Unlimited broadband deals

Unlimited broadband is a broadband service that doesn’t have any restrictions on how much data you can download and upload each month. You’ll have complete freedom to use the internet as much as you like without having to worry about monthly data usage limits on your account.

What is traffic management and throttling?

Traffic management is when broadband speeds are lowered to make sure everyone gets a fair speed overall. This usually comes into effect at peak times. It is a bit like rationing. Everyone gets slightly slower speeds, instead of the extremes where some would end up getting slower speeds – or no internet at all. Traffic management can also be applied to individual lines to protect the services and speeds for other broadband users on the network.

Throttling is when your internet service is slowed down on purpose. This could be because the network is overloaded and you notice it occasionally when streaming services all of a sudden take a little longer to load.

At Virgin Media we make sure our home broadband service is fair for everybody. We sometimes moderate the speeds for the top 5% of customers who are downloading or uploading an unusually large amount. We do this to try to make sure the service runs as smoothly as possible.

What are fair usage limits?

Unlimited broadband packages usually come with a fair usage policy. These are put in place to prevent one person on a network from downloading too much and having a detrimental affect on other users in the area.

Regular levels of streaming and downloading will probably not constitute as unfair usage, so most of us will not encounter these limitations. Check with individual internet providers to see what they constitute as fair usage, and what will happen if the terms are breached.

There are so many uses for internet bandwidth these days, it’s hard to argue why you wouldn’t want unlimited broadband. In fact, there aren’t really that many packages with limited broadband, but they do pop up occasionally. More than likely your deal will offer you unlimited supply so you may as well consider the benefits; whether you’re a gamer, film fan or just shift a lot of data around in your regular day to day projects.

There are quite a few set-ups at home that would benefit unlimited broadband.

• Gamers. If anyone at home is a keen gamer, unlimited broadband will more than help. Downloading games is demanding on broadband, as is streaming them on services like Google Stadia. More data means unlimited supply.
  
  
• Larger households. If there’s more than one of you, unlimited broadband helps. With video calls, streaming and much more on every screen, it simply makes sense.
  
  
• Heavy Streamers. If folk at home get heavily into Netflix, Now TV, Disney+ or similar, it would be fairly easy to use up a whole internet allowance with some binging. Unlimited broadband means they could attack any virtual boxset without worry.
  
  
• Everyone else! There really aren’t any strong cases for having limited broadband when the world is now digital and always-on, for everyone.

One of the main benefits of unlimited broadband is an easier and smoother internet and digital life at home. Whether you’re bingeing seven episodes of the latest TV show, on video calls or just browsing; it’s better not to have to worry about limits. And if you have a busy household, with gamers, students or occasional work-from-homers, the last thing you need to worry about is a broadband outage or slowdown. Unlimited broadband lets you get on with your digital life.

Another benefit is that you won’t incur a charge for exceeding the usage limit as no such restriction applies. On limited broadband deals, you could be charged extra for any internet usage that’s over and above your contractual limit. Choosing an unlimited broadband deal could save you money in the long run, especially if you and your household use the internet regularly. Why not check out our broadband deals to find a package that’ll suit your needs?

The speed of internet connection you enjoy with unlimited broadband largely depends on whether your provider uses ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line), cable or a fibre optic connection.

• ADSL is the most widely available connection, which also offers the slowest download speeds, around 10-30Mbps, on average.
  
  
• Cable broadband packages are not as widely available as ADSL but they can offer speedier average download speeds – Virgin Media offers between 50Mbps and 1Gbps packages.
  
  
• Fibre broadband is becoming more widespread in the UK and usually offers the fastest speeds available – often between 50 and 300Mbps.

If you are looking at a fibre broadband option and you’ve used our Broadband postcode checker to see if you can get it in your area, then it is worth looking at the speeds you can expect. Fast downloads and uploads can give your digital life an enjoyable upgrade and let everyone at home get on with what they want to do.

Check out Virgin Media broadband speeds

With the freedom of unlimited broadband, you often get a package that’s bundled together with a landline and or a TV deal. If you opt for either of these, it’s possible you can save some money, with the added benefit of convenience. At Virgin Media, our unlimited broadband packages come in the following ways:

• Broadband and TV
• Broadband and phone
• Broadband, phone and TV