Recommend Virgin?

I've been with BT for years now and in fairness to them, the service has been fine and I have rarely had a problem.

I get my TV via cable from Virgin and am thinking of migrating my broadband and telephone over to them.

Do Virgin run everything from the cable point as it enters the house and so have to have more cable internally - I like to have a hardwire connection to my main computer and don't really want extra cabling if I can avoid it and secondly - do users recommend them as a service provider?

Thanks.

Yes I'd certainly recommend them.

I've only been with them for a few months. I'm very happy with their service - a vast improvement over the old ADSL line I had with Demon, especially in terms of reliability.
Their help desk also seemed quite good the couple of times I had to call them to change phone features.

The installers who did my house were very amenable to my requirements when installing the cable. You've already got the cable so I guess it will be a bit different. With regards to the phone service, in my area (ex-Telewest), the phone is a separate cable and they can probably route that to the same place your BT socket currently is so you can keep your existing internal phone wiring.

I'm not sure on what installation looks like if you have the TV service and broadband (I don't have the TV service). Perhaps someone else will answer that.

The only caveat might be to be aware of their traffic management limits - I think most people don't bother about them (like myself - even with 5 PCs and a couple of consoles) but heavy torrent users seem to complain a lot.

Edited by Daemon66 (Fri 17-Apr-09 17:15:24)

I've been more happy with Virgin than I ever was with BT and ADSL.
I could not get a stable line and could only get 3.5Mb on ADSL, so even getting more than that (and I'm paying less) makes it's good for me. I used to get a solid 20Mb 24/7 and that's started to waver a little recently, but I still get a good service from them.

I've been with Virgin a month now and I'm pretty happy with them.

Do Virgin run everything from the cable point as it enters the house and so have to have more cable internally - I like to have a hardwire connection to my main computer and don't really want extra cabling if I can avoid it and secondly - do users recommend them as a service provider?

Well I was impatient and wanted to get everything quickly so I opted for the cheaper quick install option (£15 option) where they sent me the modem and TV box in the post. The kit included a splitter and two 1.8 Metre lengths of coax cable which were just enough to go from the wall box to under the TV where I sit the modem & TV box. Luckily I'd already networked the house up with CAT5 so I was able to just use a spare length of CAT5 to connect the modem to the router in another room. You do get a long length of CAT5 cable and cable clips with the self install kit (about 15 metres) but it means you'd have to fit it yourself. If I was you I'd opt for the engineer installed option as they should then run a coax cable to where you want it to go (presumably from looking at other installs in houses in my area) they will probably run a cable from the box on the front of your property on the outside of the property to the room where you want the modem to go. Considering an engineer install is only about £30 (for 10/20 Meg broadband) then this might be the better option. From what I understand if you opted for 50 Meg broadband then you have to pay for an engineer install at £30 regardless plus a £50 connection charge (which I guess covers the cost of the modem and more advanced router).

Something you might want to check too is that you're not stuck on a 12 months rolling contract with BT for your phone line (and presumably broadband?). I was caught out on this, although I was on a 30 day contract for my broadband I had another 11 months left on the BT line so I've got to keep the BT line for another 11 months (luckily I was able to get free BT broadband as my mum works for BT and as an employee she can get free broadband and BT vision which she passed on to me).

Hope all this helps anyway. I'd say as long as you're not stuck on any contracts and don't have to pay any get out fees (I'd check this first) then go for it.

Rob

Thanks Rob. The problem as I see it is that I will have to run a CAT5 cable under the floor to my home office. I'm OK with the exit from BT, I'm on Option 3 which does not seem to have a rolling contract, a fact underpinned in that I get a call from BT about once a month inviting me to renew at a discounted price - which is always more than I am currently paying!

I have TV, phone and broadband (10mb). At the moment, I'd suggest going for either 10mb or 20mb until the 50mb rollout is complete/settled.

I've had good customer service from virgin and very good technical support.

The TV and Broadband come in on one wire, the phone on another.

Rich

does tv / broadband on a single cable slow down on broadband ?

If running network cable around your house is a pain, you can use homeplug adaptors as an alternative - see: http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=5082&...

I have been using virgin 20mb for about a year and a half now and it has been far more reliable and faster than ADSL.

No.