Virgin Media Mega Volt Bundle (was Ultimate Volt)

Virgin Media Mega Volt combines over 230 TV channels, Sky Sports HD, Sky Cinema HD, Netflix, Gig1 broadband, anytime calls, and an unlimited O2 SIM.

The bundle represents excellent value for money for households who want it all, with Mega Volt offering a complete all-round home entertainment and telecoms package.

While Virgin have now renamed the Ultimate Volt bundle to Mega Volt, it still includes their flagship TV and broadband, with customers benefiting from gigabit-capable download speeds.

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At a glance

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Who is the Mega Volt bundle best suited for?

Virgin Media's Mega Volt bundle, previously Ultimate Volt, offers a great deal of value for money for households who want at least the majority of the services included.

It's ultimately an all-round home entertainment plan and telecoms package, with just about everything you might need, including over 230 TV channels, Sky Sports in HD, Sky Cinema in HD, Netflix Standard, gigabit broadband, anytime UK calls, and an unlimited mobile SIM.

It's best suited for:

• People who love TV and particularly want to watch live sports and the latest films
• It's great for families with kids channels and enough broadband for everyone to get online at the same time
• Households who use O2 for their mobile provider, with double data benefits, roaming, and an unlimited O2 SIM plan
• People who game or work online and need a fast broadband connection

Virgin Media Mega Volt is the provider's top tier plan with everything included, so it can work out as an excellent way to save money as long as customers make sure they really want or need at least the majority of the bundled services.

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Is the Mega Volt bundle good value for money?

As we've mentioned, Mega Volt bundles a lot, but customers really need to want the services to make the most of the package.

Here's a rundown of the services included and what you could expect to pay for them separately:

Mega Volt currently costs £84.99 per month for the first 18 months - so you can see the huge amount of savings customers are getting from this pre-made bundle.

The biggest drawback to the Mega Volt bundle however, is the inability to customise it to a household's specific preferences. For example, it's not possible to take out elements you don't want to reduce the price.

However, while other pre-made bundles are available with slightly less to them, they don't always offer better value for money. For example, the next bundle down, the Biggest TV Bundle, saves £5.99 per month, but only includes M125 broadband and Sky Sports in SD - which may not be attractive to most households.

Even the Bigger Bundle + Sports HD is only £13.99 per month cheaper, but halves the broadband speed, and misses out on Sky Cinema, Netflix, the Kids pack, anytime calls, the WiFi guarantee, and the unlimited O2 SIM.

Virgin Media's slightly uneven pricing structure can make working out value for money confusing, especially when we don't want to overspend on something we're unlikely to use. However, particular offers can make switching down to save a few pounds counterproductive too.

Overall, as long as customers can look at what's included and know they want and will make use of the majority of services, the level of value for money on offer with the Mega Volt bundle is so high, it mitigates having the odd service a customer may not use.

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How much does the Mega Volt bundle cost?

We've looked at what's included in the bundle above, but let's look at the different prices and terms of the deal.

Currently, the latest pricing for new customers is:

The Mega Volt bundle currently costs £84.99 per month for new customers for the length of the 18-month minimum term (subject to annual price rises). Setup is also currently free, although this can cost up to £35.

There is a steep jump up in price at the end of the minimum term, with the out of contract price currently a rather eye-watering £198 per month. Customers will be sent a notification when their contract is coming to an end, and if they don't switch away they should certainly negotiate a better price with Virgin at this point.

Virgin Media also reserve the right to increase prices on an annual basis, something that's become increasingly common amongst broadband providers.

Virgin say prices will go up by Retail Price Index (RPI) + 3.9% around April each year, and so if prices do rise by this much customers won't be able to leave their contracts early without penalty.

What's included?

