We're thinking of signing up for the Virgin Broadband and line rental package, and kicking grasping BT into touch. We've been using Virgin broadband only for a while and it's fine, but pay a fortune to BT for the line rental and few calls that we make.

Just wondering if anyone has signed up and if so whether there is any catch – the only thing I could think of was what happens if the physical line to the house breaks – do BT then have to repair it and charge the punter top dollar plus to lift a screwdriver, or do they still have to undertake repairs? Anyone got any experience?

If you switch to VM they'll install a new line AFAIK & the BT one becomes redundant
At least that's what they did for me – albeit a few years ago

BT have nothing to do with thw virgin line, they are completely separate networks – so if you don't already have cable, you may have to pay a connection fee. Since you have cable broadband though you should be ok

We have both – cable for home, BT for Mrs NBT's home business. The cable broadband has been fine, and you do get free cable tv if you take broadband and phone which is useful. The phone service is fine as regards talking to people – it falls down a little over BT when you consider the 1471 and 1571 services, as they're frankly not as good: the virgin line doesn't recognise as many incoming numbers as the BT line and will only tell you about the last number it recognised, so if you don't get to the phone in time, 1471 might tell you you were last called 4 days ago, kind of thing

the 1571 service has a very limited lifespan for saving messages, and does stupid things like deleting a message if you listen and then hang up without explicitly choosing save

they're minor niggles though so maybe not too much to worry about

Always a catch with broadband..its the UP TO total bo££ocks connection speeds they claim to fool you into signing.

Always a catch with broadband..its the UP TO total bo££ocks connection speeds they claim to fool you into signing.

My 20mb VM broadband pretty much delivers 14mb throughout the day

I have their phone, broadband, HDtv and hard drive recorder, £40 a month. I think its great.

I have Virgin Broadband and a phone package in a NON-cable area. I pay Virgin for line rental too.

So far it has been a disaster. They are a nightmare to get hold of on the phone.

I've been on a virgin package with tv broadband and phone for several years now though it was Telewest originally. No problems and it all works very well plus the Internet actually is close enough to the quoted speed to be reasonable in my view. Bristol area fwiw as it does vary depending on the area I reckon.

Thanks everyone. I should have said we're moving house whch has made us think about all this – the new house doesn't have cable but can apparently do the broadband / landline thing according to Virgin – I think it must use the existing line.

Cheers