Need advice on Virgin Media cable internet/TV/phone supplier

[Del Monte]

Hi everyone. This is my first post at cableforum.co.uk :)

I found this forum earlier as I'm needing some good advice so I've come to ask you all what you think about my current situation.

Right, where to start. Now first of all I just want to say that I'm moving house soon at the end of June and I'm having to shift all my current Internet/Television channels/Phone over to another place...

The thing is that the new place that I'm going to be moving into happens to have 2 Telewest connection points in the flat. I went to look around it the other day and there's like a telephone socket that says Telewest on top and also there's like a white box that comes out of the wall with a plug facing down to the floor again that says Telewest.

I've spoken to the letting agent and she tells me that you're supposed to have Virgin Media in this place where I'm gonna go and live. It's all quite new in like a mill building and it's as if they've had a contract with a cable supplier to do the whole lot. I've said to the letting agent, can I put my own BT phone line in instead? And she is going to find out for me but surely she said that would probably be ok. But then again I have to wait until the landlord of this new property tells me whether they will allow a BT landline to be installed or do I just have to make do with these cable connections.

I'm not sure what the Telewest points are as I've never had them before in any place I've lived. At the moment in the place I live now I currently have Sky TV for my television channels and just pay about £19 a month for 2 of the entertainment mixes which is enough for me really. Also I have a BT landline in my current setup which I got installed myself 5 years ago and I have recently switched it to Primus. Primus seems to be very good, a little slow at switching over but still they've super good value for money, I pay for the line rental and also a call package with them and it's very cheap. The last thing I have in my current one is Bethere ADSL internet. Which I am more than happy with, it's an excellent broadband service and the speed is great, the service you get with Bethere is superb, it's the best I've ever had. Considering my current setup is quite close to the phone exchange it's pretty dam good really. Sadly I'm gonna have to leave that setup behind and start again :(

So with all being said, I really need to find out whether the new landlord in my new flat will allow me to have a BT landline, if so I could put Bethere ADSL back in my new place and carry on with that wonderful provider. I guess if I did that I'd have to go back to BT and have a 12 months contract with them again but I could live with that and at least then I could have an ADSL.

Now getting down to what I wanted to say. I wanted to say that IF I cannot have ADSL in this new property then I will be forced to have Cable internet/tv/phone with most probably Virgin Media. Now from what I've read all over the internet (there's a lot of stuff to read here and there) people are complaining about how terrible Virgin Media actually are. It's all very off putting how bad they sound. I just wouldn't want to get them if they're so terrible. I might have no choice but to get Virgin Media if in this new place there's no other option than Fibre Optic for your internet, television and phone services.

Is there really much of a choice other than having Virgin Media for your cable fibre optic connection to your home?

Can somebody tell me what it is like, is there anything good to say about Virgin Media? Is it also true that the Virgin Media internet service is very bad and also do they slow you down on purpose? With Virgin Media can't you have a unlimited download service? Also what about packet shaping or traffic shaping, do they slow you down in that respect?

There's so many things I need to know about Virgin Media because I could well be stuck with them already now that I'm moving into this new place. I might have to have the TV as there's no sign of a normal TV aerial on the roof where it is. I might also have to have the landline phone connected through Virgin Media because you're simply not allowed any of the other services due to the building and the rules etc.. (if that's the case).

So please if you can tell me as much as you know, what the TV is like with Virgin Media, what the internet is like. The phone, the good points the bad points would be very much appreciated.

I just hope that I can have a good setup like what I've got now but if there's no choice in the matter at least from the help of the people in this forum I might know exactly what I'm getting myself into before I end up having to get Virgin Media.

Many thanks for listening..... Feell free to say anything you think about my current situation. Cheers guys :D

[gazfan]

welcome to the forum.

Good points

I have 20 mb/s broadband & it usually 'does what it says on the tin' - they do have 'traffic shaping' but only during certain times, if you download outside of peak times there are usually no problems.

The V+ HD box allows you to watch one channel while recording two others.

The VOD service has a huge catalogue of movies, TV & music to choose from

Phone has never given me any problems.


Bad Points

Communication can be naff - use of offshore call centres can be a pain if you have a problem, although a faults forum & UK based support does exist.

Services can be affected by how many customers there are in 'your' area - some areas are oversubscribed.

AFAIK some phone options like caller ID are not available in all areas.