The monthly price isn't cheap, but it does include a lot. Ultimate Volt bundles:

• Mega TV with 230+ channels, Sky Sports in HD, Sky Cinema in HD, Netflix Standard, and the kids pack
• TV 360 box with app support for Prime Video, Disney+, Paramount+, and Apple TV+
• Gig1 broadband with average download speeds of 1130Mb per second
• Anytime chatter with inclusive calls to UK landlines and UK mobiles at any time
• Unlimited data, minutes and texts with a 5G O2 mobile SIM

As a Volt bundle, Mega Volt also includes all the benefits offered by Volt, including Virgin Media's WiFi Max guarantee, which providers up to three WiFi Pods to boost wireless signal around the home.

If the WiFi Pods fail to provide at least 30Mbps download speeds in every room in a customer's home, they can claim a £100 bill credit.

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Gig1 broadband

The new Mega Volt bundle, renamed from Ultimate Volt, includes Virgin Media's fastest nationally available broadband package, Gig1.

Gig1 broadband offers:

• Average download speeds at peak times of 1130Mb per second
• Average upload speeds at peak times of 104Mb per second
• Virgin Media WiFi Hub, most likely the Hub 5
• Up to three WiFi Pods free with the WiFi Max guarantee

While Virgin Media now offer a multi-gig broadband package called Gig2, it's currently only available in select areas where homes have been connected using full fibre technology.

This means Gig1 is the fastest widely available broadband package in the UK, and is available across Virgin Media's entire network of over 16.1 million premises, or 55% of the UK.

In Ofcom's latest speed research, they confirmed amongst independent testers that Virgin Media's Gig1 package does indeed deliver 1115.38Mbps download speeds at peak times, and 1137.08Mbps over 24 hours on average.

Virgin WiFi Hub

Mega Volt customers should be provided with Virgin Media's latest broadband router, the Hub 5.

The Hub 5 supports dual-band WiFi 6 and Intelligent Mesh, which is used by the Wifi Max guarantee and WiFi boosters.

Overall, the Virgin Media WiFi Hub router is one of the best routers offered by broadband providers as part of the package.

Virgin Media WiFi Max

WiFi Max is Virgin Media's whole home WiFi guarantee which pledges to provide minimum download speeds of 30Mb per second in every room in a customer's home over the wireless network, or Virgin will give them a £100 bill credit.

It's by far the best WiFi guarantee available in the market, and offer customers up to three WiFi Pods which are basically mesh boosters that will seamlessly extend a wireless network from the main router.

WiFi Pods can be located around a home, placed somewhere between areas with good signal and areas with poor signal to extend the network range. WiFi Pods can work in a wireless daisy chain fashion too, reaching the furthest points in a home through extending via more than one WiFi Pod.

WiFi Max usually costs £8 per month, but is provided free for Virgin Media customers who take Gig1 broadband, or any Volt bundle, including Mega Volt.

Overall, it's a great selling point to Volt bundles, especially for customers with ultrafast broadband, like Gig1, to help them better experience what the package is capable of.

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Mega TV + Sky Sports HD + Sky Cinema HD + Netflix

The Mega Volt's best-selling point is undoubtedly it's comprehensive premium TV package, with just about everything included.

Mega TV is Virgin's top-tier channel pack, offering all the channels available on Virgin Media, including additional content in HD and Ultra HD.

Mega Volt includes:

• Mega TV with 230+ channels
• Netflix Standard
• Sky Sports in HD
• Sky Cinema in HD
• Kids pack, including Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network
• Virgin TV 360 box, plus a mini TV 360 box for a second room

Mega Volt customers get multiroom included with a free mini TV 360 box for use in a second room. Another add-on that would otherwise cost an extra £10 per month.

Mega Volt TV channels

Virgin Media Mega Volt Bundle offers over 230 channels, as well as access to on-demand apps through the TV 360 box.

Channels are included in HD where available, and there is some Ultra HD 4K content on the dedicated Virgin TV Ultra HD channel, as well as on BBC iPlayer and YouTube.

However, even Mega Volt customers will need to pay an extra £6 per month to watch Sky Cinema and Sky Entertainment content in 4K Ultra HD.

Here's an overview of the main channels found on Mega Volt.

Entertainment

Documentaries

Movies

Sports

Kids TV

Mega Volt allows customers to watch Sky Sports in HD on Virgin Media, and customers also get Eurosport and Viaplay Xtra. All of the Sky Cinema channels are in HD, along with many of the entertainment, documentary and even Kids channels.

