BT vs Virgin for bundles - questions

Vendavel

I'm trying to sort this out for my parents. Currently they're with BT for phone, broadband, freeview for TV. They would ideally like everything bundled. I've spent all day staring at the details, but there are a few things I couldn't quite figure out.

Seems like BT and Virgin work out about the same price for their basic TV/phone/broadband bundles (though Option 2 broadband for BT as we regularly exceed current 10GB data limit), roughly 30 quid a month plus box prices. Presumably we wouldn't have any problem getting the BT package as an existing customer, it's a bit vague on that point.

Now, Virgin looks much better for broadband and tv on demand, seeing as the basic Vision package is annoyingly pay per view (the thought of which is already making my eyebrow twitch).
- Can someone confirm for me whether watching things on your Vision+ box comes out of your 40GB broadband allowance or not?
- It says that TV Replay (and others) is not available on pay per view, so what is exactly, apart from films? I can't see a channel listing, but presumably it's not as good as Catch Up TV on Virgin which seems to be still included on the M+ package.
- Has anyone had any luck getting a free upgrade to the Bronze package from the retentions team?
Eurgh. Perhaps, if they stuck with BT, they'd be better off just buying a recordable set top box and ignoring Vision. But the package without tv is only 20 quid cheaper if I'm understanding correctly.

Is the Home Hub a substantially better piece of kit than it's Virgin counterparts in terms of wireless connection? I've had problems with Virgin routers before but that was a few years ago and I believe they send you a different model now. We currently get a low signal two floors up, it's a fairly old Belkin. Would either be any better?

If they went for Virgin, how much control would we have over how the cables are installed? TV and computer/phone are in different rooms, TV is at the front of the house and the phone line comes in the back. Parents not dead keen on the idea of loads of cables.

The other thing is that they both need new mobiles (cheapie ones), they're out of contract with dud old phones, and the 8.50 pay monthly Virgin Mobile deals for bundle customers seem pretty good.
- Does anyone know if you can get two Virgin Mobiles on this tariff linked to the same Virgin account, or is it limited to one?

Thanks for any advice! It's been a long day staring at small print. BT definitely get minus points for having a rubbish-to-navigate website. I used to have VM and quite liked it but they appear to have taken away all my favourite channels, and I have had installation problems with them before. I do wish there was a cheaper way to get the documentary channels!

Steph