Overpriced Broadband

bwals92

I was paying £21 a month for my broadband from virgin media. I keep seeing advertisements for triple packages (phone, internet and TV) priced at around £20 a month. At the moment, I don't currently have an active phone line.

What's the cheapest way I could get more TV channels (than freeview) and broadband (with no usage cap or 10GB+). I don't require line rental but Sky are insisting that I take one out in order to use their broadband.

I'd love your help

What sky offered me:
Broadband 'lite' with a 2GB usage cap
Sky TV (variety pack), free sky+ box and dish installation
Line activation for £11 a month (knocked off £39 one off installation fee)

Total: £29 a month

jb66

You'll almost certanly go over the 2GB cap so add 7.50 to that bill

£36.50

jb66

Virgin L BB
Virgin m+ TV
Virgin M phone = £29.99

Or Broadband L and TV L no phone = £30.50

You cant magic the broadband into your house, so you need a phoneline if you wish to go with sky

Ypaymore

bwals92 wrote: »

I don't require line rental

You do if you want broadband.;)

Unless you subscribe to VM Broadband only, or mobile broadband you have no real choice.

penrhyn

jb66 wrote: »

You'll almost certanly go over the 2GB cap so add 7.50 to that bill

£36.50

.....and another £5/month if you do NOT take Sky Talk so it could be £41.50. Mind you that would mean keeping your line rental with BT.

kwikbreaks

Plus of course the broadband would be ADSL so at the mercy of the phone line length.

Is your VM deal starting to look a little better now?

lee636

Does the Virgin TV package work via a phone line or the optic cable? I only say this as there doesnt seem a way to have Virgin BB & TV without paying the exra £11.99 for the line rental as well.

penrhyn

Its an optical network as far as the end of street cabinet then its good old copper coaxial cable.

kwikbreaks

lee636 wrote: »

Does the Virgin TV package work via a phone line or the optic cable? I only say this as there doesnt seem a way to have Virgin BB & TV without paying the exra £11.99 for the line rental as well.

As penrhyn says the TV and broadband is delivered to the house through coax. If you take the phone that is actually a seperate cable.

VM do allow you to take their broadband without the phone but the cost saving is small as they then add ~ £10 to the BB price. VM phone prices are higher than the BT equivalent and you can't easily use CPS services. When I moved to cable I bought an analogue phone adaptor and use VOIP exclusively for all outgoing calls so VM get diddly squat from me for them

lee636

Thanks both. Is there a way you can view the price of having just BB & TV without the phone line on their site or would you have to call them to arrange that package?

On their site it seems to only allow you to make a bundle including the phone side of things.

spike7451

lee636 wrote: »

Does the Virgin TV package work via a phone line or the optic cable? I only say this as there doesnt seem a way to have Virgin BB & TV without paying the exra £11.99 for the line rental as well.

Both the Broadband & TV come over the same cable,ie Co-Ax.The Cable phoneline cannot support any type of broadband whatsoever as it works differently from the BT network.

penrhyn wrote: »

Its an optical network as far as the end of street cabinet then its good old copper coaxial cable.

Not strictly correct.It's Fibre Optic to the Mux & DA (Distribution Amp) simply known as the node<see pic>,from there it is copper to the street cabinet or DP (Distribution Point) & then on to your house.The copper may pass thru a few DP's before it get's to your home.These are amplified however the smaller E-Cabinets are not,these you'd usually find down cul-de-sacs & between DA's.
The Mux/DP can be up to 1/2 mile away from your home.

Spike (ex NTL/VM Service Engineer)

Simplified diagram of the network,slightly different to VM'S.