ISP Virgin Media O2 UK Confirms New Broadband Speed Boosts UPDATE
UK ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) has today confirmed that both new and existing customers of their fixed line broadband packages, specifically those on their M100 and M200 tiers, will benefit from a modest boost to their download and upload speeds. As a result, M100 is being renamed to M125 and M200 becomes M250.
Regular readers will know that we’ve been expecting today’s announcement for a while (here and here), but until now we didn’t have any confirmation of the changes that would be introduced. Previously, anybody who took the M100 plan could have expected average speeds of 108Mbps down and 10Mbps up, while those taking M200 were told to expect speeds of 213Mbps down and 20Mbps up.
The revised M125 plan will now come alongside ‘advertised‘ download speeds of 132Mbps and uploads of 20Mbps, while M250 will deliver downloads of 264Mbps and 25Mbps (as usual, the maximum potential profile speed of these tiers will be higher than the advertised rate). But we’ve also had it confirmed that there will be no changes for residential customers on the faster tiers, at least not today.
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We should add that some customers of Virgin Media Business, specifically those on their Voom Gig1 (1Gbps) plan, have also seen their upload speeds boosted (here) to around 75-100Mbps (previously 50Mbps). But at the time of writing, the operator hasn’t yet confirmed whether this is just a selected trial or if it is being rolled out to all of their related customers.
UPDATE 9:33am
VMO2 has just confirmed that they’ll also be boosting upload speeds for small business customers from “early” 2023, which specifically relates to those on their Voom 600, 800 and 1 Gig service tiers. But they haven’t said exactly what will change.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Virgin media is the worst broadband I have ever had always buffing and crashing I can’t get through to anyone to sort it out it’s been like it for a year now since I have subscribed.
Same here. I can sit on the same room and still get buffering and it also crashes. Speed not good as we are pn the top so called speed for this area.
Never had a problem with VM broadband but can’t say the same about there mobile system. ABSOLUTELY DISGRACEFUL has been since they joined with O2 what a disaster . IM OFF to EE
Been a Virgin customer since it’s inception & never had a problem. Steady & fastWifi throughout the house & also 20mtrs away in the garden shed. I can even get a signal in my garage with 3 brick walls between it & the router. Instead the f complaining why not change supplier?
I have had Virgin for years and had very few issues.
Virgin’s network performance seems to be highly regional. If you’re in a good area you’re golden, if you’re in a congested area then good luck.
as a new customer on there fibre from the pole im finding it really good, no dropouts, no slowdowsn even at peak times, which to be fair is very surprising. hope yours gets sorted out at some point
This is good news; it’s the first time they’ve made it to 20 Mbps upload on a reasonably competitively priced product.
Yes VM went down for a couple of hours last week in Poole Dorset and now we get the new speeds. Download 248 and upload 21.
When can we expect a letter advising of a new price increase due to the extra service.!!
Probably January/February for a March increase like they do every year
Disappointed that M200 isn’t 40Mbps upload.
if the raised the 200M product to 40M upload that wouldn’t endear them to customers of higher tiers like the 350M product which has a 35M upload
Docsis 3.1 works at a 10:1 ratio… I’m sure you can do the math.
I’m on gig and only on 52 upload your having a laugh expecting 40 upload on the m200
Just wish virgin media would reinstate the cable were i live as the as the council have buried the cable behind fire sprinkler, ducting so the hole block can’t have virgin media
What does m500 users get nothing?
What about us Gig1 customers who have had to beg, scream, rant, and fight for a hub5 just so we can get a 2.5GbE port..
And to top it off the industry’s lowest upload speed for 1gig speeds (1130mbit so more than 1 gig).
Virgin are absolutely scummy, the 52mbit upload doesn’t even saturate the 1 3.1 upload channel you get.
You share your channels with a number of other people. If a single user could saturate the channels you’d be complaining about not getting ‘what you pay for’ due to congestion.
I have a service that shows congestion on me because it’s uncapped and speeds vary depending on what other users are doing. Would you tolerate that given your outrage over the Hub 4?
The low upload speeds are a legacy of the cable network and the need to support 3.0 modems.
im also on the VM 1.1gig/55mbps profile and luckily an altnet is doing roadworks now. going live either this week or next apparently, so it’ll be bye bye virgin media for a decade. good riddens imo. they’ve robbed us blind for years.
i hope these alnet ISPs dont consolidate and merge like we had with the big cable telcos. even if it ends up costing us all a little more per month, i’d gladly go with supporting more competition because we’ve seen how bad it gets when none exists. i hope others follow suit and migrate away from VM.
@mrpops2ko
Actually from my perspective, the Virgin Media network isn’t so bad, but the support SUCKS.
