Virgin broadband best for existing customers?

barbara22

Have just invested in my first laptop, we are existing customers of Virgin Media for TV (XL package) and landline. Is my cheapest option for email, internet broadband going to be Virgin or are there alternatives which are less expensive?

All advice very much appreciated by a novice in laptop use and home computing generally.

penrhyn

If you are on cable then yes.

victor2

Look at their "bundles" offering all 3 services at a competitive price. You may have to phone them to discuss the best deal you can get as an existing customer, but in my experience it'll be worth it.

barbara22

Yes penrhyn, we were one of the first in the area to get cables put down, and signed up immediately - I think it was Birmingham Cable or Telewest then and a good cheap deal!

Virgin seem to have increased prices slowly, for all their friendly sweet-talk.... hence my original question. It seems the obvious answer, but things can be deceptive - please excuse my cynicism and thank you.

barbara22

victor2 wrote: »

Look at their "bundles" offering all 3 services at a competitive price. You may have to phone them to discuss the best deal you can get as an existing customer, but in my experience it'll be worth it.

I agree this seems like a good route to take, especially re phoning them - just concerned that sometimes you feel like you're talking to a pre-programmed robot sometimes, they have just their little crib sheets and can't think outside them! Have you had a similar experience?

victor2

I know what you mean, it may take more than one call to get a human capable of real thought!
As it's a cable service, you are much more likely to get speed closer to the advertised maximum than with other landline based providers, for which you would presumably need to have a landline installed too. I have a 10Mb line and frequently get 8 to 9Mb download speeds reported by speedtest.net. Mind you, I've just tested it and got 5.1Mb/s, but even that is faster than many similarly rated landlines give. Their upload speed has been creeping up as well. From the typical 300-400Kb/s, it's now reporting 1.0Mb/s. Of course, that's only relevant if you're going to be doing a lot of uploading, like sending photographs to an online gallery or printing service.

barbara22

Victor2, our landline is with Virgin also - the monthly line rental is mind-boggling considering we hardly ever use it! Trouble is when you buy online and also for other services, organisations seem to find it suspicious if you can't provide a landline number.

Sort of brings me to another question, laptops are by nature 'cable' (wire) free - I know I'm being dim but how exactly does this fit in to the equation?

Just for info, I shall be off the internet in a few minutes - will be back in the morning, not being uncivil or ignoring good advice!

penrhyn

Bear in mind that if you want ADSL broadband you would need a BT land line installed/connected. The speed you would get being dependent on your distance from the exchange.
This could cost you £125, then around £11/month line rental+ whatever your chosen ISP may charge say £15/month.
So if Virgin offer you something at less than £25/month extra to waht you already have then you could be getting a decent deal.

victor2

barbara22 wrote: »

Victor2, our landline is with Virgin also - the monthly line rental is mind-boggling considering we hardly ever use it! Trouble is when you buy online and also for other services, organisations seem to find it suspicious if you can't provide a landline number.

Sort of brings me to another question, laptops are by nature 'cable' (wire) free - I know I'm being dim but how exactly does this fit in to the equation?

Just for info, I shall be off the internet in a few minutes - will be back in the morning, not being uncivil or ignoring good advice!

I have 10Mb Broadband and phone with Virgin and pay £25.98 rental for both per month thanks to a "loyalty BB/Phone" bundle I got from them. The phone includes anytime free calls to 01 and 02 numbers for calls up to 1 hour, caller display and a few other odds and ends, and works out pretty well. I don't have TV with them and am quite happy with Freeview. One of their call centre based automatons told me I'd have to pay an installation fee to have TV - it was beyond him to understand that the cable was already there and I was speaking to him through it, so I gave up.

They offer a free wireless router with their current broadband, so you should be able to get that and use your new laptop wirelessly.:)

barbara22

penrhyn wrote: »

Bear in mind that if you want ADSL broadband you would need a BT land line installed/connected. The speed you would get being dependent on your distance from the exchange.
This could cost you £125, then around £11/month line rental+ whatever your chosen ISP may charge say £15/month.
So if Virgin offer you something at less than £25/month extra to waht you already have then you could be getting a decent deal.

Got to go, but I have to say I don't know what ADSL is! Probably best if I explore with Virgin and see if I can get any sense out of them.....

Lokolo

barbara22 wrote: »

Got to go, but I have to say I don't know what ADSL is! Probably best if I explore with Virgin and see if I can get any sense out of them.....

Theres 2 types of "transferring" internet.

ADSL and Cable.

Most use ADSL (BT/O2/Orange/TalkTalk), Virgin use Cable.