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Virgin mobile broadband

Virgin overview

  • Straight forward dongle-only deal gives you a choice of either 1GB or 3GB download allowance with advertised speeds now of up to 7.2Mb.
  • You can get a short, flexible 2 month contract if you prefer not to commit to 18 months.
  • Virgin use the T-Mobile network, so coverage is pretty good across the UK.

Currently showing the top 3 of 4 results show all»

Best selling Virgin mobile broadband deals

Hardware Price/mth Speed(Up to) Downloads(limit) Contract
Virgin Media dongleDongle info» £10.00 7.2Mb 1 GBper month 18
months		 Go
Virgin Media dongleDongle info» £15.00 £24.99 setup 7.2Mb 3 GBper month 2
months		 Go
Virgin Media dongleDongle info» £15.00 7.2Mb 3 GBper month 18
months		 Go

Currently showing the top 3 of 4 results show all»

Virgin road test

Virgin Media Road test
Virgin Media Huawei E160 dongle
Downloads
rating -5 stars5 stars
Uploads
rating -3 stars3 stars
Most stable
rating -3 stars3 stars
Coverage
rating -4 stars4 stars
Feelgood factor
rating -4 stars4 stars
Dongle software
rating -5 stars5 stars
Overall rating
rating -5 stars5 stars

May 2009

The Huawei E160 provided to us by Virgin Media was almost identical to the E160s provided by Orange and O2 (except for the software and colour scheme), while the company uses the T-Mobile network for its mobile broadband connection - so why did the Virgin Media dongle comfortably outperform all three? Perhaps its rivals will blame the wrong type of leaves being on the line.

The E160 is a sleek, classy looking dongle and Virgin Media's choice of a silver and matt black finish adds to the effect. Once popped into a USB socket the software installs immediately and we were ready to get online in just a couple of minutes, completely fuss free.

While the connection console won't win any cutting edge design awards, it displays everything you need in an uncluttered and easy to understand fashion. There's no need to mess around with any settings - there are techy options available for those that want them, but the average user can just click 'connect' and off you go. The main screen shows you upload and download speeds, both in numbers and via a graph, while daily, monthly and yearly usage is also displayed.

The Virgin Media dongle completed all but one of the Mobile Broadband Genie speed tests throughout the trip, and while its performance for uploads was average at best (including failing to upload an image to Facebook) its download performance was the best by some distance. It easily handled streaming video and audio, plus downloading podcasts, and consistently returned the top speed test results: its average was a third better than closest rival Vodafone, while being more than fifty per cent quicker than all the other dongles tested on this trip.

Virgin's E160 completed all the download and streaming tests either quickest or within a few seconds of its closest rival, walking away with the Best Coverage runner up award along the way. However, we did receive a high number of disconnections, which can be frustrating, especially in rural areas and through tunnels. That said, it had the speed to recover from these pitfalls even when downloads had to be restarted, still coming in faster than some of the slower dongles that managed to hold their signal. Overall, a very impressive performance and on this evidence clearly ahead of the field.

Overall analysis of the Mobile Broadband Genie Road Trip 2009

by Chris Marling May 2009

About Virgin

There's no denying Virgin Media has a great brand, but is it a great mobile broadband product? We've found it to be one of the best out there, but this could well be due to a lack of numbers using its service: where others seem to be a victim of their success, Virgin Media seems to have plenty of bandwidth to play with as far as the mobile internet is concerned. We also get very few customer complaints about it, compared to its rivals. That said, its not like you're spoilt for choice: currently Virgin only has one mobile broadband deal on offer, which probably explains why not many people are heading its way.

While part of the Virgin Media brand (since February 2007), Virgin Mobile isn't actually a mobile network in its own right: it's what is know as a 'mobile virtual network operator', or MVNO - which means it uses another company's network for its mobile phone and mobile broadband service (in this case T-Mobile). In fact, when it launched in 1999, it was the world's first MVNO. Virgin Media was a distant last into the 3G mobile broadband UK market in October 2008. There is currently only a solitary mobile internet contract available, just one lonely dongle, and nothing at all if you're looking for pay as you go mobile broadband. Sorry - no free laptop deals either.

While its mobile broadband product doesn't write many headlines, its worth remember it sits alongside the Virgin Media Quadplay offer: the company is now offering cable TV, telephone and fixed-line broadband as well as its mobile phone deals. We guess 'quinplay' doesn't have quite the same ring to it...

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Virgin customer reviews

Show all 23 Virgin Mobile Broadband reviews»

unhappy

by chris powell
at 17:44 on 1 Feb 2010

I would just like one that works, this was a disaster. Never worked longer than 3 or 4 minutes before laptop froze. Wouldn't even install on new laptop.
Trying to get hold of someone to talk to - usual story - long waiting times.
Eventually gave up, cancelled the contract, stuck with a useless (expensive) dongle which they won't refund me on.
Bought a cheap pay as you go one, cost a quarter of the price, and works perfectly Report abuse
neutral

by Wendy Cross
at 13:32 on 28 Jan 2010

So many complaints about slow speed - do you all really need a dongle? I live in a rural area where my telephone line broadband is only 56kps on average. I had hoped to get faster speed with a dongle, but it seems I can't even get coverage.
You people are so lucky. Report abuse
neutral

by Fernie | registered | 2 posts
at 15:28 on 26 Nov 2009

I've subscribed virgin broadband for my course and research and it is really bad and overcharge my account 4 times more without anynotice. It make me cancel it for some reason. I feel they very unethical cyberbusines practice.
They try to take it to court and i take them to CAB. It is very bad reputation for certain scammmy internet provider. I wish they know how to make the internet world for everyone using it saftely and inclusively.
I don't need to runaround in the library cause the town i use only 1 hour a day that is totally rediculously and some people doing acadmic research and all purpose usage.
Bless.

Report abuse
neutral

by peggy
at 07:02 on 19 Nov 2009

I have the flashdrive (Virgin Mobile MC760) but I desperated the CD to download the program into my computer, while in the processing of moving we lost the CD and to use it just for storage with it 3GB is a very expensive storage flash drive, can you please help me as a broadband unit as well? Thank you for listening and hopefully for your help (I bought it at Best Buy) DESPERATE. Report abuse

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