Virgin Media UK Returns to 24 Month Contracts for New Customers
New customers looking to take a home broadband package or bundle from UK ISP Virgin Media (O2) may like to know that the service provider will today be moving from 18-month minimum term contracts to longer 24-month terms. The change does not impact existing customers, at least it won’t until you need to upgrade or re-contract.
We should point out that it’s not unusual for providers in this market to occasionally play musical chairs with the length of their minimum terms. The advantage of signing up to a longer term is that it tends to lock-in cheaper (discounted) pricing for a longer period, which saves you money and gives the ISP greater certainty over future revenues.
The disadvantage is of course that it can also make it harder or more expensive for customers to escape their existing contract, particularly if they experience protracted difficulties with the service further down the road. Having said that, both 18-month and 24-month terms are fairly common in this market, although it’s nicer when ISPs give you a fair choice of different contract lengths.
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Take note that some of Virgin Media’s package discounts will also be changing today, with the price of their 250Mbps broadband service becoming £28.99 pm, while 350Mbps will oddly fall to £27.99 and 500Mbps is now £32.99. But remember that these prices will increase by +£3.50 every April.
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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Great, another reason not to think about joining Virgin Media!
None of the providers have had the guts to go for a 36 month or even 48 month contract though…
That’s because 24month is the longest contract that OFCOM allows providers to offer consumers.
Hate these 24 months contract! Glad I am in no contract with Cerberus!
You omit the other disadvantage of long contracts. You’re locked into them even if you move to an unserved property during their period. There are regulatory protections, but it seems many iSPs don’t understand that.
Virgin were particularly bad at trying it on, only refunding many marks sorry, customers – me included – after Ofcom belatedly came down on them.
If you moved to a new house where they don’t have service your contact can be terminated early no charge (as that’s there fault for sticking below 45% coverage so they didn’t have to open there network up to other providers
Believe me, I argued that case but got nowhere. We’d moved house and also moved my Dad into a care home in the new locality. 3 months later he died, so overall I just didn’t have the time to escalate the issue as I usually would.
About 9 months later a cheque for £220 or so plopped into the letterbox with a pathetic non-apology. No real admission that they’d broken the rules, just “Ofcom told us to do this”
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I’m going through it at the moment with an otherwise reputable Openreach FTTC ISP. Need to move house mid 12 month contract.
They’re wanting a disconnection fee, full payment of my old contract months, and for me to sign up to a fresh 12 month contract at my new address as they’re ‘non-transferable’.
It’s Aquiss in my case, going to cost me about £180 with them just to move house.
24-month contract for broadband.
You people are nuts.
Then after that it will go up by 30%… VM still do not get it.
Oh they get it, but they get away with it so they keep doing it. There’s one born every minute.
I asked them years ago for 5 years I was so sick of the musical chairs every 18 months. Their service is fine – as long as I don’t have to talk to them.
Really hoping my current is my last contract with them, finally looking like BT and others are putting fibre around the town.
Lucky! VM via nexfiber are my only fiber option. Openreach have forgotten us and the altnets won’t take new orders (heck knows what giganet/all points/cuckoo are doing).
Just coming up fir renewal and thought of another 24 months of vm abysmal service makes me cry…
‘Escape’ is the right word when it comes to Virgin broadband. Best not go there in the first instance..
To be honest, the deals you can get with Virgin are still unmatched if you watch sport
£72 a month
1gb, two tv boxes
Every channel in uhd including sports, bt sports and movies
Landline.
No Sky Atlantic but who cares
Coool story… when broadband users leave due to stupid pricing and contract structure and Virgin want to make up the bottom line you’ll regret saying that.
How did you get that, I renegotiated in March till Aug 26 and I managed to keep my £75 a month with everything except BT/TNT sports, I do have Netflix Premium included tho.
We have BT and CityFibre here now but the deal with Virgin cant be matched.
We have no issue with the service and it just works.
Probably the kiss of death saying that!
I thought I was doing well at renewing for £93. TNT and UHD included…same as you.
I think Virgin are now well aware of the AltNets and I’m guessing they are losing a lot of BB customers to them
I get all that with Virgin and only pay £63 a month.
I’ve been with Virgin so long it was called NYNEX when I signed up 30yrs ago but their customer service is so bad now I’m counting the days until my current 18m contract expires. For example during a phone call I asked for an email confirming what they were saying. The reply “sorry we don’t have access to email at Virgin” Think about that Virgin staff say they can’t send or receive emails in 2025. WOW
Not having access to email is a safety feature in many overseas call centres, it stops them sending out confidential customer information that can be used for fraud later, especially if that country’s data laws are lax.
Was that an indian “customer service” agent.. they have a level of lying that is legendary.
My third party router failed, so I had to use to their VM hub 3. Awful, even when I was in direct line of sight (about 1.5m away) I was getting circa 0.25 Mbit. VM “tech” support said I was too far and it was my fault. The indian was repeating their “fraking” bs and I hung up.. Moved away and so far so good with CF.
Avoid at all costs.
Those who think they have an alternative to Virgin Media for broadband and Pay TV should think again as both EE TV and Sky also have 24-month contracts. Other operators like BT and Vodafone also have 24-month contracts.
Hyperoptic allow you to pick 1, 12 or 24 month contracts.
Don’t buy bundled broadband and pay TV. Simples.
Decent monthly contract broadband supplier, Aquiss, IDnet, A&A. Pay a year if you watch a lot for Netflix, Paramount+ or even Now, or if not pay for just a month when there’s something you want to stream. Maybe the numbers don’t work if you’re a couch potato sportsperson, but that’s not me 🙂
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Sky offer TV on a 31-day rolling contract. Have to pay more each month but the option is there. EE resell Sky Stream as well as having their own service with a 24-month contract.
NowTV has more flexible options too so they’re there if people want them. There are alternatives for pay TV and after that broadband is some shopping around.
Pay TV is dead!
I finally got out of contract in January, now use Aquiss with NowTV on my Apple TV for pay channels. I haven’t had to call Aquiss since I joined, I have to pinch myself each time a month goes past without calling them. It’s a strange experience having a connection that just works with no issue. Bliss…
I’m not opposed to it personally, choice would be great though
Looks like I just managed to sign up with an 18 month contract.
No other full fibre choice until end of next year (openreach). And I’ll be jumping ship straight away as I HATE this practice:
£28.99 first 18 months..Then £75.50.
Their customer service is appalling and mostly can’t understand what is being said. Talk too fast with dialect that’s difficult to understand. I absolutely hate contacting VIRGIN because of this.I get very stressed because I know how long I have to wait, firstly them having to negotiate by threatening to leave.Virgin, I phoned recently to cancel on behalf of my Mother in Law, pressed option for cancelling and guess, yes, was put onto retention team with the hard sell.
I thought Virgin had been fined for that recently.MyMum in Law had come to the end of her contract and was then being charged £113 a month. She was not told broadband was now a must have item and low and behold she is 85 and doesn’t use broadband. If I hadn’t stepped in they would have continue to rip her off. Virgin are good if you don’t want to talk to them. Maybe sourcing there services somewhere else.
Not going to be an issue here, Virgin is not going to come here, even their Nexfibre have pulled out.
I am fine with a long contract, less time wasted renegotiating it.
But this locks you in to 2 price rises in the term, so it will end +£7 from where it started, which I am not fine with.
Only Vermin and Gigaclear available here, I wish Gigaclear would do multigig.