Virgin Media M350 Fibre Broadband

Virgin Media M350 is the provider's mid-tier broadband plan, sitting between the entry-level M125 and M250 options and the faster M500 and Gig1 tiers.

At 362Mbps average download speed, it's well above the UK average and handles busy households with multiple devices and users without strain.

M500 is currently priced lower than M350, so it's worth comparing both before signing up - though M350 remains the speed tier included in Virgin Media's Mega TV bundles.

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Quick verdict

Virgin Media M350 delivers average download speeds of 362Mbps - well above the UK average of 285Mbps - making it comfortably fast enough for busy households with multiple users and devices online simultaneously. All customers receive the Hub 5 router as standard, with WiFi 6 support that helps those speeds reach across the home rather than just near the router.

At £28.99/month, M350 is worth comparing carefully against Virgin's own M500 before signing up - M500 currently costs £1/month less despite being faster. M350 makes most sense for customers taking a TV bundle, where it's the base speed tier in Virgin's Mega TV packages, or for O2 customers who unlock Volt benefits automatically - including the WiFi Max whole-home guarantee at no extra cost.

For broadband-only customers, M500 is currently the better buy. For anyone wanting TV or already on O2, M350 bundles represent strong value and a well-rounded package - the speeds are more than enough, the router is good, and the bundle options are flexible.

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At a glance

Virgin Media M350 broadband plans

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What does Virgin Media M350 include?

M350 is a broadband-only plan at its base level, with average download speeds of 362Mbps and upload speeds of 36Mbps. All customers receive Virgin Media's Hub 5 router as standard, which supports WiFi 6 and covers most homes without additional hardware.

The plan comes with unlimited usage and no traffic management, so there's no throttling during peak hours. A home phone line is optional - anytime calls to UK landlines and mobiles can be added for £8/month as part of a bundle.

M350 also supports a range of add-ons for customers who want more from their package:

• Volt - pairs M350 with an O2 SIM for doubled mobile data, WiFi Max and other Volt benefits across the household
• WiFi Max - whole-home WiFi guarantee with mesh pods, ensuring at least 30Mbps in every room, for £8/month
• Symmetrical uploads - available in FTTP areas for £6/month, boosting upload speeds to match downloads
• TV - M350 is included in Virgin Media's Mega TV bundles; Flex and premium channel add-ons also available
• Call plans - weekend and evening, anytime, or international calling upgrades available on top of the included line

For customers who want TV, Volt, or both, M350 bundles can represent strong value - the add-ons together would cost considerably more taken separately elsewhere.

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Is M350 fibre broadband the right choice for me?

At 362Mbps average, M350 is well above the UK average of 285Mbps and handles busy households without strain. It's the right fit for families with multiple people online at the same time, or anyone running a mix of streaming, gaming, and working from home across several devices.

The speed headroom makes it a practical choice for 4K streaming on more than one screen, fast game downloads, and video calls without quality drops - even during the evening peak when home networks are at their busiest.

M350 is well suited to:

• Households of 4-6 people with multiple devices online simultaneously
• Gamers downloading large files or playing online in HD and Ultra HD
• Streaming 4K content on multiple screens at once
• Working from home with video calls and large file transfers
• Existing O2 customers, who can pair M350 with a Volt bundle to double their mobile data allowance

O2 customers are worth calling out specifically: having both Virgin Media and O2 automatically unlocks Volt benefits, including the WiFi Max whole-home guarantee at no extra cost and doubled data on every O2 plan in the household. Non-O2 customers can still access the same benefits by adding an O2 SIM to their M350 package.

M350 is also the speed tier included in Virgin Media's Mega TV bundles, making it a natural fit for customers who want broadband and TV together without paying for more speed than they need.

One important caveat: M500 is currently priced lower than M350, offering faster speeds for less each month. Households that prioritise raw speed over bundle structure should check both before committing.

For most families, though, 362Mbps is more than enough - and the range of bundle options around M350 means it can be tailored to suit most households without overspending.

Compare the latest Virgin Media broadband prices.

