UPD Virgin Media UK Launch Big Bundles of Quad Play Broadband and Mobile

Cable provider Virgin Media has announced that existing customers will today become the first who can order from their new range of customisable quad-play “Big Bundles“, which adds an optional mobile SIM tariff alongside the usual mix of superfast broadband, TV and fixed line phone services.

At the time of writing we still can’t see the full details of Virgin’s new bundles, although we have included a brief summary of the basic features and prices below. Customers can then pay an extra £5 or £8 per month for a SIM Only mobile tariff (SIMO) that adds unlimited UK minutes (calls) and texts (NOTE: the £5 option also gives you 250MB of mobile broadband data and the £8 option includes 1000MB).

The Big Bundles

Big Connection:
50Mb/100Mb or 152Mb broadband and Phone
PRICE: TBA [likely to be the same as current dual plays]

Big Easy:
50Mb broadband & TV M & Phone
PRICE: TBA

Big Bang:
100Mb broadband & TV M+ & Phone
PRICE: £15 a month for 6 months (£30 thereafter)

Big Kahuna:
152Mb broadband & TV XL & Phone
PRICE: £25 a month for 6 months, £45 thereafter)

Big Kahuna Movies:
152Mb broadband & TV XL + Sky movies & Phone
PRICE: TBA

Big Kahuna Sports:
152Mb broadband & TV XL + Sky Sports & Phone
PRICE: TBA

Big Daddy:
152Mb broadband & TV XXL & Phone
PRICE: TBA

As usual each package comes with an 18 month contract term and Virgin Line Rental is also payable at an extra £15.99 per month. Take note that existing customers should be able to take some of the first Big Bundles from tomorrow, while NEW customers won’t be able to order any of the new packages until 29th May 2014.

It’s worth noting that not much has changed with the vanilla dual-play broadband and phone bundles, which look much the same as they always have. Similarly the TV packages

Dana Strong, Virgin Medias COO, said:

“Our fantastic new bundles deliver unprecedented value as standard. For the first time, households will be able to get the best broadband together with the UK’s best value mobile SIM, as part of a bundle perfectly tailored to the customer’s needs. And I’m delighted our current customers have the chance to enjoy this fantastic new flexibility and unparalleled value first.”

Virgin believes that its new mobile services represent the United Kingdom’s “best value mobile SIM tariffs“, although the data allowances aren’t that far off their competition and we would have liked to see Virgin offering some bigger data options (to help compliment their fast fixed line services). On the other hand unlimited calls and texts, assuming there aren’t any hidden T&C restrictions (we’ll check later once the new packages are live), is very competitive.

Otherwise it’s fairly safe to assume that most of the TV, Phone and Broadband options will remain broadly unchanged, except for a name change, from the previous bundles.

UPDATE 1:50pm

We’ve removed some of the pricing information to TBA status until officially announced at the end of this month, although the prices aren’t wildly different from Virgin’s existing bundles.