Can I get Virgin Media? Check your postcode

To find out if Virgin Media is available in your area you can use our postcode checker tool below, to search and see which Virgin Media broadband and TV packages you can get.

All customers on Virgin Media's network can now access their fastest gigabit-capable Gig1 broadband, and as the provider is continuing to upgrade its network to full fibre, even faster speeds may become available in the future.

In addition, a recent £4.5 billion investment in the network will see their coverage increase to 80% of the UK by 2026.

Credit: Virgin Media

Can I get Virgin Media?

Virgin Media currently covers around 55% of the UK, passing 16.3 million homes, although they have so far focused mainly in urban and suburban areas.

Our Virgin Media postcode checker shows whether their network is available in your area. Simply enter your postcode in the box below to find out:

When asking whether you can get Virgin Media in your area, it's worth noting that variety within postcodes (and even streets themselves) is common, so checking directly with your postcode and house number is also important.

While our postcode checking tool offers a high level of accuracy, only the Virgin Media site (click through to check with them directly) can provide 100% certainty for specific addresses.

For people who are lucky enough to be living within a Virgin Media enabled area, we have guides and reviews to help choose between their different broadband and TV offerings.

Read more about:

• Virgin Media broadband
• their Gig1 service
• the latest Virgin Stream TV
• and their flagship Mega Volt bundle

We've even more which can be found by searching our guide.

Compare the latest pricing and special offers on all of Virgin Media's bundles.

Where is Virgin Media available?

Virgin Media is currently available to 16.3 million premises, which is about 55% of the UK.

That's a figure that's been steadily growing as a result of their Project Lightning initiative, which has been slowly expanding the network over the past several years. In the first quarter of 2023, Virgin Media added 108,000 homes to its network, and their latest financial results confirm they're on target to reach 80% of the UK in next few years.

They're also now working with wholesale network Nexfibre, a joint venture between the owners of Virgin Media and O2 - Liberty Global and Telefonica. Initial connections on Virgin Media via Nexfibre went live in June 2023, with over 500,000 premises added to the network. They've also released build plans for the coming 12-month period and have a target to add 5 million premises to the Virgin Media network by 2026.

While Virgin Media are most commonly found in urban areas where demand is highest, they've also been gradually reaching out to connect smaller towns and villages.

Throughout 2022 for example, Virgin Media have connected properties in Burnham-on-sea in Somerset, where the provider has now reached 58,000 homes in the county. In March 2022, they connected an additional 1,200 homes in Wigan, and in the previous month connected 17,000 homes in Cricklewood, London.

2022 also saw Virgin Media's network reach parts of West Yorkshire, connecting 3000 homes in Castleford, and 10,000 homes in Otley, Menston, Burley-in-Wharfedale, and Guiseley on the outskirts of Leeds.

As you can see from the map above of Virgin Media's network, their fibre optic cables currently stretch over 118,000 miles around the UK, including into Scotland, South Wales, Northern Ireland, and all the way down to Lands End in Cornwall.

However, there are also large areas, particularly Wales, Northern England including the Lake District, and Northumberland, large areas of Yorkshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, as well as Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall, where Virgin's network hasn't yet been expanded to.

For residents of Cornwall, Devon and Dorset, there are at least fibre optic cables laid in those areas, but as yet, few network sites (indicated by the red dots) to enable connectivity to homes.

Gig1 availability

Every home passed on the Virgin Media network can now receive their fastest Gig1 package that offers average download speeds of 1.13Gb per second at peak times.

While Gig1 was first launched back in October 2019, Virgin Media took just over a further two years to upgrade their entire network to gigabit-capable broadband.

In fact, it took until November 2020 for Virgin Media to switch on Gig1 broadband for homes in London and Northern Ireland, having upgraded around 6.8 million homes, or 45% of the UK, by this point.

The upgrade steadily increased pace however, as by mid 2021, Gig1 became available in Bristol, Sunderland and York, and reported an upgrade total of 8.3 million homes.

The gigabit network upgrade was eventually completed in December 2021, with the final 1.1 million premises upgraded in Plymouth, Exeter, Hertfordshire and Surrey.

As a result, then, everyone living within a Virgin Media enabled area can now choose from the complete range of broadband speeds including the recently upgraded M125 and M250 packages, as well as faster speeds including M350, M500, and Gig1.

Network speed upgrades

As well as rolling out a network expansion to reach more properties, Virgin Media is also investing in upgrading their existing network to full fibre to the premises, which should support download speeds up to 10Gb.

Around 14.3 million properties are connected to Virgin Media's network with coaxial cable, which has more limited top speeds and less reliability than full fibre connections.

Project Mustang, the name for the full fibre upgrade, will cost around £100 per property but will future proof Virgin Media's network and allow for faster broadband speeds, particularly in terms of uploads where full fibre can be symmetrical.

Yet, even existing customers on coaxial cable connections have benefit from boosts to both upload and download speeds in recent months.

In October 2022, Virgin Media boosted the download and upload speeds of their entry level M100 and M200 packages, renaming them M125 and M250 in the process. Download speeds were boosted from 108Mb to 132Mb, and 213Mb to 264Mb.

