Trapped with Virgin Media fibre! 8 December 2021 at 5:20PM in Broadband & internet access 12 replies 1.2K views

Diatomicgrunt

Hi everyone,
I live on an estate, it's about 20 years old, just a couple of houses off the main road. The internet speeds around here are ~3mb For years there was no fibre broadband. Up until about 5 years ago when Virgin routed cables and we could have super fast speeds.
I've been with them since however...
They basically have a fibre monopoly and every year they raise the prices and try as I may I can't haggle it down by much as I can't move anywhere. They have started calling my bluff now and don't offer me any discount as they know I can't move.
My current price is up for renewal at £33 a month and it's jumping to £48 in the new year!

I literally have no alternative to move to for actually usuable internet (more the 5 mb).

Is this a monopoly? Any advice on what I should do?
Chris

Neil_Jones

The upgradeability of Openreach provided exchanges depends on the demand and the roll out of the programme.  Your estate/exchange will get upgraded eventually.  but if you want faster speeds and Virgin are the only provider in town that can offer them, that's the way the cookie crumbles until Openreach rock up with new hardware.

So your choices are:  Move away from Virgin at the expense of speed, or stay with Virgin if you want the speed.  Look into mobile internet as well, you may be surprised.  It is not a "monopoly" as such as you can get services from other BT line based providers albeit at slower speeds.  Its not like a Kingston Upon Hull situation which is a true monopoly due to historic reasons, though that will be ending soon anyway.

anotheruser

Call their bluff.
When you're out of contract, say you want to leave.  Just say it's too expensive.
They (should) offer some sort of deal but you have a 30 days notice period.  During that 30 days, they are likely to call with another deal.

During this 30 days, start another order with another BB operator.  Yes, the speed will be rubbish but you will have a 14 day cooling off period with them before anything happens anyway.

Fiddle the cooling off and notice periods but always be pre-pared to leave Virgin Media.
They will know they have a monopoly.

While this has no bearing on anything, I have 200Mb Fibre BB and pay something like £25 a month for it.
The last time, I had already set up TalkTalk broadband and even had it installed before the 30-day notice period for VM had finished.  But TalkTalk had a modem and router, I didn't have enough plug sockets so took VM up on their last deal they offered.

matelodave

It might be worth exploring 4G/5G if you have a decent mobile signal where you live - even I can get around 20mbit's with Three out in the fenland of East Cambridgeshire using a MiFi unit or even a mobile phone. Possibly even more with an external antenna

tamste

WRT 4G/5G, what puts me off is not knowing what my actual data requirements are, as I have never measured them. Any clues on what folks use would be good. I don't do a lot of streaming, so mainly browsing and email

FreeBear

anotheruser said: Call their bluff.
When you're out of contract, say you want to leave.  Just say it's too expensive.
They (should) offer some sort of deal but you have a 30 days notice period.  During that 30 days, they are likely to call with another deal.

Do you have a landline phone number with "free" line rental as part of your VM package ?

Go through the motions of signing up with another phone provider, and as soon as VM get a number migration request, they'll be back offering you a better deal.

I'm currently paying £25 per month on a 2 year contract.

JJ_Egan

tamste said:

WRT 4G/5G, what puts me off is not knowing what my actual data requirements are, as I have never measured them. Any clues on what folks use would be good. I don't do a lot of streaming, so mainly browsing and email

In that case its worth looking at your router to see what you use .

Cisco001

tamste said:

WRT 4G/5G, what puts me off is not knowing what my actual data requirements are, as I have never measured them. Any clues on what folks use would be good. I don't do a lot of streaming, so mainly browsing and email

There are unlimited data plan.

wild666

What is the speed of the package you are paying for?  If it's 150 or 500 Mb then downgrade it to 100 or 50 Mb that will save money. 

Marvel1

anotheruser said:

Call their bluff.
When you're out of contract, say you want to leave.  Just say it's too expensive.
They (should) offer some sort of deal but you have a 30 days notice period.  During that 30 days, they are likely to call with another deal.

During this 30 days, start another order with another BB operator.  Yes, the speed will be rubbish but you will have a 14 day cooling off period with them before anything happens anyway.

Fiddle the cooling off and notice periods but always be pre-pared to leave Virgin Media.  They will know they have a monopoly.

I called their bluff and they never bothered to contact me.

Just posting this as its not always the case in my experience.

Barny1979

It's a monopoly of sorts, as there isn't the business case for other providers to put their assets into the area, they wont do it on spec, in the hope people will move, they need to know what the take up is.