I'm not sure why you have bought a new modem as Virgin Media should supply you with one if your old one is broken.
However it is actually the other way round - you have to tell Virgin Media the MAC (Medium Access Control) address of you new modem for it to work.
However (2) I am sure that Virgin Media's Ts& Cs require you to use their supplied modem and so they may not accept your modem.
I don't know that modem but a way around this may be to take the MAC address from your old modem and use that as the Locally Administered Address (LAA) in your new modem. You'll need to look in the manual to see it is supports LAAs.
t
August 2008