Virgin Media to hike broadband prices by nearly 7 per cent

[phawk754]

Virgin Media is set to jack up its broadband prices early next year by nearly 7 per cent.

The telco said it was writing to subscribers now to warn them that costs will rise by 6.7 per cent on average from February 2014.

It said that the price hike does not affect services such as Virgin Media's home phone talk plans.

In an effort to try to soften the blow, the company - which is now owned by US cable giant Liberty Global - said that it was planning to bump up download speeds on its network.

Virgin Media's boss Tom Mockridge, a one-time CEO of Rupert Murdoch's News International, couldn't resist the temptation to take a catty swipe at the firm's rivals.

"Our top speed will be twice as fast as [that of] BT and all the others reliant on their old copper telephony infrastructure as we extend our lead as Britain’s ultrafast broadband provider."

It said it will offer customers speeds of up to 152Mbit/s from early next year. ®

info from Virgin Media to hike broadband prices by nearly 7 per cent ? The Register

 

[Spectre]

I think I noticed a download rate decrease the last time.

Contention ratio?

 

[oneman]

I think I noticed a download rate decrease the last time.

Contention ratio?

Probably, depends on your area to some extent. They did report that downloads had increased by 50% over the last year and they are working on installing more backend capacity. Probably help if they didn't sell off to sky, lol

 

[leemoo]

Think they have already hiked mine up last month without any communications from them at all.
Gone up by £2.50 last month without so much as an email telling me of this! Cheeky c***s

 

[oneman]

Think they have already hiked mine up last month without any communications from them at all.
Gone up by £2.50 last month without so much as an email telling me of this! Cheeky c***s

There was a £2.50 increase to some packages announced a few months ago. These I believe it was for 20mb and 30mb users. There was a thread about it here,

https://www.digitalworldz.co.uk/index.php?threads/377706/

 

[leemoo]

There was a £2.50 increase to some packages announced a few months ago. These I believe it was for 20mb and 30mb users. There was a thread about it here,

https://www.digitalworldz.co.uk/index.php?threads/377706/

Yeh i remember people mentioning it. However I am on 60Mb and also never received anything telling me of this increase which is what I am more annoyed about.
I've emailed VM my rant but whether anything will happen over it I very much doubt it.

 

[oneman]

Yeh i remember people mentioning it. However I am on 60Mb and also never received anything telling me of this increase which is what I am more annoyed about.
I've emailed VM my rant but whether anything will happen over it I very much doubt it.

I have to say that didn't follow the update closely as I am on 120mb but 60mb may be the old 30mb service so you may have been effect. You should have got a letter if you were effected.

 

[jamesyboyjim]

urgghh not again! They're prices go up more often than slys it seems!

 

[leemoo]

No letter or anything from them and it has already gone up once since I took the deal at £22.50 so this is the second time before the orginal deal ends next year.
There getting as bad as the energy companies which I told them that in my email to them lol.

 

[Captin]

I'm on 120mb and it's still way way cheaper than paying for all the stuff I download so I ain't bothered.

I wonder if we'll get free speed increases again.

 

[Spectre]

I believe I shall be making more use of my bandwidth in future ie. getting one's money's worth.

 

[mdt]

shite round here anyway... i left after 5 years due to shocking latency at peak times ect. someone has got to pay for the new owners/shareholders dividend. regards mdt

 

[joe516]

We wanted to let you know that from 1st February 2014, the price of your Virgin Media services will go up by £4.50 a month

 

[miggy]

Do we really need ultra fast download speeds?. I would be quite happy if they opened some sort of a loyalty old members music and film download club. I am sick of looking around trying to find a decent site to download from without these clowns blocking it. So lets get this straight VM are hiking up there prices of broadband because they want to make it faster?, what exactly do we do with a fast download speed if sites are all blocked????.

 

[leemoo]

How fast do you actually need to download something as well. Am quite happy to wait an hour to download something. Just kick it off and go about my business.
I read yesterday that from early next year these companies when putting there prices up like this will HAVE TO give you the option to cancel your contract.
Thats why there banging up the prices now before this law kicks in.
BT are increasing prices from Jan 14 as well.

Snippet from web page:

"New rules from Ofcom governing mid-contract price rises will come into effect from early 2014, forcing providers to give customers the opportunity to cancel their contract without financial penalty if they increase prices during their contract term."

Source: BBC News - Virgin Media prices and broadband speed will rise

 

[Spectre]

Just offset the cost by not requiring a TV licence and watching catch-up services with the broadband.

 

[Goldberg]

I think a lot of us take back the 'hike' in other ways

Hike is such a harsh word too, they have raised it a couple of quid not hundreds.

 

[leemoo]

But there is no need for them to raise the prices. A couple of of quid for me, for you and everyone else that is a cutsomer generates millions.
How has my broadband from taking it out at £22.50 warrant it to go up to £26.75? My speeds are the same, i get the same service and when there is a fault and I am left without connection I don't receive any money back for being without the service.
I can go and take another 12 or 18 months (not sure) subscription with them and get it back down to £22.50 so they don't need this extra couple of quid from me, they just choose to keep putting it up every so often (basically fleecing people) and what would happen if you just leave it? You must get people who do so....how much does there price increase until they do something about it.
VM could just leave me on the £22.50 I started off with and keep this price that they promised on taking the contract out and save me whinging on here lol.

 

[Goldberg]

Haha true,

But the cost of living goes up and they need keep their staff etc.. I did hear that Virgin are trying to buy MAG, I think the company that makes IPTV boxes ?
I might have made all of this up of course! I was scanning the news yesterday and saw something mentioned.

 

[leemoo]

Don't think anyone is getting cost of living rises or pay rises mate. I could appreciate the increase a bit more if it was down to this.
And if that is the case, why then can I go and take out another contract with them for the £22.50 that I originally had?