Virgin Media M500 fibre broadband

Dan Howdle • June 16th, 2025

The Virgin Media 'M' series of broadband packages are pretty easy to understand compared to most. The '500' in M500 equates to roughly the downloads speed you'll get in megabits per second (actually a little higher in reality at 516Mbps average). The router you receive will depend on the network technology in your area, meaning you could get the capable Hub 3, the more advanced Hub 4, or even the latest Hub 5. In this quick guide then, we'll go over the finer details, who M500 is for, and what we think of the package overall.

Key features

Here’s a quick summary at what you can expect to find with Virgin Media M500.

Price	£31.99 per month
Download speed	516Mbps
Upload speed	52Mbps
Broadband	Fibre to the premises (FTTP)
Home phone	None, Evening & Weekends, Anytime
Parental controls	Yes: WebSafe
Router	Hub 3, 4, or 5 depending on location
Packages available	Broadband only, Broadband & phone, Broadband & TV
Contract length	18 months

Who is Virgin Media M500 for?

The short answer is everybody, provided you are able to make use of all that speed. Sure, it costs a bit more than slower packages, but generally speaking, provided the cost isn't prohibitive for you, the faster you go, the more you can just switch it on and forget about it. And 516Mbps is one heck of a lot of speed.

Here's a quick rundown of who the types of household think the M500 is primarily geared towards:

• Households with 5+ occupants – The more people there are in your home, the more stress it's going to put on your internet connection. More people, more speed
• A house full of gamers – Playing games doesn't actually require a lot of download speed. However, downloading games will take whatever you can throw at it. Next time you want to download that new 100GB blockbuster, you'll be glad of 516Mbps
• Houses with two or more 4K TVs – 4K (UHD) streaming can hog up to 40Mbps in a single stream. If you're doing this on more than one telly at once, it'll quickly eat up that bandwidth
• Because you can – If you're not particularly price-conscious or worried about keeping costs down then there is a lot to be said for 'why not?'

How does M500 compare?

What's included with M500?

The router you receive with your M500 package will be the model that is compatible with the network infrastructure in your area. Virgin Media is constantly upgrading its network, so new customers or those upgrading in certain locations may receive a newer model.

Virgin Media Hub 3

• Next generation WiFi – The Hub 3 uses the 802.11ac wireless standard
• Smart channel selection – Automatically connects your devices to the fastest WiFi channel and frequency
• Intelligent WiFi Technology – Checks network connections to ensure WiFi is shared fairly between devices
• Dual band – Uses both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands to balance range and speed
• Four gigabit ethernet ports – For stable, wired connections
• Five antennae – Offers good coverage for most homes

Virgin Media Hub 4

If you are in an area with Virgin's upgraded DOCSIS 3.1 network, you may receive the Hub 4. It's designed to handle gigabit speeds and offers a more robust connection for very busy households.

Virgin Media Hub 5

For homes in the latest network areas (including full Fibre-to-the-Premises), Virgin Media now supplies the Hub 5. This is their most advanced router.

• WiFi 6 support – This is the key benefit. WiFi 6 (802.11ax) is the latest standard, providing faster speeds, greater capacity, and better performance in environments with many connected devices
• 2.5Gbps ethernet port – Includes a future-proof ethernet port for multi-gigabit wired speeds
• Designed for Gig1 and above – While it can be supplied with M500 in upgraded areas, it is built to handle Virgin's fastest available speeds

Extras

As with all Virgin Media packages, you'll get Virgin Media's WebSafe parental controls package. An excellent way of controlling who can view what from a central dashboard. In addition, you'll get a free copy of Virgin Media's Internet Security – a version of F-Secure's excellent software. You'll need to install this on your PC if you want to use it, though – it's not something that automatically works via your router.

You'll also get unlimited access to 20 million wifi hotspots up and down the UK, including most London Underground stations. Pretty handy if your laptop goes everywhere with you, but maybe not as useful as it once was, since most people now have generous, if not unlimited, allowances on their mobile phones.

Virgin Media Volt

The big optional extra with Virgin Media Broadband is known as Virgin Volt. It adds a mobile SIM on the O2 network (Virgin Media and O2 have merged), and offers the ability to fall back on 4G/5G broadband if your existing Virgin Media connection goes down for some reason. It's a pretty good deal provided you are in need of a mobile SIM.

What we think

All of the Virgin Media 'M' family of broadband deals are among our most highly recommended. Broadly, they provide excellent value for money (speed to cost ratio), and decent equipment. In the case of the M500, this is especially true. Speeds are ludicrous and it won't break the bank. Ultimately it just comes down to whether this kind of oomph is something you either want or need.