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How much does Virgin Media M350 cost?

M350 is currently priced at £28.99/month for broadband only, with the broadband and phone bundle available for £36.99/month. Both plans are on 24-month contracts with free setup.

The table below shows current pricing for both M350 options.

Virgin Media's annual price rise is £4/month, applied from the customer's April bill each year. The rise dates shown in the table reflect when those increases land during the minimum term, so it's worth factoring the higher figures into any budget planning rather than going by the headline price alone.

At the end of the minimum term prices rise further, but Virgin Media sends an end of contract notification in advance, giving customers time to switch or renegotiate. Ofcom research found that around 10% of Virgin Media customers who re-contracted at that point saved an average of £7.74/month by doing so.

Annual price rises are common across the broadband market, but Virgin's structured rise schedule at least makes the increases predictable.

M350 with calls

M350 can be taken with a home phone line, and the most cost-effective way to do it is as a pre-built broadband and phone bundle - anytime calls to UK landlines and mobiles is included for just £8/month more than the broadband-only price.

Taking line rental separately is considerably more expensive. The call plans below are priced on top of standalone line rental at £19/month, making the bundle the obvious route for anyone who wants calls included:

Volt customers also have access to an O2 SIM with unlimited minutes to UK landlines and mobiles, which covers most calling needs without a landline at all.

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M350 broadband + Virgin TV

M350 is included in Virgin Media's TV plans, with a range of bundles available depending on how much TV you want alongside your broadband.

The entry-level bundle - M350 Entertainment + Netflix - is Virgin Media's Mega TV package, which includes the Stream box as standard for all customers, Netflix, Sky Atlantic, and Sky Entertainment channels. Sky Atlantic joined Virgin Media's lineup in April 2026, ending its long-running exclusivity with Sky.

The Cinema and Sports tiers add Sky Cinema or Sky Sports on top of the Mega TV base, with all three options available on 24-month contracts with free setup.

For customers who want flexibility rather than a full TV bundle, Virgin Media Flex is worth considering. Flex adds the Stream box to a broadband-only or broadband and phone plan for £5/month, letting customers take premium channel packages on rolling monthly contracts without committing to a full TV deal.

As with all Virgin Media bundles, out-of-contract prices rise steeply at the end of the minimum term. Negotiating a new deal at that point is worth doing - Virgin customers who re-contract typically save meaningfully versus staying on the out-of-contract rate.

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M350 vs M500 broadband

The next step up from M350 is M500, which offers average download speeds of 516Mbps and upload speeds of 52Mbps. The table below shows how the two plans compare on price.

M500 is currently £1/month cheaper than M350, despite offering 154Mbps more download speed and faster uploads. On broadband-only, the maths straightforwardly favours M500.

M500 also opens the door to TV and broadband bundles for those who want a mobile SIM and Volt benefits alongside faster speeds, including the whole-home WiFi guarantee.

Should you upgrade?

At current prices, M500 costs less than M350 and delivers significantly faster speeds - so for broadband-only customers, it's the more sensible option in most cases.

The question of whether to upgrade is really about whether the extra speed makes a practical difference. At 362Mbps, M350 already handles a busy household with ease - multiple 4K streams, gaming, and video calls running simultaneously won't push it. M500's 516Mbps becomes more relevant for very large households, power users regularly transferring large files, or anyone who simply wants the headroom.

Given the current £1/month price difference, the upgrade costs nothing in real terms. Most customers shopping on broadband-only should default to M500 unless there's a specific reason to stick with M350.

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How does Virgin M350 compare?

M350 sits in an awkward spot for direct comparisons - most full fibre providers offer tiers at 150Mbps or 300Mbps, with nothing that closely matches Virgin's 362Mbps. The table below uses 300Mbps plans from rival providers as the nearest equivalent.

The comparison doesn't flatter M350 at current prices. EE's Full Fibre 300 is significantly cheaper at £23.99/month, and Plusnet's 300Mbps plan undercuts Virgin too at £24.99/month. More tellingly, both Sky and Vodafone offer 500Mbps plans - faster than M350 - for less per month. Virgin's own M500 is also cheaper than M350 right now.

