Virgin Media M500 Fibre Broadband

Virgin Media M500 Fibre Broadband offers average download speeds of 516Mbps, coupled with optional symmetrical upload speeds in some areas.

It's the provider's third fastest broadband plan and offers value for money with the ability to bundle a home phone, Virgin TV and O2 mobile.

M500 broadband is available to all homes on the Virgin Media network, which currently passes 57% of homes in the UK.

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At a glance

Special offers

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Who is M500 fibre broadband best for?

Virgin Media M500 is best for larger households with heavy Internet demands, who want some of the fastest broadband in the UK.

As Virgin's third fastest broadband tier (after Gig1 and Gig2), this plan will easily support households where multiple people and devices are all going online at the same time.

Virgin Media M500 is great for:

• Larger households, with multiple occupants and devices connecting at the same time
• Customers who want to stream Ultra HD 4K and download large files like Xbox games without waiting
• People who work from home and need reliable, fast broadband

M500 will be more than adequate for most people, however it's worth pointing out, Virgin Media's top tier Gig1 plan is twice as fast and currently only £6 more per month, and also bundles WiFi Max for free and includes the faster Hub 5 router, so customers may want to consider the upgrade.

Customers who had been considering Virgin Media's slower M350 plan, may also be better suited to M500 - although current special offers price M350 at just £27.99, so M500 is £6 more.

Compare Virgin Media broadband prices.

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What does Virgin Media M500 offer?

Virgin Media M500 broadband offers average download speeds of 516Mb per second, making it one of the provider's fastest packages.

M500 has also received a speed boost for uploads, with the average upload speed of the plan increased from 36Mb to 52Mb per second for new and existing customers.

Here are the latest prices for M500:

M500 can be taken with or without a home phone line and weekend calls, with the broadband-only version currently offering considerable monthly savings for going without a phone line.

Volt is also available for M500, which bundles an O2 mobile SIM, alongside other benefits, including a free WiFi guarantee, worth £8 per month. At £10 more per month, M500 Volt offers great value for money for those who'll benefit from the calling options.

Virgin Media M500 was originally launched in April 2019 as a triple-play bundle, combining broadband, phone and TV. It's been available as a broadband-only deal since June 2020, and is now available in a variety of combinations to all 16 million premises on the Virgin Media network.

Those living in newly connected areas, where Nexfibre is rolling out full fibre broadband, which is so far around 1 million premises, can also now benefit from an upload speed add-on, which boost upload speeds on M500 from 52Mbps to 516Mbps for an extra £6 per month.

M500 broadband + calls

Virgin Media M500 broadband can be taken with a home phone line, which is provided as a digital voice line over the broadband connection.

Current prices make the broadband and phone bundle £14 per month more expensive than the broadband-only plan, unless taken with Volt where it's only £10 more. While customers do get free calls to UK landlines at the weekend included in this, they'll have to pay more for other call plans.

Customers can choose from:

People who use their home phone regularly to make calls are likely to save money with an inclusive call plan than paying for a lot of calls on a pay as you go basis. Out of allowance calls are charged at 24 pence per minute, plus a 24 pence connection charge.

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M500 broadband + TV

Originally launched as a broadband and TV bundle, customers can still save money by bundling M500 broadband with Virgin TV, compared to taking the services separately.

Current Virgin Media bundles with M500 broadband include:

The Bigger Bundle + Sports includes over 190 channels on Virgin TV, the Virgin TV 360 box, M500 broadband, and the Sky Sports pack in full HD.

For customers who want premium Sky content, these bundles with M500 offer good value for money, but for those who want both Sky Sports and Sky Cinema, then the Mega Volt bundle is the better choice, combining movies and sports, as well as Netflix and Gig1 broadband.

For a cheaper option though, customers taking Virgin Media's M500 broadband can take Virgin Flex TV instead. Activation costs £10 upfront and then there is just a £5 monthly subscription on a rolling 30-day contract.

It's possible to add packs including Sky Sports and Sky Cinema, as well as Paramount+ and Disney+. Flex customers also get a 10% credit on any subscriptions paid for via their Virgin bill..

Read more about Virgin Media TV packages.

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M500 vs Gig1 broadband

Customers thinking of signing up to Virgin M500 may also consider the provider's faster plan Gig1.

Gig1 offers twice the average download speed of M500 at 1130Mb per second, and twice the average upload speed too at 104Mb per second. It also includes WiFi Max which is worth £8 per month as well as Virgin's newer Hub 5. Yet, despite this, it only costs £6 more per month making it an upgrade worth serious consideration.

Here are the latest prices side-by-side:

Should you upgrade?

For those living in larger households, either sharers or families, where lots of devices are connecting and people are going online at the same time, the upgrade to Gig1 may be worth considering.

It doesn't cost a lot more per month, but offers twice the download capability, allowing multiple users to download, stream TV, game, and work all at the same time.

There's also a good argument anyone considering taking M500 with WiFi Max would be better off taking Gig1 instead, as this includes WiFi Max for free, yet costs less overall. It also includes the better Hub 5 router, which is an upgrade in itself over the Hub 4 router provided with M500.

Smaller households who just want a fast connection however, are don't need the wireless boosters, are likely to be more than adequately supplied by M500 and don't necessarily need to spend more.

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How does Virgin M500 compare?

While Virgin Media still has the largest gigabit-capable network, an increasing number of full fibre providers are now offering broadband speeds of 500Mb per second.

