Virgin phone lines - any good?

Colliewobble_2

Hi

Not being able to afford to pay the £125 reconnection fee with BT I'm looking at Virgin as a phone provider as it's a significantly cheaper connection fee.

Are there any pitfalls though that I should consider before I go ahead?

I'd be grateful for others' experiences.

Many thanks in advance,

CW

macman

Shame about the significantly higher call charges...

Buzby

Nope - the use much of the same Telephone Exchange technology, so technically they are on a par. For some, their network is better quality-wise, (because it was built on a fibre backbone to district hubs). BT are getting round to this, but I believe VM still have the edge,

spike7451

Buzby wrote: »

Nope - the use much of the same Telephone Exchange technology, so technically they are on a par. For some, their network is better quality-wise, (because it was built on a fibre backbone to district hubs). BT are getting round to this, but I believe VM still have the edge,

Sort of correct,the main difference is you cannot have ADSL based broadband on a cable line as they work differently.Unlike BT,who use large PSTN Exchanges,VM use small roadside Mux set-up's which are usually in rings of eight.

ACDeag

Colliewobble wrote: »

Hi

Not being able to afford to pay the £125 reconnection fee with BT I'm looking at Virgin as a phone provider as it's a significantly cheaper connection fee.

Are there any pitfalls though that I should consider before I go ahead?

I'd be grateful for others' experiences.

Many thanks in advance,

CW

Call charges are much much higher. You can mitigate these by getting a Cable Saver plug in box from First Telecom.

http://www.firsttelecom.com/other-products/cable-saver

OldGreyFox

ACDeag wrote: »

Call charges are much much higher. You can mitigate these by getting a Cable Saver plug in box from First Telecom.

http://www.firsttelecom.com/other-products/cable-saver

You could also use http://www.18185.co.uk/mobilerates.php via their 0808 Freephone Number.

But is the op talking about VM cable or VM national?

Colliewobble_2

Many thanks for your replies.

I think I must mean Virgin media - it would be through a cable.

Will this restrict me to just having Virgin broadband though?

macman

Colliewobble wrote: »

Many thanks for your replies.

I think I must mean Virgin media - it would be through a cable.

Will this restrict me to just having Virgin broadband though?

Yes, for any other broadband service (ADSL) you need a BT line.

Buzby

spike7451 wrote: »

Sort of correct,the main difference is you cannot have ADSL based broadband on a cable line as they work differently

Why on earth would VM wish to suppord ADSL on their PSTN? At best a kludge and at worse, alchemy - ADSL was foisted on the public because there was no other way.

Unless of course, you also have a co-axial connection - and can provide BB down the same copper conductor that provides the bandwidth and contention rates BT would die for.

Buzby

Colliewobble wrote: »

Many thanks for your replies.

I think I must mean Virgin media - it would be through a cable.

Will this restrict me to just having Virgin broadband though?

It really is a no-brainer. Yes, you are restricted to VM's cable service, but since this has so many advantages over ADSL, not many would wish to downgrade to the ADSL limitations. Over the last 6 years I have had downtime of just 7 hours. That's impressive.