Router quality varies across these plans. EE supplies a WiFi 7 router as standard, while Sky and Vodafone both include WiFi 6 - the same standard as Virgin's Hub 5. Plusnet customers get WiFi 5, which is a meaningful step down for larger homes or those with many connected devices.

Phone inclusion is another consideration. Sky, Vodafone, and NOW all include a home phone line as standard. Virgin, EE, and BT charge extra for line rental, and Plusnet doesn't offer a home phone option at all - so customers who need a landline should factor that cost into the monthly comparison.

Upload speeds are worth noting too: Plusnet, BT, and NOW all offer higher uploads than Virgin's 36Mbps on their 300Mbps plans, which matters for households that regularly upload large files or use video conferencing heavily.

One area where Virgin does stand apart is TV. Flex can be added to any Virgin broadband plan for £5/month, giving access to the Stream box and premium channel packages on rolling monthly contracts - without committing to a full TV bundle. None of the rival providers in this comparison offer a comparable flexible TV add-on.

Availability is the other key variable. BT, EE, NOW, and Plusnet use the Openreach network, which covers around 20 million premises. Virgin Media's own network passes around 18.8 million homes but has a different geographic footprint - so the right choice often comes down to which providers are available at your address.

It's always worth checking availability in your specific area before comparing on price. Read more in our guide to Virgin Media's availability checker and what broadband speed you need.

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How fast is Virgin Media M350?

At 362Mbps average, M350 delivers speeds that most households will never fully tax. That headroom matters in practice - even during peak evening hours, when the network is at its busiest, the majority of customers will hit the headline speed or faster. Advertised average speeds are required to be met by at least 50% of customers between 8pm and 10pm, so the figure isn't a best-case claim.

For a household with multiple people streaming, gaming, and working from home simultaneously, those speeds are more than sufficient - and there's no real-world scenario where 362Mbps becomes a bottleneck for typical domestic use.

Minimum guaranteed speed

Where things get more nuanced is the minimum guaranteed speed. Virgin's published floor for M350 is 181Mbps - exactly half the advertised average - and that's the figure customers can actually enforce if performance falls short. Under Ofcom's code of practice, which Virgin has signed up to, customers can exit their contract early without penalty if speeds drop below their personal guaranteed minimum for three consecutive days and Virgin can't resolve it within 30 days.

181Mbps is still fast by most standards, and in practice very few customers will see sustained speeds that low. But the gap between the headline figure and the enforceable floor is wider here than on some full fibre alternatives.

Upload speeds

M350's upload speed of 36Mbps is where the package shows its limitations. For most households it's perfectly functional - video calls, sending files, and cloud backups all run comfortably at that speed. But it's a significant contrast to the symmetrical uploads offered by providers like Hyperoptic and Community Fibre, where upload speeds match downloads as standard.

Virgin's network now passes around 18.8 million premises in total, with 8.7 million of those - including both upgraded cable areas and the Nexfibre build - now covered by full fibre. Customers in those FTTP areas can add the symmetrical uploads add-on for £6/month, boosting uploads to match the headline download speed. For the remaining majority of Virgin customers still on the cable network, 36Mbps remains the ceiling.

It's worth noting that most Openreach-based providers are in a similar position on uploads - symmetrical speeds are still the exception rather than the rule on widely available broadband deals.

Reliability

Virgin Media's reliability record has improved considerably, with complaints falling to a six-year low in the most recent Ofcom data. The whole-home WiFi guarantee is a meaningful part of that story - knowing there's an enforceable minimum speed in every room removes one of the most common sources of frustration with home broadband. Read more in our guide to broadband reliability.

There are two technical characteristics of Virgin's cable network worth knowing about, even if most customers will never notice them. Latency runs at around 15ms - roughly double that of BT's full fibre - and web page loading times are slower than on Openreach FTTP connections. For general streaming, browsing, and working from home, neither figure is meaningful. For competitive online gaming, where latency is a genuine factor, it's worth considering - though 15ms is still well within the range most games consider acceptable.

