Virgin Media 30Mb Broadband
30Mb Broadband is the first of the 3 broadband sizes available on Virgin Media and is ideal for general web browsing and email. With an advertised download speed of up to 30Mb it actually does deliver an average of just over 30 Mbps, so you’ll have no problem downloading bigger files like MP3s – only if you like to regularly download lots of music and movies would you need to consider one of the faster packages.
How to Get Virgin’s 30Mb Broadband
You can take a Virgin Media broadband product either on its own – this is known as ‘Solus’ – or with Virgin TV or phone in a dual package or with both TV and phone making it a triple bundle.
What does it cost? Note – these prices all ignore introductory offers – see our Virgin Media page for deal alerts.
- 30Mb Broadband on its own costs £22.50 a month – 18 month contract – £49.95 installation fee
- 30Mb Broadband with Phone M (included weekend calls) costs £14.50 a month plus £13.90 line rental, total £28.40 – 18 month contract
- 30Mb Broadband in the basic triple bundle with TV M+ and Phone M costs £20 a month plus £13.90 line rental, total £33.90
As with all bundled products if you pay just a little bit more per month you can get an extra service – the idea being “you may as well add phone as well because it’s only £X a month more”. For example;
- 30Mb Broadband on its own costs £22.50
- Pay just £5.90 more per month and you have your landline rental and unlimited weekend calls included
- You then need to work out whether or not you would use the phone enough to make it worth the money
The Virgin Media starter triple bundle with the basic V HD box is possibly more worthwhile as for an extra £11.40 a month (£33.90 instead of £22.50) you’re getting the weekend phone calls and some subscription TV channels with catch-up TV. Again, just ask yourself what you will use to make sure the package is good value for you.
Details of the Virgin Media 30Mb Broadband package
Download speed of up to 30Mb with an average recorded speed of just over 30Mbps - at this speed you can download an album in about 18 seconds.
Download amount - No limit on the amount you can download - this is subject to a fair usage policy but that's to stop people going really mad with it, the usage is ample for any normal household use.
As you would expect the service comes with a free wireless router, the Virgin Media Hub, which has 4 sockets for wired use and lets the whole household use the service without wires.
30Mb Broadband also comes with the following;
- Free online storage - 5GB of storage lets you keep around 2,000 photos or 1,000 songs safe online
- Automatic backup - this lets you save important files online and access them from other computers (at the time of writing not compatible with Mac OS Lion 10.7)
- Photo printing - you can print up to 10 photos a month for no charge
- Email addresses - a main email and up to 10 other addresses
- Security and support - Virgin's online security with anti-virus and protection against spyware is included as is 24 hour support
If you take 30Mb Broadband with a phone line you get unlimited weekend calls to UK landline numbers and Virgin mobiles for £13.90 a month line rental.
