Virgin Media M125 Fibre Broadband

Virgin Media M125 fibre broadband is the provider's new entry-level deal, offering speeds in excess of 100Mbps and some of the market's cheapest pricing.

M125 was boosted from M100 last year, when the package received a speed upgrade of 22% from 108Mbps to 132Mbps.

Priced at just £26.50 per month for new customers, Virgin Media M125 is one of the best broadband deals currently available.

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At a glance

Special offers

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Who is Virgin M125 fibre broadband best for?

Virgin Media's M125 fibre broadband plan is their cheapest broadband deal, and offers a great entry-level option with fast download speeds.

While the download speeds are fast in comparison to the UK's average of 69Mbps, it's best suited to smaller households and those with around just five to nine smart devices.

M125 fibre broadband is a good option for:

• Households with up to four occupants, especially where people aren't all trying to carry out different activities at the same time.
• One or two people working from home, where the average upload speed of 20Mbps should be adequate for video calling and content sharing.
• Streaming HD or Ultra HD content, the average download speeds of 132Mbps are more than enough to stream TV content in 1080p and even 4K resolution.
• Online gamers should find the M125 fibre broadband package plenty fast enough for cloud gaming systems and multiplayer online games. Those downloading large gaming files may find a faster deal is more suitable though.

While M125 broadband-only costs just £26.50 per month for 18 months for new customers, those who also want to bundle a home phone line will have to pay an extra £7.50 per month, plus the cost of any calls or call plans.

This can mean upgrading to M250 Volt fibre broadband and phone works out cheaper, as that only costs £31.99 per month, compared to the £34 to take M125 broadband with phone.

Additionally, if multiple occupants want to carry out bandwidth heavy activities simultaneously, like online gaming, downloading large files, video calling, or streaming in HD or UHD, they may also want to consider the upgrade to M250 Fibre Broadband, which offers double the download speed from just £4 extra per month.

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What does M125 Fibre Broadband offer?

Virgin Media's M125 broadband, previously known as M100, is the provider's entry-level broadband package, and it's their cheapest option.

It's available with or without a home phone line, as well as with the option to bundle Virgin TV, including their new Stream service.

Here is the current pricing for the two main M125 broadband packages:

As mentioned, Virgin Media M125 fibre broadband-only is the cheaper option. For those who think they'll use it, the phone plan is cheaper when taken with M250 Volt broadband, which currently costs just £31.99 per month.

Customers who take the broadband and phone option also get free calls to UK landlines at the weekend, which also adds some value.

While Virgin Media do still offer an M50 broadband plan, it's only available with a phone line, so it's not ultimately cheaper, unless customers want calls.

As M50 broadband and phone costs just £28 per month, it's the cheaper option for households who aren't looking for particularly fast broadband but who do want to keep a home phone line.

Otherwise, customers are better placed to take M125 Fibre Broadband as it's cheaper overall as a broadband-only package.

It's also worth noting out of contract prices rise on both M125 and M50 plans, to £49 and £51 per month respectively, so customers should plan to re-contract or switch away for a cheaper deal at the end of the minimum term.

Virgin Media send customers end of contract notifications when their minimum term is nearing expiry so it's less likely customers will forget to act, and we have information on negotiating a cheaper price here.

Virgin Media Volt

Usually when we review Virgin Media broadband plans, we look at the Volt bundle option as it usually offers the best value for money.

However, there is no Volt option on M50 or M125 broadband, and the first Volt bundle is on Virgin Media's M250 broadband plan.

M250 Volt Fibre Broadband + Weekend chatter is cheaper than the M125 broadband and phone plan, so it's worth considering for those who want a phone line.

As well as being £2 cheaper per month, it doubles the broadband speed, and offers the following Volt benefits:

• Virgin's WiFi Max guarantee, which promises minimum download speeds of 30Mbps in every room by providing up to three WiFi boosters, or a £100 bill credit, and is worth £8 per month otherwise
• 10GB data of an O2 mobile SIM plan with unlimited minutes and texts, worth about £16 per month
• Plus the broadband speed boost from 132Mb to 264Mb average, worth £4 per month without Volt

Other Volt benefits include a roaming bolt-on, and discounts on additional connected devices purchased through O2, which we cover in our full review of Volt.

Even with just these listed benefits they come to £28 per month, and it's cheaper for customers who would be taking a phone line anyway. However, as with all upgrades, it's important a customer would otherwise be paying for the benefits separately.

Overall, for customers looking for the cheapest Virgin Media package, M125 Fibre Broadband is the right option, and those who want to consider the upgrade to the M250 Volt plan should be sure the extra features are worth the extra £5.49 more per month.