Virgin Media is upgrading its cable network to full fibre, with nationwide completion targeted by 2028. Customers in already-upgraded areas benefit from improved latency and page load performance now.

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Router

All Virgin Media customers now receive the Hub 5 as standard, following a rollout that began in 2025. Customers in FTTP areas receive the Hub 5x, which uses an XGS-PON network connection rather than DOCSIS 3.1 - both models are otherwise identical in specs and WiFi performance.

The Hub 5 is a meaningful step up from the older Hub 3 and Hub 4, and it's a better fit for M350's 362Mbps speeds than what Virgin supplied to most customers until recently. The practical difference comes down to two things: wired performance and wireless congestion.

On a wired connection, the Hub 5's 1Gbps Ethernet ports are more than sufficient for M350 - 362Mbps sits comfortably within that ceiling, so customers connecting a PC, games console, or NAS device directly by cable will get the full speed without any hardware bottleneck.

Over WiFi, the picture is more nuanced. WiFi 6 uses a technology called OFDMA to serve several devices simultaneously rather than in sequence - in a home with phones, laptops, smart TVs, tablets, and connected devices all competing for bandwidth, this makes a real difference to whether 362Mbps is actually usable across the house or just achievable next to the router. The older WiFi 5 standard handled devices one at a time, which created congestion during peak household usage even when the broadband connection itself was fast. With the Hub 5, customers are more likely to experience speeds closer to M350's headline figure throughout the home, rather than seeing that headline drop off under load.

The spec difference between the Hub 5 and Hub 5x is limited to the Ethernet and network connection - the Hub 5x's 10Gbps port is relevant for Gig2 customers, but for M350 users either model delivers the same wireless experience.

It's worth knowing that not every device in the home will benefit equally from WiFi 6. The PS5 supports it natively, as do most modern laptops and phones - so those devices will get noticeably better performance from the Hub 5 in a busy home. The Xbox Series X and S use WiFi 5, so the improvement is more modest for Xbox households. Virgin's own Stream box also uses WiFi 5, meaning customers taking a TV bundle won't see a WiFi 6 benefit on that device - though connecting the Stream box via Ethernet, which is possible via the power adapter, sidesteps the wireless spec entirely.

Both Hub variants support mesh, and work with Virgin Media's WiFi Max guarantee - mesh pods that extend coverage and guarantee a minimum of 30Mbps in every room. WiFi Max costs £8/month, but Volt customers get it included at no extra cost.

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Verdict: Is Virgin Media M350 any good?

Virgin Media M350 is a solid mid-tier broadband plan that delivers well above average speeds for a competitive monthly price. The Hub 5 router is a genuine upgrade on what most Virgin customers had previously, complaints have fallen to a six-year low, and the TV and Volt bundle options add real value for the right households.

The main complication is M500. At current prices, Virgin's faster plan costs less per month than M350 - which makes M350 a harder sell on broadband-only. For most customers comparing on speed and price alone, M500 is the more logical choice right now.

Where M350 makes clear sense is as the speed tier in Virgin's Mega TV bundles. Customers who want broadband and TV together, or who are pairing with an existing O2 plan to unlock Volt benefits, will find M350 bundles well-structured and competitively priced. The 362Mbps speeds are more than adequate for busy households, and the bundle flexibility - from Flex at £5/month through to full Sports and Cinema packages - means there's a configuration to suit most setups.

The verdict comes down to what you need:

• Broadband only - check M500 first; it's currently cheaper and faster
• Broadband and TV - M350 Mega TV bundles offer strong value, with Sky Atlantic, Netflix, and the Stream box included from a reasonable monthly price
• Existing O2 customer - M350 with Volt unlocks WiFi Max and doubled mobile data at no extra cost, making it a particularly strong deal

Ready to take the next step? Compare Virgin Media broadband deals, check availability at your address, or read our full Virgin Media broadband review for a broader look at the provider.