After having raked a controversy of sorts with its new traffic management system trial, which blocks upstream speeds on P2P networks and newsgroups during peak hours, UK ISP Virgin Media recently announced a £50 offer to subscribers who sign up for the phone, TV and broadband packages of the company before March 14.

Going by the details forwarded by Virgin Media, the new incentive will entail a £50 deduction from the users' first monthly bill. The offer can also be combined with the company’s ‘six month half price’ scheme for its Triple Play Service Bundles, which club together phone, TV, and broadband.

At present, the lowest ‘six months half price’ package being offered by Virgin Media is available for £10 per month, for a period of six months; with the monthly charge for a Virgin phone line being an additional £12.99.

The package provides the users the access to a 10 Mbps broadband service with unlimited downloads; 65 TV channels; as well as free weekend calls to Virgin’s home-line and mobile numbers.

In addition, it is also possible for customers to upgrade their packages by paying for additional plans, which may include more cable channels and free calls. The scheme comes at a time when Virgin intends increasing its monthly fixed line rental from £12.24 to £12.99 from April. Already, the fixed line rental has been hiked by Virgin’s rival TalkTalk; and O2 and BT also plan to follow suit from next month.