Going from sky to Virgin media ?

[davo172]

Virgin media got some good half price deals now

http://store.virginmedia.com/bundles/our-collections.html?buspart=portal_P2

TV phone and broadband

Anyone moved from sky to this and whats the verdict compared too sky ?

 

[Ronnie R]

Don't forget Quidco. I moved from Sky Broadband to Cable with VM...

 

[fletch8]

be interested in this.

ive got sky where i am now, but in a months time or so, ill be switching to virgin

 

[Cup_Phil]

I was about to start a thread about this

I'm with Virgin for phone + internet at the moment but sky for my TV purely because we had a 12 month contract with them

Got a letter today from Virgin offering me a free Tivo HD box, and a free box for a 2nd room - if I sign up
Looking at the deal you get sky1 HD and pretty much all the channels I watch on sky + films + loads of other stuff

I'm about to move house in the next 2 weeks and I'm tempted to just ring up and cancel sky and get Virgin to install their TV at the same time as the move

What do people think who've gone from Sky to Virgin?

 

[fletch8]

Seems expensive the best virgin package after the initial deal expires. Works out £109 for tv, broadband and phone. Granted that's with HD and espn too.

Sky with HD and espn is about £70 but then add the cost of broadband,phone and phone line to it.


Just looked then, basic sky so no espn or hd is about £82 including line rental.

 

[Cup_Phil]

Thats if you go for the 100mb broadband

I'm on that at the moment and the broadband + phone is £62 a month. Sky is £30 a month and we don't have movies or sport

£109 gives you tv with HD, espn, sports, movies - everything + 100mb broadband + phone with free calls anytime

It's actually not bad priced

 

[fletch8]

I just looked at the virgin bundles and the smaller broadband one doesnt seem to have sports packages?

 

[jordski19]

I'll break it down a bit:

Telephone = who cares, virtually all the same price and well it's just a phone.

Broadband = sky won't beat virgin in this front due to their fire optic lines. Although bt are catching up with their service (bt infinity).

Tv = virgin has a really good TiVo box now, sky's box isn't that far off. And tbh, having got the TiVo box I hardly use the features at all, and it's a gimmick that might get old at in your house quite quickly. Virgin has some of sky's HD content, but nowhere close to all, sky will always drip feed the good channels to virgin over the next gazillion years! On a flip side, virgins service never gets interrupted in the cruddy weather of this country ( which, let's be honest is common).

Im moving house soon and have no choice but to move over to sky, and I'm quite looking forward to sky Atlantic/arts and F1. (probably get those on a jb'd atv mind you). Thats my ten pence worth anyway!

 

[Cup_Phil]

Hrmm at my new house I have a living room with a 32" tv in it and a games room with a 50" tv in it

The offer of a free box for a 2nd room with no charges (sky charge £10+ a month more for a 2nd room) is really appealing as I can sit and watch motorsports in the games room while the girlfriend watches her stuff in the living room

 

[fletch8]

With virgins second box does that work in the same way as the main box would getting all the channels, but with no extra monthly charge?

Phone I'm not bothered about but phone line as this opens up anytime+ etc

 

[davo172]

I think the 45 quid a month one is a good deal tbh also you ate covered by warranty all the time your with virgin unlike sky .

 

[DannyBhoy]

Just moved from BT to Sky
We don't get good Virgin connection where I stay ;(

 

[Cup_Phil]

With virgins second box does that work in the same way as the main box would getting all the channels, but with no extra monthly charge?

Phone I'm not bothered about but phone line as this opens up anytime+ etc

Yeah it doesn't have a hard drive but I believe it connects to the other box and you can watch all the channels, all recorded stuff, all the on-demand stuff - just as you would in the main room

 

[SC03OTT]

I don't think you are able to stream content from your TiVo box to another box in the house. Yet. Both boxes will have access to the same channel however.

 

[Cup_Phil]

Well that's that done

Cancelled sky and rang virgin

10 minute phone call they agreed to terminate my current services at this address on the 2nd, install all the new services at the new house 8am on the 3rd
Full 100mb broadband, VIP package which is every single channel, sports, movies, ESPN, on-demand etc... multi room with a free V HD box, free installation, and 6 months half price

BOOM

 

[sneeks]

My 12 month half price deal with Sky ends in 5 weeks time and I will return to VM on the new £45 per month package.

