streaming videos, movies, music and gaming.

Here’s a quick rundown of who should especially be looking to get the M350 broadband package:

• Households with 3-4 occupants – The more people there are in your home, the higher is the broadband speed you will need
• Gamers – While online multiplayer games require only very low speeds (most console manufacturers recommend 3-5Mbps download and 2Mbps upload), having a higher speed ensures both that other devices running in your household are less likely to stifle your connection, but also that large games and game updates/patches can be downloaded much faster.
• Multiple streaming devices – Most streaming platforms, like YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+, require a minimum of 20-25Mbps, but realistically you are going to need to go higher than that for a consistent experience. Furthermore, some of the smaller streaming platforms can require even up to double those speeds
• Cloud storage – If you rely on a cloud storage platform such as iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive to store/backup your photos and files, the M350 package offers a great combination of download and upload speeds to make using these services painless.
• Lots of devices – If your home has lots of network devices, it’s always better to go for a higher speed package. The M350 should be just right for most people’s requirements
• Amateur content creators and live streamers – If you are streaming content that you create or you are uploading such content online, you’ll want to pay extra attention to your upload speeds. Twitch, Facebook Live and YouTube Live require a minimum upload speed of 6Mbps for a 1080p stream, the same as the minimum speed recommended to upload a video on YouTube

How does M350 compare?

What's included with M350?

As it most UK providers, you’ll get unlimited downloads and uploads with no quotas or data restrictions.

The service comes with the 6 years old Hub 3 router. It has many basic networking features, but doesn’t provide the latest generation of WiFi 6 technologies, still relying on the decade-old WiFi 5. That is still going to be fine for most of your devices for now, and the Hub 3 offers surprisingly good wifi coverage for even larger homes. However, if you’re looking to connect multiple devices, better wifi, or more advanced networking features, you may wish to consider buying and adding your own additional router.

Virgin Hub 3 router specification

• Next generation WiFi – The Hub 3 uses the ubiquitous wireless standard WiFi 5 (802.11ac) introduced in 2013
• Smart channel selection – The Hub automatically connects your devices to the fastest WiFi channel and frequency available
• Intelligent WiFi Technology – The router checks your network connections, ensuring WiFi is shared fairly between devices and boosts the signal to devices which are further away from the router
• Dual band – Like most modern routers, the Hub 3 uses one 2.4GHz band and one 5GHz bands
• Four gigabit ethernet ports – The Hub 3 has four gigabit Ethernet ports, so you can wire directly 4 different devices
• Five antennae – The Hub 3 has five antennae. This is fewer than some of its competitors, but, in practice, WiFi coverage is quite good

Extras

Virgin Media’s broadband services come with Web Safe, which acts as both parental control (known as Child Safe) and protection against dangerous websites known to host malware (known as Virus Safe). Child Safe is customisable and can also block social media platforms or any other websites, or can be used to time-control access to certain websites and online services. It should be noted that, as Web Safe is a router feature, it only works on the broadband at home and it will not offer any protection when using Virgin Media WiFi, the somewhat confusingly named public wifi service.

Also included with Virgin Media’s broadband packages is a three months trial of Virgin Media Internet Security, formerly known as F-Secure SAFE. Usually, this costs £3 per month or £30 per year. The software is installed on your devices and scans for viruses and blocks access to dangerous or parental-restricted websites. The parental control can be set to work at the device-level rather than for the entire household, as is the case with Child Safe. The software can be installed on an unlimited number of devices running Windows, MacOS, Android and iOS.

Virgin Media WiFi is an on-the-go public wifi service that allows you to connect to over 3.5 million wifi hotspots around the UK, including cafes, bars, restaurants, airports and, notably, almost all London Underground stations and most Overground stations.

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What we think

All the Virgin Media broadband packages come highly recommended. Virgin Media provides good value for money and often far higher speeds than other competitors. That’s provided of course that you live in areas where Virgin Media services are available (over 50% of UK households). The speeds are great, and there are fewer service interruptions than most of their FTTC-based competitors.

Virgin Media’s broadband can also be packaged with a landline, Virgin TV, and/or a mobile SIM that comes with a generous amount of data and takes advantage of O2’s network, including 5G support. You should also keep an eye on Virgin Media’s frequent discounts on their packages as sometimes a package including phone service might end up being cheaper than a broadband-only package, while, other times, they might offer shopping vouchers.