Virgin Media Offer Plume WiFi Boosting Security to All UK Homes

Broadband ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) has today announced that they’re making Plume’s new HomePass smart home service available to all UK households (including those areas not yet covered by their network), which combines a WiFi 6 (802.11ax) based Mesh network boosting system with security features, such as Wi-Fi based motion detection.

The move follows Virgin Media’s January 2021 launch of their Intelligent Wi-Fi Plus service, which combined improvements to the firmware of their HUB 3.0 and 4.0 broadband routers with Plume’s smart home Mesh WiFi system in order to deliver improved wireless connectivity around the home (here).

By comparison, the new HomePass service, which can be taken for an annual charge of £99 and comes with one WiFi boosting SuperPod device as standard (additional pods start at £99 each – one-off), appears to give you some extra features. Aside from the addition of WiFi 6 support to their mesh networking solution, you also get device security, in-home motion sensing (this cleverly works by monitoring disturbances in the WiFi signal), device management and parental controls.

HomePass will also work to keep connected devices safe from unwanted ads, hacks or threats, including the seven most frequent types of cyber-attacks. It will alert users when connected devices such as smart speakers, baby monitors or doorbells exhibit “unusual behaviour,” such as trying to connect to new unknown connections – and put at-risk devices in quarantine to keep customers’ home network and sensitive information safe.

As usual, you’ll be able to manage all of this from a central app.

Sigrid van den Houte, VMO2’s Director of Products & Propositions (Fixed & FMC), said:

“By teaming up with Plume, we’re able to offer a smarter, faster, and safer WiFi experience to everyone – even people living in areas where our services aren’t yet available. With HomePass’ plug and play pods and host of smart home features, we’re excited to be transforming WiFi in homes around the country.”

You can of course get this independently of Virgin Media, but via that method a single WiFi 6 pod costs £159 (£99 with WiFi 5). On top of that, you’d also need to add a membership fee, which start at £8.25 per month for an annual membership. In other words, Virgin Media seem to be offering a better price, when the membership is combined with the included SuperPod.

However, we would like to know a bit more about how that WiFi based motion sensing system works, not least in dense urban areas like a large block of flats (i.e. can it tell the difference between somebody walking in the corridor just outside your flat vs somebody actually inside the flat near the front door?). Getting this right is important to avoid false positives.

UPDATE

You can in fact buy the kit direct from Plume’s website in GBP, but oddly they only make this selection visible in small print right at the bottom of their website, instead of the top. Corrected the pricing above.