More recently in May 2023, customers on M500 and Gig1 plans benefited from a speed boost to average uploads from 36Mb to 52Mb, and 52Mb to 104Mb per second, bringing their fastest tier plan in line with resellers of Openreach full fibre.

Will Virgin Media expand to my area?

If you've used our Virgin Media postcode checker above and found Virgin isn't yet available in your area, hope is not lost. While their cable network was fairly stagnant for several years, Virgin Media have made commitments to increase their coverage to 80% of the UK as soon as 2026.

At the time of the Virgin Media O2 merger in June 2021, they pledged to add an additional one million premises to Virgin's network within 12 months of the deal closing, and cited an ambition to add a further seven million in the future too.

Since July 2021 then, Virgin Media have expanded their network to an additional 490,000 premises, and in their Q2 2022 results report, said they were on track to add over 500,000 in 2022 alone.

What's more, in July 2022, Virgin Media O2 announced a £4.5 billion investment was being made to expand their network up to an additional 7 million premises, taking their network footprint to 23 million, or 80% of the UK.

Closely matching the ambitions set out during the merger then, this investment is expected to bring Virgin Media services to 5 million homes not yet on their network by 2026, with the option to expand to a further 2 million thereafter.

It's likely then, that for people living in relatively urban or suburban areas, that Virgin Media may very well become available to them within the next few years.

While Virgin Media used to operate a Cable My Street team where people could directly request coverage of their home or street, they now focus more on receiving requests from new build developers.

However, we have more information on requesting Virgin Media expansion.

Why does Virgin Media availability vary?

Virgin Media operate their own independent network, and deliver their broadband and TV services via their own fibre optic cables.

As a result, unlike the copper phone line network that's used by BT and their resellers, Virgin Media doesn't necessarily pass every street in an area, or even every house in a street.

The reason most likely goes back to when the network was originally laid by NTL as a cable TV service, who perhaps faced obstructions in certain areas, or for certain properties, or perhaps there was simply no demand at the time from that particular street or household to get connected.

This has however left the uncanny, and likely frustrating situation, where sometimes your neighbours can get Virgin Media, but you can't.

In addition, while Virgin Media partnered with the Home Builders Federation in 2016, and now seem keen to work with new build property developers, houses built in the last twenty or so years, may have been connected to the Openreach network as a requirement of Universal Service, but then overlooked any other provider.

Overall however, it's clear Virgin Media have their aims set on rivalling Openreach for full fibre provision across the UK, even to the point of offering a rival wholesale service for providers like TalkTalk and Sky to resell as they currently do with Openreach.

All in all, then, it's very likely any gaps in Virgin Media's network will eventually end up connected. In the meantime, however, there are likely to be plenty of alternatives.

Alternatives to Virgin Media

While Virgin Media currently has the widest availability of gigabit-capable broadband in the UK, overall, as we've seen, they still only cover 55% of the UK.

And even after 2026, their target of 80% coverage, while ambitious, will still leave some properties disconnected.

For people living outside of Virgin Media's network then, what are the best alternatives?

The first step is to enter your postcode into our availability checker and it'll return the broadband packages available in your area. You can then choose to sort deals by fastest speeds, or lowest price, depending upon your preferences.

If you're more interested in price however, check out our main broadband comparison where you can see all of the deals available to you ordered by the cheapest first.

For a quick check of the networks in your area, try our postcode checking tool below:

For people who want Virgin Media for their TV service, there are an increasing number of providers who bundle decent TV options with their broadband.

TalkTalk offer a bundled TV service for just £5 extra a month, and customers can add services from Netflix, Prime Video, and NOW to access premium channels from Sky.

Sky themselves have also just launched a new streaming platform that doesn't require a satellite dish or feed, and needs just a 10Mb broadband connection to work. It offers 150 TV channels including Sky entertainment channels like Sky Atlantic, Netflix, and the option to add packs including Sky Sports, Sky Cinema, TNT Sports, Sky Kids, and access on-demand apps from Discovery+, Prime Video, Apple TV+, and many more.

Overall, there are many ultrafast broadband providers available in the UK, and providers including Sky, TalkTalk, BT, and NOW, all offer bundled broadband and TV services that rival Virgin Media.

Summary: Check your postcode

Virgin Media offer some of the fastest broadband around, and currently boast the widest coverage of gigabit-capable broadband in the UK.

Yet, their unique fibre optic network currently only covers 55% of the UK, and due to the way it was historically installed, has a uncanny tendency to miss out particular streets, and even houses.

Potential customers can check availability for Virgin Media using our postcode checker tool, which also lists and compares all of Virgin Media's deals side-by-side with the latest pricing and special offers.

Once you've found a Virgin Media package available to you, it's easy to click through to their checkout cart where Virgin Media will run a final check on your full address, including flat or house number, to both double check your individual property can be connected, as well as the broadband speed you can expect to receive.

Virgin Media O2 seem set to rival Openreach with their ambitious plans to reach more than 23 million premises by 2026, so anyone who can't yet get Virgin Media may well be connected in the not too distant future.