Switching from Virgin Media without a new line
Comments
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Just get rid of your landline and go VM BB only. Landlines are yesterday. I got rid of the tv too and just went Freeview and Amazon Prime. Happy days.0
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Yes, but the alternative is having to pay for a complete new physical installation as well as the loss of their telephone number etc.The OP wants to leave VM due to poor service , getting a better price isn't on its own going to improve that.
As you point out, if the service has been that bad then there may be no realistic alternative than leaving.
(Just as an aside, why have you "quoted" me stating things I never said? That sentence about Openreach is not mine. :mad: )0 -
Yes, but all that work was an investment in an already "captive" customer base. Virgin were never a monopoly in the same manner as BT (formerly the Post Office) were.onomatopoeia99 wrote: »Yes the predecessor companies spent a lot building the network, much as the GPO and subsequently BT spent a lot building theirs,
Telcos are one area in which competition really has benefitted the consumer...0 -
Moneyineptitude wrote: »Yes, but all that work was an investment in an already "captive" customer base. Virgin were never a monopoly in the same manner as BT (formerly the Post Office) were.
Telcos are one area in which competition really has benefitted the consumer...
Virgin were granted ( as were satellite TV providers ) a leg up in the pay TV market , BT were not allowed for decades to enter the 'broadcast tv' market , so the cable company's USP was cable TV and phone service, ' but it's ridiculous to state the cable TV industry invested in building a network so should still be exempt from rules that their competitors have to abide by, after all their competitors shareholders invested in their network, just the same as VM invested in theirs.
Has the consumer benefitted ?, compared to Gas and Electricity , yes, but electronics get cheaper and smaller all the time, so even if BT were not privatised prices would have probably (in real terms ) reduced ...and if 'BT' were not privatised chances are the vast majority of the country would be fibre to the home by now0 -
I don't agree. The small local cable companies largely bankrupt themselves cabling not even the whole country. BT's customers were already connected by a network paid for long ago by the nationalised Post Office. The cable companies had to start from scratch, unlike BT.it's ridiculous to state the cable TV industry invested in building a network so should still be exempt from rules that their competitors have to abide by, after all their competitors shareholders invested in their network, just the same as VM invested in theirs.
While Virgin have certainly benefitted from all this investment, they are still paying legacy debt which amounts to £billions.
As to speculation that BT would have reduced prices and provided fibre to the home for the majority, I'm very sceptical that either of those would have happened even if privatisation had not happened.0 -
If you go thru the virgin cancellation process and ditch tv you can play less than £30
They will give you options with and without tv. So think about what you are happy to pay before hand
Happy to get rid of the TV service, it's really no different from Freeview anyway, I only took it because they told me there was no extra cost in taking it (not sure that is still the case).0 -
worried_jim wrote: »Just get rid of your landline and go VM BB only. Landlines are yesterday. I got rid of the tv too and just went Freeview and Amazon Prime. Happy days.
No I do actually use it. Where I live I cannot get a mobile signal reliable enough to hold a conversation without it constantly breaking up.0 -
Moneyineptitude wrote: »Yes, but the alternative is having to pay for a complete new physical installation as well as the loss of their telephone number etc.
As you point out, if the service has been that bad then there may be no realistic alternative than leaving.
(Just as an aside, why have you "quoted" me stating things I never said? That sentence about Openreach is not mine. :mad: )
The issue is primarily one of reliability - I keep getting the same fault on the phone and although engineers will "fix" it, the same fault will invariably come back. In fact I think it is weather related. It seems to go wrong after heavy rain, the line initially crackles badly but you can still use it (just). Then it gets to the state outgoing calls can't be made (the phone at the other end never rings). Incoming calls cause the phone to ring, but if you answer it, you just get cracking whilst the caller at the other end hears it still ringing.
The reason I think it is weather related is that it went wrong after a couple of days of heavy rain, but started working normally again a few days later. I suspect water is getting into the box in the street as my neighbour, also on Virgin Media, has similar issues.
I've already had the cable under the front garden replaced and it made no difference at all. Not sure why this fault does not seem to impact the TV or broadband, maybe they use different wiring or something.
I had a look around and there is an old BT telephone point behind the TV (old enough it has the old "T" logo, the one they used before the "pipers" logo, which I think dates it to at least 1991). There isn't (unsurprisingly) a dial tone if I plug a phone into it so not sure if that line would be in any fit state or if I'd have to get a new one. Mind you the Virgin telephone socket actually has an NTL logo so must also be quite old.0 -
In the mid 80s, BT offered to convert the whole local loop to cable (much as VM use now), at their own / their shareholders expense, if the government would guarantee that they would retain monopoly access to their own network like the cable companies had / have.Moneyineptitude wrote: »As to speculation that BT would have reduced prices and provided fibre to the home for the majority, I'm very sceptical that either of those would have happened even if privatisation had not happened.
The government refused. This lead to the competitive market over BT lines that we now have, but meant we still have twisted pair copper phone lines for our broadband.Proud member of the wokerati, though I don't eat tofu.Home is where my books are.Solar PV 5.2kWp system, SE facing, >1% shading, installed March 2019.Mortgage free July 20230 -
you don't save any money ditching a VM phone anyway.
Well not a significant amount anyway0
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