 

[Jay_G]

I'll break it down a bit:

Telephone = who cares, virtually all the same price and well it's just a phone.

Broadband = sky won't beat virgin in this front due to their fire optic lines. Although bt are catching up with their service (bt infinity).

Tv = virgin has a really good TiVo box now, sky's box isn't that far off. And tbh, having got the TiVo box I hardly use the features at all, and it's a gimmick that might get old at in your house quite quickly. Virgin has some of sky's HD content, but nowhere close to all, sky will always drip feed the good channels to virgin over the next gazillion years! On a flip side, virgins service never gets interrupted in the cruddy weather of this country ( which, let's be honest is common).

Im moving house soon and have no choice but to move over to sky, and I'm quite looking forward to sky Atlantic/arts and F1. (probably get those on a jb'd atv mind you). Thats my ten pence worth anyway!

You said you have no choice but move to sky, is that because you wanted to? Or is cable not available in your new area? You can email virgin, (it's a specific email for dealing with these enquiries, it's cablemystreet@virginmedia.co.uk), they can then check if it's viable to pull cables in for your area ;-)

Iv rarely had a problem with virgin media, the only problem we have had was the cable snapped near the modem, they came and reterminated it for free. sky broadband, iv heard horror stories. I don't know why this country is still using ADSL, phone line broadband isn't great. My nan lives out in the sticks, miles away from an exchange and struggles to get 4mb/s.

On the flip side, a lot of people have problems with virgin, and customer service is "shady" to say the least. They have just lost 90% of their technical support team, shooting them self in the foot really. Check to see if BT is in your area, with Infinity. It really is good, but I would say that if I'm installing the cabling ;-)

 

[Jaff.]

Is that the same with the fibre optics jay_g? I have sky atm but I want virgin broadband but there's no point swapping because it would stillbe coming in via a phone line so I'd only switch to virgin if I could get fibre optic bb

 

[jordski19]

Jaff, if I was you I'd wait for bt to install their infinity lines in your area. You can check on their website to see when it'll happen.

Jay_G, although virgin is in my area (kempston), they don't have lines installed in the new estate I'm moving too. I'd be willing to bet bt have a deal with barratts/David Wilson. Saying that virgin haven't expanded their network for some years now.

 

[Mr Pants]

I made the move from Sky to Virgin as I had Sky TV and Virgin net, so it made sense to go all in one.

Didn't think Sky's broadband would be much good so that swayed the decision. Sky's TV is a lot more slicker I think, the Tivo box is good but it can still feel quite slow and clunky. It's not enough to warrant having Sky at extra cost though. ESPN a bonus too, only negative for me is I don't get Sky Sports 3,4 and news in HD.

 

[Jaff.]

I know we're getting some fibre optic by the end of 2014 at the latest, 2013 if we're one of the first areas they work on. But anything I can do to speed up that process I'm willing to give a go.

Sky do fibre optic now too see so if they use bt fibre lines then I could be onto a winner and stay with everything with sky

 

[GoldenMonkey]

Sky is over rated to be honest, iirc, when you pay for a film on box office, you even have to watch it at set times (or rec it obvs). Virgin wins every time, they got the on demand services, TiVO, Fibre Optic broadband, which may I add is amazing! If virgin is cheaper, its a no brainer.

 

[Jaff.]

I like sky tv I don't like virgin tv. Simple as that really, I don't buy films on box office so it doesn't bother me and I have some sort of anytime with sky anyway so I won't be getting rid of sky tv.

I do want virgin fibre bb tho, unless sky do it too. Then I'd be stupid not to stay with sky because no doubt it will be cheaper than paying 2 companies

 

[Jay_G]

Is that the same with the fibre optics jay_g? I have sky atm but I want virgin broadband but there's no point swapping because it would stillbe coming in via a phone line so I'd only switch to virgin if I could get fibre optic bb

I take it when you asked if fibre is the same, you meant about getting low speeds at high distances?
If so, Fibre works in a completely different way, it can go for miles with very little signal loss. Plus fibre has much more room for expandability, so you can get much better speeds. I take it you can't get Virgin media cable then? As Jordski said, check when infinity is installed in your area, aswell as Virgin Fibre, there is a site for both IIRC.