Equivalent packages to M500 include Sky Full Fibre 500, TalkTalk Full Fibre 500, and Vodafone's Full Fibre 500 package:

Customers looking to bundle TV can also do this with Sky broadband, and BT and TalkTalk offer premium channels through NOW.

Virgin Media M500 is currently cheaper than equivalent packages from TalkTalk and BT Full Fibre 500, with Sky Full Fibre 500 and Vodafone Full Fibre 500 priced slightly less than M500. All of these options offer 500Mbps broadband over Openreach's fibre to the premises network.

Overall, whether customers choose Virgin M500 or go with a rival provider will likely come down to personal preference and availability in their area, as pricing is similar.

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How fast is Virgin Media M500?

Virgin Media M500 offers average download speeds of 516Mb per second, that means, at least 50% of Virgin's customers receive this speed or faster during the peak hours of 8pm to 10pm in the evening.

M500 also offers average upload speeds of 52Mb per second.

In addition to these average advertised speeds, we can also look at independent research published by Ofcom in September 2023, to see what speeds M500 is delivering:

According to Ofcom data, Virgin M500 is delivering speeds in line with their advertised averages in real world customer tests, with average speeds of 539Mb per second recorded over 24 hours, and 516Mb per second during peak hours.

Minimum speed guarantee

Virgin Media are signatories of Ofcom's voluntary code on broadband speeds, this means they've agreed to provide customers with speed estimates at the point of sign up, and minimum speed guarantees.

The code says that if a customer doesn't receive the minimum guaranteed speed for 3 days in a row, and the provider doesn't resolve the issue within 30 days, they can leave their contract early and without incurring any additional costs.

While Virgin Media don't give speed estimates personalised to individual properties, they ensure all customers on their network receive these speeds and guarantee the minimum to everyone.

Reliability

Virgin Media is included in our top three most reliable broadband providers due to their lower than average fault records and fast fault resolution times.

Only M500 customers who also take Volt will get Virgin Media's WiFi Max guarantee included for free, but those who take it get a wireless speed promise of 30Mb per second in every room or a £100 bill credit.

Virgin Media's network mostly still relies on coaxial cable connections to a customer's home, although this cabling is likely to be faster and more reliable than the copper phone line network used by BT.

While Virgin Media is upgrading their entire network to full fibre to the premises, customers who can get full fibre broadband from BT or another provider, may find this technology more reliable than Virgin's existing network.

Yet, with only their own infrastructure to maintain, Virgin Media have the fastest fault resolution times as they're not reliant on any other third-party to find and fix faults.

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Router

Virgin Media M500 customers will be given either the Hub 3 or Hub 4, depending on current stock levels.

While the Super Hub 3 was first released in 2016, it has been updated several times since. Including in 2019 with Intelligent Wifi, and further improvements in 2021 for both the Hub 3 and Hub 4.

The Hub 3 and Hub 4 have benefited from the following improvements:

• Channel optimisation to switch devices to less crowded channels
• Band steering to allow devices to switch between frequencies
• Airtime fairness to share wi-fi fairly across all connected devices

The Hub 3 and 4 both offer:

• Dual-band wireless
• WiFi 5 protocol support
• Smart channel selection
• 4 x 1Gb Ethernet LAN ports
• Intelligent WiFi

The Hub 4 is slightly more powerful, with 2 more antennas (7 rather than 5 on the Hub 3), and a more powerful 5GHz channel at 4x4, compared to 3x3 on the Hub 3.

While Virgin Media's Hub 5 was released in 2021, and was rolled out to existing customers in 2022, it's reserved for customers who take the Gig1 plan, and stock levels have meant customers on plans like M500 who want the faster WiFi 6 router have had to wait.

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Where is Virgin Media M500 available?

Virgin's M500 broadband plan is available across its entire network, to all 16.1 million premises since the provider finished their gigabit upgrade at the end of 2021.

Virgin Media have also committed to expanding their network to a further 7 million premises by the end of 2026, so it's worthwhile keeping an eye on availability as they continue to reach more homes.

Check availability of Virgin Media broadband here:

Read more about Virgin Media's postcode checker.

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Verdict: Is Virgin Media M500 worth it?

Virgin Media's M500 is one of the fastest broadband packages available in the UK, and reaches over 57% of homes.

The pricing of M500 is at the lowest level with other ultrafast speeds offered by competing full fibre providers, making it a highly competitive deal, and with customers getting the most value with either the broadband-only or Volt options.

Virgin M500 is a good choice because:

• The average download speeds will support multi-device households where people want to get online at the same time
• Customers will be able to stream UHD, game online, download files and work from home with ease
• Customers can choose to bundle Virgin TV for extra savings compared to taking the services separately

While Virgin Media doesn't yet offer the network-wide symmetrical upload speeds of Community Fibre, or Hyperoptic, new and existing M500 customers had their upload speeds boosted to 52Mb per second, up from 36Mb, at the end of May 2023.

In addition, as Virgin continues their network upgrade to full fibre, customers are likely to see more free speed boosts coming down the line. For example, those in newly connected Nexfibre areas can already access a symmetrical upload speed boost for just £6 extra per month.

That said, those looking for a fast broadband deal may be better off upgrading to Gig1, which alongside faster download speeds, also includes a better router and the WiFi Max guarantee, and at just £8 extra per month it could offer better value for money for many households.