Broadband ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) is today claiming to have launched the “UK’s Fastest WiFi Guarantee” in “every room or money back,” which is to be included “at no extra cost” on their 1Gbps broadband packages and all Volt bundles. Customers on their 50Mbps to 500Mbps plans (without Volt) can add it for £8 extra a month.
Firstly, it’s useful to remind our readers that Virgin Media had previously been offering an Intelligent Wi-Fi and Home Pass add-on for their packages, which combined improvements to the firmware of their HUB broadband routers with Plume’s smart home Mesh WiFi system (repeaters) in order to deliver improved wireless connectivity around the home.
The new WiFi Max guarantee appears to be taking a similar approach and for a similar price, but they’re now promising customers minimum download speeds of 20Mbps (Megabits per second) in every room of their home or £100 credit back (most other WiFi guarantees tend to promise minimum download speeds of around 3Mbps to 10Mbps).
According to the blurb, if Virgin Media customers “can’t stream Netflix and YouTube content in glorious UHD or 4K in every room due to poor WiFi speeds below 20Mbps“, they’ll be offered up to 3 mesh WiFi pods (repeaters) to help improve their connectivity or, as above, you’ll get £100 credit back if the pods don’t help.
However, it’s worth pointing out that the reference to 20Mbps being enough for 4K video streaming is only using Google and Netflix’s definition, but in reality most of us will also be doing more than just streaming a 4K video and so you generally need a bit of extra network speed to allow for multiple use scenarios.
Jeff Dodds, Chief Operating Officer at VMO2, said:
“Delivering fast and reliable broadband is at the heart of our business. We know how important seamless connectivity is, and as our customers’ needs evolve beyond just speed, we’ll continue to enhance our products and services to ensure we meet those needs. That’s why we’re investing to improve our Connect app and have today launched our market-leading WiFi guarantee so our customers can work, play and stream safe in the knowledge their connectivity needs are covered.
Virgin Media’s new WiFi guarantee goes hand-in-hand with its self-optimising hubs and signal boosting mesh WiFi Pods to offer customers complete peace of mind that they’ll get reliable WiFi in every room or money back.”
As hinted above, VM has also revamped its “Connect” app with enhanced features, so customers have more control over their connectivity. With the newly refreshed app, customers can test the strength of their WiFi room-to-room with the immersive ‘home scan’ functionality, manage devices that are connected to their home network – including pausing a WiFi connection to individual devices – and access in-app customer support should they need help resolving any problems.
Virgin Media customers who have a Hub 3, Hub 4 or Hub 5 router can all access the newly updated Connect app features (see below).
Features of Virgin’s Updated Connect App
➤ A new home scan capability so customers can test WiFi performance around the home, room by room, as well as testing speeds to the hub
➤ The ability to manage WiFi Pods including checking signal strength and which devices are connected to each pod
➤ The power to pause WiFi on individual devices – ideal for families who prefer a device free dinner
➤ Access to in-app customer support 7 days a week
➤ The option to reboot their Hub directly via the app
➤ The capacity to share their WiFi password with guests in one simple tap
As to whether this really is the fastest WiFi speed guarantee in the UK.. well, no, it isn’t. Admittedly, most of VMO2’s primary competitors do tend to offer a minimum WiFi speed of up to 10Mbps under their related mesh systems. But back in June 2022 the alternative full fibre operator Connect Fibre also claimed to launch the “UK’s best home Wi-Fi guarantee” (i.e. a minimum speed of 30 Mbps in every room) – here.
We think VMO2 could probably get away with saying this is the fastest “widely available” WiFi guarantee, but it’s NOT the UK’s fastest. Sorry to burst that PR bubble. Otherwise, consumers could of course just purchase their own Mesh WiFi system and save money over the longer-term, but then you wouldn’t benefit from the guarantee, custom optimisations and ISP provided support.
Separately, Virgin Media is also giving new customers the chance to enjoy £200 bill credit when they purchase Bigger Movies, Bigger Sports or the Ultimate Volt bundle, but only if you order within the next few days.
It’s gonna take a bit more than a little WiFi box to make me pay up VM gigabit prices, for their network.
The altnets are destroying them, and they still want £60+ a month for their gigabit with only 50mbit upload haha.
Altnets seem entirely unbothered about the town I live in (not an absolutely tiny place either population is somewhere around 25 thousand) the choice is 55/10 Openreach or Gig/52 at Virgin….
Also Virgin has just recently enabled a docsis 3.1 channel on the upstream so I suspect we’ll see Gig1 get a boost in upload soon, maybe a couple hundred or so.
yes! XGS-PON altnet being built near me (Youfibre). £39 for gigabit in both directions. We shall be giving VM their marching orders as soon as it’s live. They’ve not cared for decades around our way because they knew they were the only ones offering above VDSL2 speeds.
