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Get a Virgin phone line

By Becca Talbot - becca@consumerchoices.co.uk

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Thinking about switching to Virgin Media’s cable service but need more information? Our expert guide tells you everything you need to know to make the switch and start saving money on your phone bills. (Updated 7/5/10)

Virgin Media (www.virginmedia.com) is the UK’s largest cable provider, offering its 13 million customers home phone, super-fast broadband and digital TV money-saving packages.

Ditching your BT landline and switching to a Virgin Media phone line could really help you save money on your household bills if you choose to take another service, such as broadband, from Virgin too. Take a look at some of the deals on offer below, and then read our guide to find out more information about Virgin Media’s cable landline:

Virgin Media’s phone service

Virgin Media’s services are very different from those offered by other home phone providers, such as TalkTalk (www.talktalk.co.uk) or BT (www.bt.com). Standard phone services, like those offered by BT and TalkTalk, use copper wires that run above ground, however Virgin Media’s services are delivered via underground fibre optic cables.

The cost of Virgin’s cable phone service starts from just £11.99 a month for line rental and the Size M call plan. This is the most basic call package, Talk Weekends, and includes unlimited weekend calls. Virgin Media has two other standard call packages, which cost a little extra each month:

• Size L Talk Evening and Weekends - Offers unlimited evening and weekend calls to UK local and national landlines
• Size XL Talk Unlimited - Offers unlimited anytime calls to UK local and national landlines.

As well as its cheap line rental, Virgin Media also has three unique “minutes” call packages for its home phone called Talk Anywhere. These are a little like having mobile minutes, but calls to landlines, mobiles and international numbers are all included in the minutes. There are three levels of minutes:

1. Talk Anywhere 200 - £9 (plus monthly line rental)
2. Talk Anywhere 400 - £17 (plus monthly rental)
3. Talk Anywhere 800 - £29 (plus monthly line rental)

For more information on Virgin Media’s phone packages, please read our Virgin provider guide.

Getting a cable phone line installed

Because Virgin Media’s cable services are on a different network from BT’s standard copper wire network, you will have to get a new phone line installed if you wish to have a cable package.

A Virgin Media engineer will need to visit your house and physically install the cable wiring, if it isn’t already there (some new-build properties may come with cable phone lines already installed). The good news though is that Virgin Media keeps the cost of line installation low - anywhere between free and around £35 - depending on what offers are available at any given time. Also, you will be able to pick a time that suits you for the engineer to visit your home.

Getting a line installed normally takes between seven and 14 days from the day you place your order with Virgin Media, and if you’re getting a TV or broadband package from Virgin, you can ask the engineer to set that up for you too.

Why should I switch to Virgin?

If you’re looking to save money on your monthly household bills, switching all your services to Virgin Media could help to significantly cut your costs. For example, prices for triple-play phone, broadband and TV bundles from Virgin start from as little as £18 a month plus £11.99 a month for line rental. With this bundle you’ll get broadband with speeds of up to 10Mb, free weekend calls and over 65 digital TV channels.

Switching all your services to Virgin Media also gives you the added advantage of only having to pay one bill each month, instead of three separate bills.

If you haven’t already, compare home phone prices using our online postcode checker and see how much you could save by getting a cable Virgin phone line installed and switching all your services to Virgin media.

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