Five things to know about Virgin's 50Mb broadband

Our top five questions answered

15 December 2008 12:45 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Virgin Media's launch of 50Mb broadband promises faster download and surfing speeds, but why would you want it and are there any catches?

You'll get faster downloads
With a 50Mb broadband line, if it's working at full speed, you'll be able to download stuff incredibly quickly. According to Virgin Media you'll be able to download a 60MB music album in 11 seconds, a 350MB TV show in just over a minute and a HD movie from somewhere like the Xbox Live marketplace (5.5GB) in just over 15 minutes. In comparison to 56K dial-up modem a 5MB song would take roughly 12 and a half minutes.

You could surf via more devices
With the average household owning more and more devices, chances are you are connecting to the Internet more than you think. It's not just a single PC anymore, but probably your games console, maybe your radio and most likely your phone, and that's before you start to count the extra PCs you've got around the house. With such a fast connection you should be able to connect multiple devices to the system without seeing a noticeable drop in performance.

Can I get it in my home?
Does the news excite you enough to want to sign up to the new service? Thought so. However, chances are you're going to have to move house. Although Virgin Media has launched the service today it's only available to around 1.3 million possible customers in parts of Scotland, the Midlands and South London. The rest of the 12.6 million UK homes covered by the fibre optic network will be ready for 50Mb next summer - i.e., 2009.

How much is it going to cost me?
Surfing the world wide web at such speeds isn't going to be cheap. Virgin Media is offering a broadband-only package for £51 a month with a sign up and activation fee of £80. If you want it cheaper you can get them to bundle in your phone line and this will reduce it to £35 plus £11 for the phone line. You'll also have to pay an additional £5 a month if you don't set up direct debit. If that wasn't enough to put you off you'll also have to wait up to 28 days to get it installed. Virgin Media is bundling a free wireless "N" router and wireless "N" USB adaptor - currently a launch offer only.

Could you get faster speeds?
You could, but again you are going to have to move house. BT offers double the speed - 100Mb - in Ebbsfleet in Kent via fibre optics. Approximately 10,000 homes at Ebbsfleet Valley, along with six million sq. ft of commercial space and three million sq. ft of retail, leisure and community facilities will have access to the cabling being provided by BT. Additionally it's worth noting that to get the 50Mb speed as promised you'll have to use wireless N devices. If you use a Wireless G router or Wireless G enabled computer (most likely your current laptop), your broadband service will still work, but the wireless distribution of the service will be limited to around 20-24Mb.

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Comments

Currently Virgin Media is NOT offering the WiFi router (Hard-wire only). The "set-up" fee is £30 for a manned install (since it is new VM don't want any slip-ups on connection). And a £50 activation fee (this may be dropped in the 1st quarter of 09). The cost of current broadband speeds puts the 50meg price in a strong position since no one can offer the same deal. If you were to work out the cost-per-meg you would find that VM's 50meg service work's out at just over £1 per meg...cheaper than any other provider. Posted by Robert Lamont, UK
Your wrong, pure broadband cost BeUnlimited if connected at full speed is 24mb at less than a £1 per mb. Unlike Virgin you can actualy download at the sync speed all day every day, I know because i do it.
So if you wiegh up what your connection speed is and what you'll actualy get then your ahead with BE, and they have a much larger coverage than virgin 50mb. Posted by Chris Jenkins, UK
First of all Virgin will not be rolling this service out fully until May 2017 because I know the guy who does all their installations and he is going to Canada to find bigfoot and doesn't expect to be back until then. Also, VM's cables are constantly under attack by moles and mice who confuse their electrical discharge with cheese and eat through the cabling.

Finally, who you gonna call? Ghostbusters? Posted by Dave, Ban
are you serious? they should have thought of something like that - and coated them in something non-chewable Posted by Daniel, UK
50mb my ring piece...upload far too slow can't beat BE unlimited or o2 (there the same company) true fast download speed and the fastest upload speed in the uk via a bt line.... stay well away from virgin media Posted by David William, Leicestershire UK
I don't know what Chris Jenkins is on about, I get my full speed all the time. In fact, it would be impossible to get speeds less than they are trying to give you, it is fibre optic not copper wire.