If I'm wrong let me know and I'll answer.

Jaff, if I was you I'd wait for bt to install their infinity lines in your area. You can check on their website to see when it'll happen.

Jay_G, although virgin is in my area (kempston), they don't have lines installed in the new estate I'm moving too. I'd be willing to bet bt have a deal with barratts/David Wilson. Saying that virgin haven't expanded their network for some years now.

Well, you can still contact Virgin Media with that email I quoted above, they will look into the area, and do surveys, duct surveys and the works. With the recent Openreach deal allowing other ISPs to use BT ducts, there has been a massive rise in Virgin cabling new builds, as it means they don't have to pay to dig up potentially miles of road, they can now just pull cables in through existing ducts.

There will definitely be BT lines in the new build, but I'm not sure about fibre. The whole project varies, from FTTC (fibre to the cab) which would deal with geographic areas, and the "last mile" (cable to your property) is over a telephone pair, obviously if the cab is far away you can get degraded speeds, but a lot less than normal ADSL. So if your area has FTTC, then yeah you will be able to get fibre.

FTTH (fibre to the house), is fibre optics from the exchange all the way to the property, as it's a new build, they might of done it while installing the copper to save time, but if not they will do it by area. So will have to check when your area is cabled.

HTH

Jamie

 

[Jaff.]

You've completely lost me there mate lol.

Basically I'm happy with my sky tv but I want fibre optic broadband for better speeds. I don't mind how I get that be it by having virgin, bt or sky fibre optic broadband (sky bein preferable as I have my tv with them).

I know my area (Britton ferry near Neath south Wales) is due something soon, think it was something related to bt or I just typed into google "when will Britton ferry be getting fibre optic broadband" and got my answer from there but after reading your reply I fear there's more to it than I first thought

 

[Jay_G]

You've completely lost me there mate lol.

Basically I'm happy with my sky tv but I want fibre optic broadband for better speeds. I don't mind how I get that be it by having virgin, bt or sky fibre optic broadband (sky bein preferable as I have my tv with them).

I know my area (Britton ferry near Neath south Wales) is due something soon, think it was something related to bt or I just typed into google "when will Britton ferry be getting fibre optic broadband" and got my answer from there but after reading your reply I fear there's more to it than I first thought

Allright mate

Did a little bit of research for you whilst I was at work last night.

The Britton ferry exchange is due to be upgraded to fibre in sep-2012, then it's waiting till they get fibre to the nearest cab to your new build. Also, another bit of good news is that it's FTTC, meaning less work, as the cable from the cab to your property is short enough to use existing telephone cabling.

So cut a long story short, your exchange is going to be "fibre ready" September this year. With any luck they will have upgraded all cabs to fibre on time for that, if not that's what you will be waiting for. There is a BT retail site you can use to see if your postcode, or telephone number (if it's from BT) is enabled for fibre.

If September is too far, either email VM on that email above, or try to see if you can get a date online for VM.

HTH, sorry to confuse

 

[Jaff.]

September is fine I can wait until then lol. Summer in the mean time so im hoping I'll hardly use it due to being out etc. so I can deal with what I have for the moment.

Thanks for the info and the help you've cheered me up telling me that lol

 

[mark_182_54]

im on virgin 20mg internet full tv channels bar sky sports or movies and extra box upstairs for 54 pounds a month !

 

[davo172]

Rang sky yesterday said oh we do fibre optic broadband now ! At 20 quid EXTRA a month ! ! Flol

 

[Ben.m]

I am changing from sky to virgin this Wednesday coming...sounds like I have made a good move with an all in one package that is cheaper than sky with faster broadband....

 

[Jaff.]

So there's some digging up of roads nearby, should I be getting exited lol?

Any clues as to what they're putting in the ground? I don't want to be upset by 'gasworks' lol