Virgin Media has unveiled a new faster tier for its cable broadband. You can now go higher than the previous cap of 350mbps, but there’s a catch for people looking to upgrade.
The new VIVID 500 broadband tier offers 500mbps downloads and 35mbps uploads, and because Virgin Media overprovisions broadband speeds to ensure people meet the average performance, you may do better than this. The max speeds are actually 575mbps and 38.5mbps respectively for super-speedy performance: as the company states, a 4K UHD film of 20GB could download in just six minutes on the new tier.
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So what’s the catch? Well, currently this kind of speed is only available on the V.VIP bundle which also happens to be v-v expensive. You need to take on a huge television subscription and mobile phone SIM to get that speed.
The V.VIP bundle costs £99 per month for the first 12 months and then £139 after that, plus a £25 setup fee. As well as the ridiculously fast connection speed, you get two v6 TV boxes, over 300 channels including BT Sport, Sky Sports and Sky Cinema, as well as a 12-month mobile SIM with unlimited data and minutes. Quite a lot, then, but then you’d expect nothing less for something that will cost £1,213 for the first year.
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If that all sounds a bit pricey, then you can still opt for a package without TV, but currently both broadband only and broadband/phone packages are capped at the 350mbps tier. They are substantially cheaper, however with the 350mbps broadband-only subscription costing £52 per month.
Does the new V.VIP bundle sound like a good deal? Do you even need that kind of speed? Let us know on Twitter: @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