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M125 Fibre Broadband and TV

Virgin Media M125 Fibre Broadband is available bundled both with Virgin's new Stream TV service, as well as in a few of their pre-made TV 360 bundles too.

Virgin Stream TV is basically a smart TV box exclusively available for Virgin Media broadband customers. It costs £35 to purchase, but then is completely flexible with no base monthly subscription cost. Customers only pay for the channel packs or apps they add, and these are all on rolling monthly contracts, so can be cancelled at any time.

Overall, Stream TV is the perfect way to access premium TV content as and when you want, without committing to a long-term contract.

As with broadband bundles, M125 Fibre Broadband + Stream is cheaper than M50 Fibre Broadband + Stream, so it's the best choice for value for money.

M125 broadband is no longer included in many of Virgin's pre-made TV, broadband and phone bundles, as they've upgraded the cheaper plans to M250.

These are the cheapest Virgin 360 plans, and as you can see, packages like the Big Bundle offer value for money that's worth considering. As with Volt, the Big Bundle here is cheaper than M125 broadband and phone, but also bundles a TV 360 box.

For those who want more content, the Bigger Bundle adds more premium channels, including Sky entertainment and documentaries.

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Is Virgin M125 cheaper than other providers?

Virgin Media M125 Fibre Broadband is one of the cheapest broadband plans in the UK for the download speed it offers.

While there are cheaper deals overall, in comparison to packages offering equivalent download speeds, M125 from Virgin is usually the cheapest option.

Vodafone Full Fibre 100 is more expensive than M125, although they do offer a slower Full Fibre 2 plan, with 82Mbps average speeds, for £25 per month.

Plusnet Full Fibre 145 is also more expensive, but again, they too offer a slower Full Fibre 74 plan for £26.99, just 49 pence more than Virgin Media M125.

Other packages are noticeably more expensive, with BT's Full Fibre 100 plan currently costing £37.99 per month.

Overall, M125 fibre broadband from Virgin Media is very competitively priced, and hard to beat if you're living in a Virgin Media enabled area. Right now, it also comes with a £50 bill credit for those who sign up via Choose, which offers an extra saving too.

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Is M125 Virgin's best broadband package?

As an entry-level deal, customers might wonder whether it's worth upgrading for a faster speed than Virgin's M125 offers.

However, because it's only just been boosted by 22% faster from the M100 fibre broadband package, which offered 108Mbps average download speeds at peak times, it now offers better value for money with 132Mbps speeds.

This speed boost was applied to both existing and new customers for no additional cost, so the package itself is already offering more value for money than it did as Virgin M100.

However, the next package up from M125 is M250, and this now offers twice the download speed, with average speeds at peak times of 264Mbps.

M250 also has faster upload speeds than M125, at an average of 25Mbps at peak times, compared to the average upload speed of 20Mbps for the M125 plan.

The upgrade to Virgin Media's M250 Fibre broadband plan is £4 more per month than Virgin's M125 broadband and phone deal, while out of contract prices rise by £6.

Overall, Virgin Media's M125 broadband deal should be adequate for most households, with Virgin saying the package supports 5 to 9 devices. Yet households where multiple people want to get online at the same time without affecting each other, might want to consider the faster package.

One final point, is that while Virgin Media still offer an M50 Fibre Broadband plan, it's actually more expensive than M125, even when it was M100.

Virgin Media's M50 Fibre Broadband plan is only available with a phone line and isn't available as a broadband-only product at the moment. It's also not included in any of Virgin's pre-made TV and broadband bundles.

Since Virgin launched Essentials Plus, their social broadband tariff for people in receipt of Universal Credit, with 50Mbps speeds, it's possible we may see this standard M50 broadband and phone plan withdrawn in the not too distant future.

We've more on which Virgin Media broadband plan to choose in our full review.

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How fast is Virgin M125 broadband?

Virgin Media's M125 broadband plan was boosted from M100 by 24Mbps on average at the start of November 2022.

Previously, M100 offer average download speeds of 108Mbps at peak times, and 10Mbps upload speeds. It was boosted to 132Mbps average download speeds at peak times, and 20Mbps upload speeds.

Both new and existing customers benefited from this speed boost, which was applied at no extra cost. Overall, it's made Virgin's M125 package even better value as an entry-level deal.

These average speeds are what at least 50% of Virgin's customers experience during the busiest times of 8pm to 10pm at night.

We know then, that at least half of the customers on M125 broadband will receive on average the above speeds at peak times.

In addition, independent research carried out by Ofcom into real-world speeds, published in September 2023, experienced by broadband customers looked at Virgin Media's M125 plan

Ofcom found that, both at peak times and over a 24-hour period, the customers they tested received speeds in excess of those listed by Virgin Media as their average download speeds.