Generally, as a customer for more than 10 years I am happy :)

[danlufan]

Del Monte,

I have had BE internet over a BT phoneline once only because i couldnt receive Virgin Media, in the other three properties i have opted for Virgin,

My current setup =

Virgin Media 50Mb internet (No traffic shaping)
Sky+ HD TV
and No phone line.

Personally the TV has options that are better than sky (i.e. the on demand), however if you require a sports package then Sky beats it hands down. Overall outcome on TV SKY is better but from what you have said Virgin Media TV will be good for you.

The internet service was rated the fastest in the Internet Provider research they did last year, every provider has some sort of traffic shaping so dont be put off by that. Also if you go for a bundle price TV, Phone, Internet you should go for 50Mb (you will be blown away)

Phone, to be honest you shouldnt have a problem here if you just use it for incoming and outgoing standard calling, call packages are pretty decent too.

I highly recommend Virgin primarily because their internet service is good, also the reason you hear so much bad about Virgin Media is because people dont usually shout about the good.

[Biffs]

I moved back North in January, and the first thing I did was get VM to install the lot - TV, Broadband and phone. Everything was very smooth and I've had no problems at all. No regrets.

[oliver1948uk]

If I were moving, I would ensure my new property COULD get Virgin Media. I definitely do not want to go back to BT.

I have phone, TV, broadband and mobile with VM. In 10+ years of NTL/VM I have had few problems and those I have had have been sorted out to my satisfaction.

For a new customer, there are several excellent offers, though some may end at the end of June.

[Charlie_Bubble]

Why do people rave about VM on demand. There isn't that much in my opinion and it's not as great as people make it out to be. I've had VM 2 weeks and I've watched everything I want to on on demand, that was Band of Brothers HD and Season 1 of True Blood HD. There's nothing else there to watch as far as I'm concerned unless you want to pay £5 for a film.

Oh and to top it all off, my brand new V+ box died this morning after 2 weeks!

[Maggy]

Why do people rave about VM on demand. There isn't that much in my opinion and it's not as great as people make it out to be. I've had VM 2 weeks and I've watched everything I want to on on demand, that was Band of Brothers HD and Season 1 of True Blood HD. There's nothing else there to watch as far as I'm concerned unless you want to pay £5 for a film.

Oh and to top it all off, my brand new V+ box died this morning after 2 weeks!

well I can find plenty to watch..I just can't get near the TV some nights.:D

Been a cable customer through Nynex,C&W,NTL and now VM.

I actually think that VM are a far better business than the previous suppliers and am more than happy with the TV,BB and phone.:)

[Del Monte]

Thanks for your responses guys, that's great all that.

I've been giving it some thought and surely enough Virgin Media sounds like the way to go. I will probably be taking out the top packages for all three, phone, television and internet. I think it works out pretty well really, considering with my current setup I've had Bethere, Sky and Primus for all three and it has cost me exactly £52.86 per month in service charges.

I worked it out the other day and it would come to £54.01 a month to have the full package with Virgin Media. That's just £13.50 a week, it sounds excellent. Plus they give you that free recorder thing and a wireless router. Also with the TV it says they give you 165 channels and some of them are in HD which would be perfect as I don't get HD channels with Sky at the moment and I do have a HD Plasma TV also so I could use it to its full potential for the picture quality.

So yes I think I have made my mind up now, I shall sign up for the 12 months with Virgin Media and take their best package for £54.01 per month, a difference of only £1.15 a month more to what I'm paying out at the moment. I doubt they would allow you to have a BT line installed in this building, it looks like that they would be a bit funny about somebody doing that because there isn't any BT lines on it, it's all just simply Fibre Optic networking.

I did speak to a virtual online Virgin Media person last night and I asked them if they do packet shape their internet and he said no for the 50 M/bit so I shall have that. I guess having that 50 M/bit internet on Fibre Optic cable would be miles better than just standard ADSL through an ordinary telephone line. With Bethere I have been achieving speeds close to 20 M/bit and my current place is roughly around something just short of 1 km away from the exchange.

[pip08456]

You will not be getting a fibre optic connection from VM but a Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC) connection and it will be via coaxial cable from there. I don't say that to deter you from VM as I am a satisfied customer. Just FYI

Hopefully it will not be necessary but you may have problems in which case come back here as you will get a lot of information and help to solve any problem you may have. (there's a few VM staffers who come here.).

As everything seems to be in place already it should be pretty painless.