Review of Virgin Media broadband 2022

UK broadband provider Virgin Media reigns supreme when it comes to speed. The company offers a full range of fibre options from 50 Mbits/sec up to 1130 Mbits/sec, which puts it above even the fastest services from BT, EE, TalkTalk and Vodafone. Those results are reflected in the results of this year’s Expert Reviews Best Broadband Awards, where Virgin swept the Speed award by a wide margin. The only nationwide broadband provider with its own street-level network is Virgin Media, which means it can deploy its latest technology earlier and deliver levels of performance that its Openreach-based competitors cannot.

Virgin Media broadband should be on your short list if speed is important to you. However, two things might turn you off. Firstly, it’s not available in many areas, so if you live outside a big city you may not be able to access it. The second issue is that customer service and support seem to be lacking. Virgin Media customers are relatively dissatisfied with customer service and value for money, and just 55% would recommend it to a friend; one of the lowest figures for any major ISP.

Virgin Media reviews the M50, M100, M200 and M350

Virgin emphasizes speed over anything else. Virgin starts with its M50 fibre service, which boasts an advertised average speed of 54Mbits/sec, though upload speed is rather slow at just 5Mbits/sec. Curiously, it is currently more expensive than the step-up 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. All of these come with a £35 setup fee per month, and they are all broadband only plans without line rental. The cost of a landline and free weekend calls is roughly £9 per month, depending on your package.

Coverage review for Virgin Media

Virgin’s biggest issue is its lack of coverage, as many parts of the UK are inaccessible. Right now, services are available to around 60% of UK households, although not all of them are able to enjoy the highest speeds. Gig1 only covers about half of Virgin Media’s national footprint, but still represents nearly 7 million premises, with upgrades planned over the next few years.

Customer satisfaction and performance of Virgin Media

The latest speed test results for Virgin’s fibre services are good, but Ofcom doesn’t cover Gig1 or its 900Mbit/sec OpenReach alternatives. M350 and M500 services post better speed results than BT’s 300Mbit/sec service.

The Virgin Media customers we surveyed had few complaints regarding speed. A total of 37% are very satisfied with the speed of their connection, while another 41% are satisfied, placing Virgin ahead of every other major ISP in the survey. Vodafone and BT are the closest competitors. The ISP’s reliability is another strong point, with 70% of its customers feeling satisfied.

Virgin Media’s customer service was only rated as good by 37% of respondents, while its value for money was rated as good by 34%. Both factors make it the lowest ranked of the major UK ISPs.