Minimum guaranteed speed

For even further reassurance on what broadband speed we can expect to receive, Virgin Media list both an expected speed range and a minimum guaranteed speed, alongside their average download speeds that at least half their customers receive.

Virgin say the expected speed range for M125 broadband is:

• 133 - 137Mbps downloads at peak times (8pm to 10pm, Mon to Sun)
• 21 - 21Mbps uploads at peak times

The minimum guaranteed download speed for M125 broadband is:

• 66Mb per second

Virgin Media are signed up to a Code of Practice established by Ofcom that means if a customer's broadband speed falls below the guaranteed minimum speed given at the point of sign up for three or more days, and Virgin can't fix the problem within 30 days, the customer will be able to leave their contract penalty free.

Upload speeds

Virgin's recent speed boost from M100 to M125 saw upload speeds increasing too. In fact, they doubled from 10Mb at peak times, to 20Mb.

Independent research carried out by Ofcom was conducted after the speed boost, so we can see customers are now getting the new advertised upload speed of 20Mb.

For an entry-level package like M125 it's very unlikely customers will notice upload speeds, as the majority of online activities involve downloading data from the Internet.

Even where activities are uploading data, such as video calling in high definition, or online gaming, manufacturers state minimum upload speeds of 4Mbps for 1080p HD video calls, and 5Mbps for the PlayStation 5. So, M125's new 20Mbps upload speeds are more than adequate for even these heavy bandwidth activities.

Reliability

Ofcom's independent speed research looks at a number of different metrics as well as actual download and upload speeds.

However, as we can see from the table below, Virgin Media's network doesn't perform as well as Openreach's fibre to the premises network on a number of reliability metrics.

Virgin Media's network, like the old copper phone line network, isn't new, and so much of the cabling uses older technologies like coaxial cable to connect a customer's home.

While Virgin Media are in the process of upgrading their entire network to full fibre, at the moment Openreach have the edge on reliability as they're building their full fibre network more from scratch. However, that also means faster speeds with Virgin Media are currently much more widely available across the UK.

Read more about broadband reliability or our guide to the UK broadband networks.

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Virgin M125 broadband router

Virgin Media M125 Fibre Broadband customers are likely to receive Virgin's Hub 3 router. It's the slowest of the three Hubs currently in circulation, but it's still a dual-band router that supports 802.11ac, or WiFi protocol 5.

While WiFi 5 is no longer the latest protocol, for WiFi 6 to work it also needs to be connecting to a device with WiFi 6, and the majority of devices purchased in the last few years will be limited to WiFi 5 anyway.

Its possible customers may be given the Hub 4, or they may be able to request an upgrade if they struggle with wireless connectivity throughout their home, as the Hub 4 as slightly more powerful antennas than the Hub 3.

WiFi Max guarantee

Both the Hub 3 and the Hub 4 support Intelligent WiFi, otherwise known as mesh. This means it's now easier to connect WiFi boosters or extenders and seamlessly extend a wireless network around a home.

Virgin Media offer a WiFi Max guarantee, which provides up to three WiFi Pods (or boosters) that simply plug into an electrical socket. If after installing three boosters a customer still can't achieve at least 30Mbps download speeds in every room in their home, Virgin Media will give them a £100 bill credit, and the WiFi Max service can be cancelled with just 30 days' notice.

It's easily the best WiFi guarantee available in the market, and it's also free for Volt customers, so M250 Volt Fibre Broadband and Phone is worth considering if you have a larger home, or dead spots already, such as in a converted loft room.

Connect app

Virgin Media's Connect app is free for all Virgin Media customers and helps manage wireless signal around a home.

It's also a vital testing tool for the WiFi Max guarantee covered above to check if a customer has the WiFi Pods set up correctly.

The Connect app also has handy extra features like being able to turn off the internet in certain areas of a home, like a child's bedroom, for example.

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Verdict: Is Virgin M125 broadband any good?

Certainly, since it's speed boost, but even before that, Virgin M125 (or M100), offers a great entry-level package at very competitive prices.

The M125 Fibre Broadband option remains the best value for money, especially for customers who no longer need or want a home phone line.

For Volt, customers would need to upgrade to Virgin M250 Volt Fibre Broadband, but unless budget is the absolute priority, upgrading to Volt is seriously worth considering.

Overall, Virgin's pricing structure can be confusing, and it changes often, which means it's always a good idea to compare the latest prices and offers on our Virgin broadband deals page.

Still undecided? Read more about Sky and Virgin, where Virgin beats Sky on price, or BT or Virgin Media for the ultimate guide to the major networks.