Virgin Media Broadband down today: thousands of users report outages across UK

According to the site DownDetector, which monitors the connection health of various ISPs, reported outages spiked at around 8am this morning. An astonishing 2,200 people complaining that their internet connections had failed.

While the problem didn't appear to have afflicted every last Virgin Media users, it happened across the country, with customers from as far and wide as London, Glasgow and Manchester reporting problems with their home broadband.

Virgin Media has since confirmed that the problem has been resolved and has apologised for the inconvenience. Whether that's enough to placate their disgruntled customers remains to be seen.

@virginmedia my broadband is pumped today but your site says no faults? Definitely something wrong as nothing is working. Nightmare as I’ve got work to do

— Chris Hollands (@Ipunchedalion) March 10, 2021

@virginmedia what is going on with our home broadband!? Promised 100mb, not had a week without performance issues or outages. Promises of support never come through. So disappointing.. help!

— maxjwhomer (@maxjwhomer) March 10, 2021

@virginmedia It's annoying that not only am I having difficulties with my virginmedia broadband this morning, but when I try to check the service status on your own website, it's down too! pic.twitter.com/83WY8CdYOJ

— Dr Gary Tanner (@DrGaryTanner) March 10, 2021

Of course, Twitter's hardly the most even-tempered of places at the best of times, but it's hard not to sympathise with Virgin Media customers' frustrations, especially as this is reputedly not the first outage experienced in recent times.

With lockdown restrictions still in place across the UK, millions of people are relying on their home broadband like never before. Nor is it just about working from home – we're relying on our internet connections to stay in touch with much-missed friends and family. This is something other ISPs are clearly aware of – Vodafone, for instance, last week rolled out a new extra-secure Pro broadband service that automatically transfers its users over to the company's 4G network is its broadband service does fail.

How do I check if my Virgin Media is working?

DownDetector is definitely the first place to go, as this is where you'll find out if other Virgin Media users are reporting similar issues. You can also try heading to the My Virgin service update page on the Virgin website, though many customers reportedly couldn't access this earlier today.

Can I get compensation from Virgin Media?

We can't confirm yet if this morning's outage is the basis of a refund – this will likely differ on an area-to-area basis. But one thing we can tell you is that Virgin Media is one of the ISPs who signed up to the new voluntary codes of practice from Ofcom, introduced in 2019. In this new set of protocols from the regulator, ISPs are obliged to allow their customers to leave their contracts if – and here we stress if – the advertised speeds are repeatedly not honoured.

If you're thinking of leaving your current ISP, Virgin Media or otherwise, make sure you read our how long does it take to switch broadband provider explainer first.

Looking for a change of broadband provider? Don't miss our pick of the best broadband deals this month, or find out about new Vodafone Pro.