Netflix

The Mega Volt Bundle includes a built-in subscription to Netflix Standard as part of the monthly fee. This offers Netflix in 1080p HD, with the option to view on two screens at once, which works well with the extra TV 360 mini box included in the bundle.

Netflix Standard is worth £10.99 per month as a separate subscription, so is another added extra that brings value for money to the Mega Volt Bundle.

The only other Virgin Media bundle to include Netflix in the cost is the Biggest TV Bundle, which is the next step down from Mega Volt. The biggest downgrade on the bundle is the broadband package to just M125, or 132Mb average speeds. At the time of writing, the Biggest TV Bundle only saves £5.99 over the Mega Volt, so it's hardly worth considering.

TV 360 box and mini box

Virgin Media Mega Volt comes with a TV 360 box and a mini box through the multiroom service.

Multiroom, or the second mini TV 360 box, is worth £10 per month, but Mega Volt customers get this included for free.

The second box can be placed anywhere in the home, but note that a second cable connection needs to be installed, as the boxes aren't wireless.

The TV 360 mini box works just like the main box, but without a hard drive, so while customers can access recordings from the main box, they can't record from the mini box itself.

The main TV 360 box is able to record six programmes simultaneously, while a customer watches a seventh, so there shouldn't be any problems with overlapping shows.

Virgin TV 360 also supports a range of on-demand apps, which means customers can access even more viewing content if they want to. Apps supported include:

Paramount+ finally launched on the Virgin Media TV platform in May 2023, after the provider signed a deal back in November 2022.

More recently, Virgin Media have also added Apple TV+, which joins Sky Sports Ultra HD and Disney+ in bringing the Virgin TV platform more in line with the rival Sky TV service.

Virgin Media Store

Virgin TV 360 also offers a Virgin Media Store app, this allows customers to rent or buy even more series or movies, and noticeably includes ones exclusive to Sky Atlantic, which is a channel exclusive to Sky themselves, and one of the reasons that sets Sky apart from Virgin.

The Virgin Media Store app then allows customers to rent shows like Game of Thrones, Westworld and the latest House of the Dragon. It's a shame that customers have to pay more for these shows, but at least it's possible to access them.

As a cost comparison however, House of the Dragon on the Virgin Media Store costs £23.99 to purchase outright all ten episodes of Season One. In contrast, a NOW TV Entertainment membership would cost £9.99 per month.

Overall then, while purchases can be watched again and again, it could be expensive for one time viewing in comparison to bingeing a must-see series on a one-month NOW Entertainment plan. However, customers will also need to get a smart TV stick, or compatible device, to access the NOW app as it's not included on the TV 360 box.

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Anytime chatter

The Mega Volt Bundle includes a home landline in the monthly fee, as well as Virgin's Anytime chatter inclusive call plan.

As an add-on, Anytime chatter is worth £29 per month as a standalone service, but Mega Volt Bundle customers have this included for free.

The call plan offers free calls to UK landlines and UK mobiles at any time, but callers must hang-up and redial before 60 minutes to avoid charges.

Free phone services include voicemail, 1471 last calling number, 141 number conceal, and caller display.

Customers can choose additional features for an extra fee, such as anonymous caller rejection, voicemail plus, and international calling plans.

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Unlimited data with O2 mobile

As a Volt bundle, Mega Volt includes a mobile service from O2, as the product premise is a joint offering from the recently merged Virgin Media O2 company group.

Mega Volt customers get an upgraded SIM plan however, with unlimited data, compared to just 10GB with all other Volt plans.

The O2 mobile SIM includes:

• Unlimited 5G data
• Unlimited calling minutes
• Unlimited text messages

This pay monthly O2 SIM plan is worth £20 per month, but is included for free in the Ultimate Volt Bundle, and is another reason why the bundle offers such good value for money when you consider the individual prices of the services included.

