Virgin Media will increase the cost of its line rental and Big Bundle packages in February 2015.
The standard rate of line rental – £15.99/month – will go up by £1 from February next year and the line rental saver deal, which sees you paying up front for 12 months line rental will also go up by £20.
Customers can currently pay a lump sum of £144 for a year’s rental, which is equivalent to paying £12/month. From February next year, line rental saver will cost £164, equivalent to £13.66/month.
Pro Tip: Recontract now, get a speed boost and take advantage of line rental saver before Feb 2015Virgin Media’s Big Bundles will also be going up in price. With the new rate of line rental included, the Big Connection (£31.49/month) Big Easy (£35.99/month) and Big Bang (£45.99/month) will all be going up by £3/month.
The premium Big Kahuna (£60.99/month) and Big Daddy (£110.99/month) bundles will be going up even more – by an extra £4.50/month.
Prices for the standalone Broadband Only packages from Virgin Media, which went up this October, will not be affected.
Virgin Media says that the price rises will allow the it to invest in improving its TV and broadband services.
Dana Strong, chief operating officer at Virgin Media said, “Some of our prices are changing so we can continue to invest in giving our customers more of what they want – the best entertainment packages and unbeatable superfast broadband.”
When Virgin Media put its prices up last year, it did so to pay for the launch of up to 152Mbps broadband. The Big Bundles were launched earlier in the year, giving customer the opportuntity to take ultrafast broadband with pay TV packages, home phone services and a Virgin Mobile SIM card.
While Virgin Media hasn’t hinted at speed boosts happening anytime soon, we know that the company has runs tests of gigabit (1,000Mbps) services on its network.
It’s also trialling an FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) deployent in rural Cambrideshire and has been picked to deliver 2Gbps services to a business hub in Derby. It’s not clear however when such services might trickle down to Virgin’s consumer network, which covers around 12 million UK premises.
While line rental and bundle prices are going up, Strong added that home phone prices would not increase. Strong said: “There are no changes to our call charges or talk plans. We’re doing everything we can to keep any increase as low as possible, especially for our existing customers.”
News of the price rises come as BT, Sky and TalkTalk prepare to increase the cost of line rental and phone services from next month onwards. Both BT and Sky have increased the prices of services like voicemail as well, while TalkTalk has increased it’s line rental by the largest amount this year.
BT, Sky and Virgin Media’s line rental is going up by £1, whereas TalkTalk’s line rental has increased from £15.40/month to £16.70, a rise of £1.30.
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