Price Hikes as Virgin Media Start Boosting Broadband Upload Speeds

Cable ISP Virgin Media UK appears to have quietly started boosting the upload speeds of customers on their 200Mbps ultrafast broadband (download) packages, which previously experienced an upload rate of 12Mbps but is now being boosted to 20Mbps. On top of that they’ve also hiked some of their prices.

Regular readers may recall that our sources predicted this increase, which we covered as part of the 500Mbps launch in April (here). At the time we said that the new product would be followed by the introduction of faster upload speeds (i.e. taking some of the packages to a 10/1 ratio of download to upload speed – except on 350Mbps and 500Mbps where the uploads are both 35Mbps).

By the looks of it this process will be a phased upgrade and it appears to have started with their 200Mbps plan. At some point this should be followed by 50Mbps (down) subscribers being given an upload boost from 3Mbps to 5Mbps and 100Mbps (down) subscribers going from 6Mbps to 10Mbps. A somewhat overdue change given that considerably slower FTTC lines have been offering uploads of 10-20Mbps for many years now.

On top of that Virgin Media has begun offering bill credits worth between £50 and up to £125 on their range of ultrafast broadband and phone packages for new customers, although these will only be available to take until 3rd July 2019. At the same time they’ve hiked their one-off setup fee from £25 to £35.

As usual all new customers will also receive a Hub 3.0 (SuperHub v3) wireless router, a 12 month minimum term contract, unlimited usage, access to Virgin’s UK network of WiFi hotspots (e.g. London Underground), free UK weekend phone calls, internet security / parental controls and email.

UPDATE 10:58am

Just as we posted this Virgin Media sent an announcement about some annual price rises, which makes the news somewhat bitter-sweet.

A Virgin Media spokesperson said:

“Changing prices is not a decision we take lightly. We invest more than £1billion a year in our network and services to keep giving our customers great value.

We continue to do more for our customers and lead the way with the fastest broadband speeds – now reaching 500Mbps with gigabit speeds launching soon – giving them the worry-free ability to stream, game, shop and chat on multiple devices whenever, wherever and however they want.

As well as increasing speeds for our customers, we’ve launched new Intelligent WiFi features to improve in-home connectivity and automatically solve issues, as well as putting our best TV box and router into millions of homes. Our customers are doing more with their connectivity, with data use increasing by almost 40% each year and video streaming accounting for more than 60% of traffic. Despite a 300% increase in business rates, which is a direct tax on our ultrafast network, we continue to support this demand with our ongoing investment.

“We are committed to giving our customers an incredible service with unrivalled connectivity, great, high-quality programming and innovative new upgrades – and our customers can expect much more to come.”

Here are the details on what is changing:

* Prices will change for most of our cable customers, with the significant majority of those seeing an increase between £2.50 and £4.50.

* The average increase is £3.30 (inc VAT)

* The average price increase is 4.9%

* We’ll be writing to our customers to explain these changes and we’ll continue to make sure they can experience even more from Virgin Media

* Customers will see their September or October bill change – the date the price change is effective will be made clear in the communication sent to customers

Prices tend to rise because operators are frequently adding all sorts of new services, developing new systems and consumers are also gobbling significantly more data every year. Suffice to say that service improvements and rising demand cost money, which means that ultimately customers will end up paying more and all big ISPs seem to follow the same trend.

Providers are also under pressure to adopt all sorts of new rules, such as having to cater for the hugely expensive new system of automatic compensation (here) and Ofcom’s revised broadband speed code of practice (here).

Many of the above increases may go above inflation and could thus become subject to Ofcom’s rule against mid-contract price hikes, which means that existing customers may be able to exit their contract penalty free (you need to do this within 30 days of receiving Virgin’s formal notification letter/email). Just remember that other major ISPs will also be increasing their prices.

Alternatively customers could try contacting the operator directly and haggling for a lower price (Retentions – Tips for Cutting Your Broadband Bill).

UPDATE 11:39am

The upload speed upgrades on Virgin’s 50Mbps and 100Mbps packages are indeed expected to follow during this summer, but a solid date has not yet been confirmed.