Broadband Guide

Virgin Media 30Mb broadband

Tuesday 1 February, 2011

By Garnet Roach - garnet@consumerchoices.co.uk

Want to get superfast broadband without breaking the budget? Sign-up to Virgin Media’s new 30Mb broadband service.

Virgin Media (www.Virginmedia.com), the UK’s second biggest broadband provider, launched a new 30Mb broadband package on 1 February 2011.

For no extra monthly cost, existing customers on the 20Mb XL package can upgrade to the faster service, though there is a one-off £30 charge for activation and the provider’s new SuperHub router.

Virgin Media also dropped the monthly cost of its XL package from £20 a month to just £18.50 when you take a cable landline - making it cheaper than BT’s 40Mb Infinity packages.

Superfast broadband speeds

Virgin Media says customers on its 30Mb broadband package can expect to receive at least 90% of their advertised speeds. It says that even though its advertised speed is lower than BT Infinity’s 40Mb broadband, “customers can enjoy a consistently faster, unlimited service, for significantly less than BT Infinity products”.

Because its runs its cables direct into your home, Virgin Media can deliver very fast, reliable speeds to the four million customers connected to its cable broadband network.

With the upgrade to its new package, Virgin Media now offers four cable broadband packages:

• 10Mb broadband
• 30Mb broadband
• 50Mb broadband
• 100Mb broadband.

Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media, says: “As consumers continually demand more and more from their broadband, the unique power of our next-generation network means that we’re able to turn up the dial to meet their needs.

“With so many devices connecting to the internet at home these days, our new 30Mb service will give Virgin Media families that extra boost needed to make everything run smoothly, with speeds that don’t slow down depending on where you live.”

Its new package will also come with “unlimited broadband” downloads, subject to a fair usage policy and up to 3Mb upload speeds.

What can I do with 30Mb broadband?

Running at full speed, Virgin Media’s new package will allow you to download:

• A music track in 1.6 seconds
• A MP3 album in 16 seconds
• A standard definition TV show in 93 seconds
• A 1.4GB high-quality movie in as little as 6.5 minutes.

Cheap superfast broadband

At £18.50 a month plus £13.90 line rental, Virgin Media’s 30Mb service costs a total of £377.88 over 12 months - though you might also have to pay a connection fee.

This compares to an annual total of £470.40 for BT Infinity Broadband users who pay £25.60 a month for their broadband, plus line rental.

However, Virgin Media’s cable network only covers around 51% of the country so you should make sure you compare broadband packages to make sure it’s available in your area.

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