The altnets have given them a huge kick up the backside. I can’t wait. I feel for my brother and his family though. Their only options are 8meg DSL or Virgin, and Virgin is charging them an arm and a leg for crap TV and crap broadband.
Any home lucky enough to have a decent connection should really invest in their own home network, and the best way to do it is with a mesh system. We have tried lots of different ones, and even the really cheap ones (currently the little tenda nova mw3 are only £50 for three) do a great job. The BT whole home mesh range is also very good and easy to set up. Get your own mesh and stay independent from your ISP.
Totally agree. BT WholeHome wifi mesh system works well – may not be the prettiest but it’s fairly cheap and gives me 100 Mbps in every room of my 3200 square foot house using three discs.
I switched from BT to Vodafone, plugged the main disc into the new router and worked like a dream straight away.
Completely agree – I personally use a Ubiquiti Unifi network, it works great and provides near max speeds throughout the house – my AP’s are not mounted to the celling, so they’re not as good as they should be
I can’t find how to manage the WiFi pods in the app and I can’t scam rooms that are connected to the pods.
I’d expect VM’s uploads to be no more than 115mbps based on current ratio of DL/UL and the extra downstream and QAM.
Once VM have done the work (2028) for Hybrid HFC to FTTP they will have capability for up to 10gbps offering should they wish.
Pricing for new customers is ridiculous, but if you are existing at end of contract and you already have an O2 SIM then you can negotiate a decent price for 500mbps that then gets to 1GB because of the O2 Sim and VOLT benefit.
I refute this claim with first-hand experience since moving from this obsolete 350mbit HFC VM product to 1gbit FTTP via our ex-publicly owned telecoms provider in which my Wi-Fi speeds increased from 100-300mbit on VM with their terrible SH3 router to a constant 500mbit on my new provider with their own router and thus maximising as much as the 80MHz of 5GHz spectrum available to me. A router that is okay for most people and is changeable if not. Not to mention I get constant 1gbit all day other Ethernet, much bigger upload, no cut-outs or network issues at all, ipv6 and most important of all, cheaper than — in my experience, after ten years of neglect, the worst ‘business’ in the UK.
I wonder if they will start using the plume Wi-Fi 6 pods instead of the old pods mind you ok costly but I’m using the xt12 ASUs twin pack and a rp-ax56 plug in and I can’t see that ever being bettered imo
Virgin might have the best broadband but the customer service is extremely poor , we helped our disabled son to get virgin Wi-Fi in his name he has severe mental health problems , not only did they not put it in his name but put it in my wife’s name even worse whilst contacting virginmedia about this the agent said and I quote “ so I understand your son is a retard, when I challenged it they hung up the call. Virgin could merge with Tesla once my contract is over we’re cancelling our virgin broadband and both virgin mobile contracts .
Virgin might have the best broadband but the customer service is extremely poor , we helped our disabled son to get virgin Wi-Fi in his name he has severe mental health problems , not only did they not put it in his name but put it in my wife’s name even worse whilst contacting virginmedia about this the agent said and I quote “ so I understand your son is a retard, when I challenged it they hung up the call. Virgin could merge with Tesla and I wouldn’t go with them again , once my contract is over we’re cancelling our virgin broadband and both virgin mobile contracts .
Virgin REALLY need to start reading customer feedback, stop adding crap nobody really wants, cut 90% of their marketing budget and sort their network out. As a Virgin customer who was the first in my area to get Gig1 when it launched, it WAS great, but within a year Vermin Media do what they always do and since then have HUGELY oversubscribed the local network and up until about midnight you cannot game without a VPN or you’re teleporting all over the show or stuttering every other step in FPS games. Download and upload is always fine….but what’s the use of having all that speed if the only good thing is can do is scroll Facebook or Twitter?
Iv got them and they’re no good at all customer service do not have any knowledge of the WiFi extendeders the same is also said with the engineers It took three weeks to set them up and still have problems with the WiFi signal Virgin media need to be trained first before sending out to the customers
I’m confused by Virgin’s marketing. On the one hand:
> 50Mb isn’t fast enough, you should give us more money for a faster package
> 20Mb is fast enough so we won’t send you another WiFi extender
I think they need to decide what sort of speeds consumers need and then market accordingly.
The second number is the minimum speed for WiFi in the worst room in the house. The first number is the sum of all devices connected which may be closer to the router and/or connected via ethernet.
A little surprised Sky haven’t adopted this kit yet as it’s nearly the same kit which Comcast use for their xFi product. But Sky does use it for their Italian BB product.
For the past 10 days my virginmedia broadband has been a nightmare. Connecting then disconnecting as soon as you try to search online. They keep saying that there is a fault in the area and that it would be sorted Monday 5th at 5 pm. It’s now Monday 12th and still cannot get anything to connect for more than 60 seconds,yet I am still being charged for having no internet.
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