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What happens if I move outside the Virgin Media cable area?

Our Broadband Expert says...

Although Virgin Media (www.Virginmedia.com) offers some of the fastest broadband speeds in the country, the cable network that allows it to offer speeds of up to 50Mb and even 100Mb only covers around half the UK.

This means that if you don’t live in a cable area, you won’t be able to benefit from the superfast broadband speeds or the cable TV offered by Virgin Media.

Moving house with Virgin Media

While Virgin Media has a dedicated “movers team” on hand to arrange the transfer of your services when you move house, problems can arise when you're moving out of a cable area - as is the case in your situation.

If your new postcode is cabled you can simply take your services and your contract with you when you move.

If not, you will be offered the Virgin Media National Broadband service. Because its cable network doesn’t cover all of the country, Virgin Media uses the BT Wholesale copper wire network to offer packages outside of its superfast reach - and this is what the National Broadband service is.

However, because it uses traditional ADSL lines, you will be subject to the same speed issues that other copper wire broadband customers face - such as distance from the exchange, which can slow you down massively.

A Virgin Media spokesperson said: "We offer different services across the country depending on the location of our unique fibre-optic network. In some areas we offer our services via BT's network to ensure that as many customers as possible can benefit from our outstanding deals. This means that we can't always offer like-for-like options for people who move house between network areas, as BT's network is unable to supply our 50Mb and 100Mb services.”

Cable vs copper wire broadband

It’s no secret that cable broadband far outperforms older copper wires. Research from Ofcom in July 2011 showed that while Virgin Media’s cable customers were enjoying an average speed over 90% of their advertised speed, ADSL customers get less than half the top speed of 20/24Mb.

But Virgin Media recognises that its ADSL service isn’t going to rival its cable speeds. Rather than advertising a top speed, it says: “The truth is your broadband speed is limited by factors like the distance you live from the telephone exchange,” inviting customers to run a line speed check before signing up.

Moving out of the cable area

However, this doesn’t change the fact that you're moving out of the cable area. What this means for you is that you'll have to decide whether you would like to take your contract with you and use the National Broadband service, or pay a cancellation fee - even though Virgin Media cannot provide the 50Mb package you first signed up to at your new address.

While Virgin Media says speeds on its National service should be “in line with those of other ADSL providers”, some suppliers, such as O2 mobile broadband (www.O2.co.uk) do perform better than others so it’s always a good idea to get speed quotes from different providers before you sign-up.

Broadband cancellation fees

Previously, broadband customers had to pay the remainder of their contractual payments in order to leave their contract early, but that changed last year when Ofcom ruled that early termination fees must “reflect the costs that the providers save by no longer providing the service”.

This means that some of the biggest providers including Virgin Media, BT BT broadband (www.BT.com)and TalkTalk broadband (www.Talktalk.co.uk) had to lower their prices.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t necessarily mean that cancelling your contract will be cheap - the faster and more expensive your connection, the more you’ll have to pay.

Termination rates are charged on a monthly basis depending on how many months you have left on your contract - and the table below shows you how much it will cost you to leave Virgin Media.

* Virgin Media cable customers taking phone and broadband services will pay both cancellation charges.

While these fees are set by the regulator and are designed to be fair, if you are six months into a 12-month contract, it would still cost you £120 to leave - more if you signed an 18-month contract. This is obviously a disappointingly high amount of money.

Copper wire alternatives

On top of the slower speeds offered by copper wire providers, Virgin Media’s National Broadband service also lies at the expensive end of the scale.

Its Broadband L package, which comes with a 40GB download allowance costs £19.99 a month, while its Unlimited deal, which comes with a fair usage policy, costs £25.99 a month.

In contrast, TalkTalk’s Essentials deal offers the same speeds, the same technology and a 40GB download allowance with free evening and weekend UK landline calls for just £6.50 a month, plus line rental. And there are loads of other low-cost options available too - simply run a Postcode Search to find out what’s available in your new area.

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