As a Volt bundle, the Mega Volt package also includes these mobile benefits:

• Double data on all O2 pay monthly plans in the same household
• O2 Travel Inclusive Zone bolt-on for roaming in Europe, USA and Australia, covering 75 destinations in total
• Access to O2 Priority exclusive discounts and savings on shopping, days out and events

In our full guide to Virgin Media Volt, we worked out the overall savings of all the benefits and extras offered by Volt was up to £30 per month, or £552 over the length of the contract.

One final note to make about the O2 mobile plan is that it will be separated on the Mega Volt Bundle bill, and O2 increase prices annually by RPI (inflation) + 3.9%, in line with the contract conditions of most UK mobile networks.

It's a little confusing, but basically the O2 and Virgin Media parts of the Mega Volt package are kept separated in contract and billing terms, although customers will receive just one bill that's itemised.

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How has the Mega / Ultimate Volt bundle evolved?

Mega Volt was first introduced by Virgin Media in mid 2019 as the Ultimate Oomph Bundle, and was the only package available at the time with download speeds of 500Mb.

Ultimate Oomph went on to receive a speed boost to 600Mb when Virgin Media made their M500 plan more widely available in 2020.

Following the merger of Virgin Media and O2 in 2021, and the launch of Volt a few months later, Ultimate Oomph was rebranded to the Ultimate Volt Bundle and boosted to 1Gb broadband speeds for the first time.

While Ultimate Oomph used to come with a bundled Virgin Mobile SIM plan, after the merger this was changed to an O2 mobile SIM, because Virgin Mobile is still under contract with Vodafone to provide the network service for their mobile plans.

Ultimate Volt was further enhanced in March 2022, when Virgin Media added a subscription to Netflix Standard into the bundle.

Most recently, in September 2023, the Ultimate Volt has been renamed Mega Volt by Virgin Media. It's not clear the reasons behind the name change, but the services included largely remains the same.

One major change that has happened in the launch of the Mega Volt Bundle is the removal of TNT Sports as an included channel pack, and customers now have to pay an extra £18 per month to watch it.

In Virgin Media's most recent financial reports, they revealed over one million customers were now on Volt bundle packages, including Ultimate Volt. That means Volt packages are now making up 20% of Virgin Media's customer base.

Overall, Volt is enabling Virgin Media customers to double their broadband speeds, with the average Volt customer receiving download speeds of 452Mb, compared to non-Volt Virgin customers who receive 261Mb on average, according to their latest results.

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Verdict: Is the Mega Volt Bundle worth it?

When you look at everything that's included in the Mega Volt Bundle and how much those services would cost separately, you quickly come to see how much value the bundle is offering customers.

The Anytime phone line and O2 mobile SIM for example would cost almost £50 per month, compared to the total cost of £84.99 for Mega Volt, which also includes their gigabit-capable Gig1 broadband plan (worth £41), and their biggest TV plan, with Sky Sports, Sky Cinema, and Netflix subscriptions.

For an all-round home entertainment package, it's hard to go wrong with the Mega Volt Bundle as there really isn't anything missing, and it still manages to provide it all at a reduced and very competitive price.

The only downside to the deal is the out of contract price at the end of the 18-month minimum term is high, currently £198. Despite the wide array of services included, that price could eventually be off-putting for a lot of households.

Virgin Media are committed to notifying customers coming to the end of their contract with the options available to them, such as renegotiating a new deal for a new contract, or switching away. If customers are willing to sign a new minimum term they should be able to bring the monthly price down again however. Alternatively, they could switch to Sky, which is now available as an Internet-only service and no longer requires a satellite dish.

Overall, we like this bundle, it's comprehensive and covers all basis, but it's also competitively priced enough that if you don't need everything it offers you're not wasting money due to the large savings for bundling so much.

Even the closet alternative to this plan, Virgin Media's Gig1 service with Stream TV and all the relevant TV packs would cost over £90 per month, and that's including a number of discounts on Stream TV packs.

Right now, it's hard to beat the sheer value of the Mega Volt Bundle and all it offers.

See the latest pricing and check availability for Virgin Media.