The only downside is that Virgin warps your speed if you download too much. For example, I am on 20Mb just now but if I download over ~5GB, they tone my speed to 5Mb for a few hours. Annoying, but no huge nuisance. Posted by Dave Capavanni, UK
There won't be any speed throttling for the 50mb service - for now :) Posted by Steve, UK
virgin media is only fibre optic to the nearest street box eg from the street box to your house is usually steel wire

be unlimited is NOT 24mb/s - their dslam is rated at 23.7mb, you will lucky to get much over 20mb Posted by stephen peacock, england
I ordered my Virgin 50Mbit service yesterday - not sure about actual speeds yet but had enough of Be*s inability to provide what they are promising...ok I am not asking for 25Meg but getting 6-7 with frequent drop outs is not worth it.

Chris you are wrong. There is no traffic management for the 50Meg service, check here: http://www.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management.php

Free installation and total £46 p/m with 30 days money back guarantee..I'll try it and give you an update.
Posted by Jason, England
Virgin 50mb is the most unstable, frustrating service I have ever come across!! Its very rare that you get 50mb download speed, maybe for an hour a day before it drops to 5/6Mb!!! Browsing becomes almost impossible at this time too.

This is a widespread problem according to forums and one that is not easily rectifiable if my 6 week wait for an update is anything to go by!

Come back O2! All is forgiven!!! Posted by Paul, England
Remember guys n gals, you are only ever as fast as the place you are connecting to!! Posted by Dan, London
I currently have had 50Mbit installed for just over 3 months in Brighton, East Sussex.

The service is very good. You need a very good computer to get those speeds, and ideally use an ethernet cable conected directly (IE computer>modem/ vise versa) with a 1Gbit NIC.

I do have these and am getting a very good speed even with the supplied router (which is a top-of-the range netgear model).

The inital outlay for activationa nd setup is warranted buy the costs of obtaining the router and usb wifi dongle, but speeds have been varied, depending on what speed tests you use. Remember, the internet is a worldwide and open network, constantly being used at all times. Your connection to one point is a slow as he slowest connection hop or connection LAG!

In my eyes, VM's 50Mbit service is not quite what i needed, i just needed more upload speed, but with very poor speeds on ADSL here, the only other option was to go with VM's service.

All in all, i'm happy enough! Posted by Tony, UK
BE is rubbish, well from my experiance

expected 24MB, got about 6mb and teh line constantly dropped out , i dont know if it was due toa crap line or teh crap modem they gave whihc got very hot rebooted all teh time, constantly loast network security, admin passwords and anything else you customised on it, very glad to get rid of BePro even if they were giving it to me for £16.

Virgin, had it for 2 montsh on 20mb - awesome connection, not one disconnect full 20mb all teh time, dipped to about 17 maybe twice and wa a bit low on wireless connections , got myself a wireless N router and i am getting full 20MB even on wifi !

about to try 50MB and expecting good things, it will cost me an extra 15 a month and thats it no, no install or activation fees !

people are jsut bitter when they cant get cable, i know i was sop much so that i didn;t even consider it when i moved into a cable area - i was ony forced to look elsewhere after the disapointment of BE whihc i had longed to get for years.

I hate Virgin the company, but the internet is the best, only down side is to get it cheaper you have to have a phone line with them and calls are expensive , but i get digital tv for free (which is good as i have poor reception). they have crap customer service in India, tho call in the day and you get UK - CS calls are FREE - engineer was a numpty and a slacker so had to get his work redone but other than that no probs!

Posted by T-Man, England
Had the 50mb for a few weeks now and cant get more than 22 which is what I had before. Virgin have as yet not been able to resolve this!!! Posted by Dave, UK
I ordered 50mb, television and landline ONE month in advance to new flat

I rang several times just to make sure virgin media new the address and everything would be ready

I moved on the 9 dec 2009
And virgin media came 10th dec 2009 the following day as promised.
Technician installed television, internet 50mb in 5 minutes GREAT job

But no landline telephone! - there is a ‘capacity problem’ no free available phone lines?!

I live in a block of flats.

I NEED landline for safety

Virgin then sent me bill for £188 just to install television and activate internet

No discount given because I don’t have a landline!

I have been a telewest. Virgin customer for six years.

Very expensive installation for only doing half a job

Posted by bobby klump, england london