Virgin Media - a look at what's on offer

[Bob Crabtree]

Today's formal re-naming of cable company ntl:Telewest to Virgin Media co-incides with the introduction - or at least, the ability to place orders for - 10 different bundles of services, up to and including true quad-play - TV, internet, landline phone and mobile phone.

Equally significant, new and existing Virgin Media cable-phone customers can have a 39-channel cable TV service for free.

A £25 fee does have to be paid for installing the receiver but there is no monthly charge on top of the £11 phone-line rental.

We're in the process of analysing the various package deals and will be posting a full news story later.

In the interim, check out for yourself what Virgin Media appears to be offering and let us hear your queries and comments.

[Nick]

I gave them a call about their non-cable broadband and phone package which promises up to 8meg and free 01 and 02 UK calls 24/7, for just £19.99.

To be honest, the offer appears to be too good to be true...

If you're already on broadband there's no set-up fee, just get the MAC code from your current ISP and do the switch.

There IS a 12 month minimum contract, but unlike BT Broadband (like they used to be, not sure if the rules have changed now), if you move house, you just take the contract with you.

It will start from 12 months again at your new house but there's no penalty of paying for the unused portion of the contract if you move.

What I really want to know is who actually handles the logistics, sure, broadband will be over BT actual wires, but who's running the servers at the other end? What's the contention ratio?

I need to look into the T+Cs more closely, which I might be able to do today, but even given I'll still pay BT for line rental, this is a much better offer than my current ISP... I'm just concerned about up-time and whether I'll get a solid, reliable connection.

[Kezzer]

I had one of the Virgin dudes phone me up and try to get me to buy a phone line. I kept telling him reasons why not i.e. I'm moving out in 5 months time anyway and I use Skype for my regular phone calls to landlines/mobiles. Then he told me all UK calls would be free on weekends to landlines to which I told him that I never call UK numbers anyway as I'm not from the UK. He then tried putting me on another deal where I could get cheap international calls.

The horror goes on and on. I phone my partner once per week via Skype and can spend a tenner in a night because it's to an international mobile phone, that's fine for me, and I can use my headset for the calls.

I wonder what the Internet service will be like, as I do have an NTL connection.

[BUFF]

What I really want to know is who actually handles the logistics, sure, broadband will be over BT actual wires, but who's running the servers at the other end? What's the contention ratio?

I would imagine NTL (now VirginMedia) as they've owned Virgin Internet for years & iirc they were also handling AOL's logistics in the UK (this may have changed since AOL UK was sold recently).

[Veles]

Are they still keeping the cable broadband services though?

[BUFF]

Yes, where they have cable laid & Virgin's DSL offering where they don't.

[Bob Crabtree]

I've written a news story which includes my take on all this having crawled all over Virgin Media's available deals.

The news piece is here and the related forum thread here.