Once they upgrade to 10Gb symmetric (Which they’re in the process of doing) and they provide wholesale network access, I’ll happily use them as a carrier for last mile, I just don’t want them providing IP transit or support.
Can’t be that bad mrpops2ko given you’re on their highest tier.
The altnet ISPs will consolidate a ton. Interesting point of view complaining about Virgin Media robbing you blind for years and simultaneously volunteering to pay more than you have to to ensure the viability of altnets.
The 350mbps product feels a little redundant now… here’s hoping that they get rid of it and move everyone on it to 500. Would make sense as they’d then have;
125
250
500
1000 speed products.
Thank you. I was wondering what their products were without gimmicks. Its hard to find on many isp sites these days.
See all these people moaning about virgin lol what have any other ISP’s done? The answer is Nothing … EVER! VM give customers a decent speed boots every few years Been with BT for 3 years and I’m paying double what I started with and zero boots – Thankfully virgin is building my estate just now and will be ready before year end
Decent speed boost ‘every few years’ ?? are you on a different virgin media cable system to me ? because this is the first increase in my broadband speed in the last 10 years.
@Rento in 2020 1m people on 50Mbs were upgraded free of charge to 100Mb as per https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2020/01/virgin-media-uk-boost-1-million-customers-to-108mb-broadband.html and then in 2019 did a free upload speed boost to 100Mb https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2019/09/virgin-media-uk-boosting-upload-speeds-for-100mbps-tier.html and then they upgraded Oomph customers from 500Mb to 600 as from https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2020/06/virgin-media-uk-refresh-bundles-and-add-600mbps-broadband.html
So, they’re definitely doing them, just because you’ve not been targeted doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.
“because this is the first increase in my broadband speed in the last 10 years.”
On what package?
Well talktalk which im withare offering 1gb down 1gb up im on 550down 120up so for virgin not toincrease up is a rip off , o and i never get any problems full speed all the time
@Rob You’re not actually with TT you’re most likely going to be with CityFibre, and it’s much easier to start off offering symmetrical than to upgrade it. The VM infrastructure is laid & old, they can’t just do the entire FTTP process overnight to start offering 1:1. In the distant future we might get 1:1 but at least that would be by 2030.
Been with Virgin since mid 2015. During first 12 months with them they were oversubscribed in my area and speeds during evenings were VERY poor (refunded my bills for about 6 months running). Since mid 2016 no network issues at all.. full advertised speed no matter time of the day. The only issue is having to haggle on the cost of the package every 18 months.
Prior to Virgin, I was with EE, TalkTalk and Sky and experience was much worse.
So those on 500meg and 1gig see nothing, it’s about time they uplifted 1gig upload to what it should be at 100meg rather than 50meg
VM are currently rolling out changes to provide a DOCSIS 3.1 upload channel, so I assume this is the future plan.
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2022/08/virgin-media-o2-uk-lays-groundwork-for-faster-upload-speeds.html
but Carl, even without DOCSIS3.1 on the upload, they can still offer more than they currently do on upload. They wouldn’t need to wait for 3.1 to give more than they do at present.
True, however we’ve no idea if increasing upload on DOCSIS 3.0 could cause unwanted congestion.
I can’t imagine VM would invest in the time/effort to add 3.1 upload if they didn’t need to.
How much capacity do you think the standard 4 x 3.0 upstreams provide, Bob?
Hello XGS.
I can only go by the standards i’m afraid, but DOCSIS 3.0 says 124Mbps. Unless that’s wrong?
So for VM to only offer say 50mbit on their gig1 package, even with DOCSIS 3.0 on the upload, would give more than 50mbit no?
I’m not a cable/DOCSIS expert, I have only read the specs. But there are other Liberty Global based DOCSIS networks that were on 3.0 and offering higher speeds. E.g. Utrecht/Poland.
The cable part of a DOCSIS network uses analogue RF filters and amplifiers to separate the upstream (narrow low frequency band) and downstream (wide high frequency band) signals.
The choice of band-split frequency affects the theoretical maximum upload bandwidth. In the real-world, the length of cable runs and the environmental RF noise (which is a significant problem in the low upstream band) affect the actaul upstream bandwidth available.
The HFC networks that VM operate started out as analogue cable TV (downstream only) in the 1990s.
Bob, that 124 Mbit/s, works out to 108-ish after overheads, is shared between 100 – 250 customers. Have to be a little cautious how much of it you sell to a single customer to avoid problems. DoCSIS doesn’t handle upstream congestion too well. It’s far less gracious with it than FTTP: speeds slow, latency and jitter rise a lot, eventually packet loss kicks in. Leaving 90 – 200 punters with less than 10 Mbit of upload between them is risky given DoCSIS degrades in quality substantially before 100% utilisation is hit.
