Virgin Media Customers Face Price Hikes of £44 a Year

Millions of Virgin Media customers will pay an average of £44 a year more for their broadband, TV and landline phone packages, after price hikes announced by the telecoms giant yesterday.

Bills will rise by between £2.50 and £4.50 a month, or £30 to £54 a year, depending on the bundle. Virgin says the average price increase will be 4% or £3.63 a month.

The price increases will impact all customers who joined Virgin Media before 29 June 2020. Those who joined after that date are already paying the latest prices. Those still within the minimum term of their contract will see their prices rise once their promotional period ends, while out of contract will see bills increase from 1 March 2021.

Virgin Media hasn’t revealed exactly how many customers will be impacted but confirmed it will be “millions.” It’s writing to affected customers to inform them of the price increases.

However, customers who are considered vulnerable, including those on Virgin Media’s new Essential broadband package for people receiving Universal Credit, are excluded from the bill increases. Additionally, out of bundle landline calling costs will not increase.

Virgin has confirmed that customers impacted by the price increases can leave their contract facing early termination charges.

A spokesperson for Virgin Media said: “Changing prices is never an easy decision, which is why, unlike other providers, this is our first cable price change in 18 months. We are currently writing to cable customers to transparently communicate these changes and we will continue to work tirelessly to ensure we deliver for our customers and keep them connected at a time when it has never been more important.”

Virgin added that it is investing than £1 billion into its network each year. This includes the rollout of the DOCSIS 3.1 upgrade, boosting upload speeds to a maximum of 1104Mbps. The upgrade has reached around seven million premises, most recently in South Wales, London and Northern Ireland. Virgin. Media is aiming to extend the upgrade to all 15 million premises on its network by the end of this year.

Virgin is also in the process of a £31 billion merger with mobile operator O2, currently being investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). If approved, the merger will create one of the largest telecoms companies in the UK, with over £11 billion in annual revenue.