Poland is ‘up to’. The advertising rules on broadband pretty much everywhere allow networks to be pushed harder than in the UK and they definitely are. Think Ziggo in Netherlands the upload on the gigabit is 50 Mbit.
VMO2 should be leaving the Polish upload speed behind shortly, once they’ve built out the DoCSIS 3.1 upstream some more.
Bob you realise that bandwidth is shared right?
For reference I have only the four 3.0 channels, I am on gig1 and only get 35mbit uploads in the evenings, so I am living proof they need to bump capacity before increasing gig1 upload spec. In areas like mine its not even enough to maintain the 50mbit upload.
I’m on 1Gb Speed on Hub4. Asked last year for Hub5 and Still waiting! Hopefully before Xmas damn!
Enjoy yet another era of network congestion and extortionate pricing for loyal customers!
That’s more than reason to ditch Virgin media 02 and buy a 5G router from amazon and get a unlimited sim only from ee and if your lucky in your area like mine you can get upto 450 mbps on there 4g plus .
That’s more than reason to ditch Virgin media 02 and buy a 5G router from amazon and get a unlimited sim only from ee and if your lucky in your area like mine you can get upto 450 mbps on there 4g plus .
Good news!
I’ve been with virgin since 2016 and find them excellent. Rock solid. I use Google WiFi with the virgin router in modem only mode, and that’s been perfect for a number of years now.
Agree no problems either. But was offered a HUB 5 and now I don’t need the Google or Netgear additions as the HUB 5 provides massively better WiFi coverage.
Quite happy to have the extra upload for the 100/10 product. But it’s still not so great really. But better than it was. If there were a symmetric 100/100 provider near me, I’d jump at it.
Rebooted as per text. 76 download speed dropped to 25.
Wow thanks for nothing
Sounds like you may have a fault, or issues with WiFi congestion – maybe worth raising on the VM forum
I’ve had enough of Virgin broadband. The company are not an organisation that I can trust when it comes to fixed-means-fixed contracts. I will be finally leaving them this year after now having an option of an alternative provider. A bit of a cat and mouse organisation in this regard. Thanks but no thanks Virgin media. Good riddance.
If anybody wonders yes they can offer upload up to 100,was standard with 500/1GB packages before they got bought by Vodafone in Romania.
Until very recently I had been a loyal customer of Virgin Media, using their landline, broadband and TV services from day 1!
I had experienced many problems with the TV service through the Tivo, so when the prices increased again and my deal came to an end, I rang them.
The response that I got was appalling and was galling when the proposed deal was not very good especially because new customers could do better.
So, I cancelled the TV and phone services and reduced my broadband connection speed.
Three weeks later, they dropped the cost to new customers further!
I posted a review on Trustpilot and Virgin replied, asking for more information – which I promptly sent…
Why I bothered, I don’t know, because that was a complete waste of my time.
As soon as Full Fibre is available in my area, I will part company with Virgin forever.
They don’t know the meaning or the value of the word LOYALTY!
Indeed they don’t. They’re a large business not a social club. You give them your money, they sell you a product. If you aren’t happy with the product or price you move. It’s a business transaction, loyalty irrelevant. You’re a customer number in a database to them, nothing more.
I have been with Virgin since 2008, every contract renewal I have managed to do a very decent price to keep me, often with higher speed internet or new equipment.
BT on the other hand wanted to charge at least £10 more than the already inflated post contract price for 150mbps to bump to 500mbps when EE and TalkTalk were just two examples where doing it substantially less. No point paying MORE for 150mbps when you can get 500mbps with higher upstream from another provider for LESS. BT just wouldn’t entertain any discount after 2 years contract and were arrogant on the phone despite being polite. In an incident they denied my mother having HALO (4g backup sent if internet not fixed) yet we had the proof where they said they had upgraded her for free some time ago automatically.
My mother just said OK and left them; their loss not hers. It’s FTTP to an ONT – easy to swap. She went to EE and despite no native IPv6 like BT had, the service is actually quicker as was laggy under BT Internet ISP. The router meanwhile stood exactly the same, the only change was the login username and password for PPoE.
So yes, some companies you are just an entry in a database like our example with BT. Virgin, through all their faults, usually do try and keep you as long as you go to retentions and not standard customer service. Sometimes you need to be prepared to cancel and walk away if offer not right, and then you may get another retentions team call you up with better offer.
Customer service is non existent, if it works great. If something goes wrong brick wall
Wow, so they rolled this out before infrastructure upgrades are done?
I have evening upstream congestion, only 35mbit upload on gig1, and I can see there is still only four 3.0 docis upstreams with no 3.1 upstream. 🙁
The thing to do is switch at the end of every contract period. All broadband providers rely on customer lethargy/inaction to milk them of cash. Take the good sign up deal and *leave* when it’s over.
I just signed up to Virgin for £18/month, 350mbps download with volt (also got an O2 SIM, though separately for a better deal). I certainly won’t be staying with them when it reverts to £57/month (!) at the end of the 18 month contract.
Good deals are out there, you just need to dedicate some time to finding them and be organised about it.
I’d just like the internet to just work properly. I don’t think there is a day that it’s worked without going off at some point. Seriously considering changing once I’m up for renewal
You lot won’t need virgin media any more soon as 5G stand-alone and 5G advanced plus coming soon
I’m getting 450mpbs on my 5G huawei cpe pro 2 on ee 4G plus in my area so bullux to virgin rip off media
The future is bright on EE 4g plus and 5G by getting a 5G router plug and play router and eventually 6G is coming as well so hopefully virgin media will redundant in the dust by 2030 .
Complete rip off company virgin media and 02 robbing scum
For instance their m500 is £62 a month rip off compared to my data only sim on EE is 34.20 due to having a second line on my EE account 10 percent discount.
Only mugs go with virgin media or 02 .
Why mugs?
VMO2 whilst not perfect, is GIG1 for me, at a very decent price that your £34.20 can’t even match. You are going by headline prices not deals that are haggled through retentions. Some of the pricing for 350 and below is very reasonable, if you take the bundled landline which you can negotiate post initial expiry of the contract.
Not everyone has 5G availability and 4G is often over subscribed. Signal strength is also an issue if you have hills too.
Anonymous because virgin media is a monopoly of broadband company I know there are a business and to make money blah blah blah but if people vote with there wallets virgin media wouldn’t be in business would they ? So I am sticking to my opinion about virgin media thank god I left them as I think there broadband teirs are overpriced abit like the new iPhone 14 Pro max when last years model iPhone 13 Pro max just as good .
I’m very lucky in my area I am getting upto 450 mpbs on 4g lte advanced plus on ee sim only unlimited for 34.20 as I got a 2 lines on my ee contract.
And to add I was a virgin media customer for 3 years in the same address and postcode and now in 2022 I can get very fast broadband via 4G plus EE upto 450 mpbs as my area just been upgraded to 4G plus last year so I am alright with 450 mbps all the time on my 5g router .
Soon as 5G standalone and 5G advanced 5G plus and 6G mobile networks arrives in future hopefully virgin media will be out of business eventually if people vote with there wallets and not there gullibility.
But your paying more for an inferior service with more latency than me when I have a 1.2gbs service with a hub5 that has 2.5gbs wan port for less than what you pay!
So using your own words, you are the mug then…
Look at the VM deals for BB + Phone. Often BB + Phone 500mbps is £35. Get a cheap £6 SIM from uswitch for O2 and you get 1gig upgrade due to VOLT and double data on your SIM tariff. This is new customer deal even. Often there is cashback on topcashback or quidco too that is normally quite hefty.
Really? I have to use a VPN to stop YouTube videos buffering on my 500mb connection, which is caused by their traffic management due to over-selling without increasing capacity!
This is a paper announcement for free publicity but won’t help anyone.
I have VM Business Voom 800, Basildon area with 5 static IPs via GRE tunnel, downstream is consistently above 850 Mbps and upstream maxes out at 86.6 Mbps.
As an existing customer of virgin for more than 20 years going back to the ntl and telewest days it would be nice if we could get a boost to a higher tier not just the ones on the 100 and 200 meg packages. what about us that are on the 350,500 gig1 are we not apart of the virgin gang also.
As a Virgin customer for 3 4 years, never had issues with Virgin broadband, however for the last 2/3 weeks, performance has been very poor. Looks like it might be time to switch providers.
We have been a Virgin customer since the start and NTL before Virgin. Virgin is one of the fastest broadband in my area. The 5g with virgin sim is currently not stable in our house on my phone and sometimes 4g comes on. The 5g is stable with virgin sim in shopping town on my phone, and 5g is stable in some other city’s on my phone.
We got deal from Virgin – volt 350mb broadband, maxit tv, asian mela, weekend calls landline for £40.75 + £10 o2 sim. We dont use the landline and o2 sim. Virgin said not cheaper if cancel landline, have to pay disconnection fee and the o2 sim is active and in a contract.
Our Virgin media deal we have had for 3-4 months, is for 18 months contract and contract ends in 2024.
We recently got hub 5, i had phone virgin for hub upgrade from hub 3 and said we are eligible for hub 5. Was no charge. The hub 5 is faster and newer chipset, also has Wifi 6.