Virgin Media’s Unlimited Mobile Data Plan Now Available to All
Cable broadband ISP Virgin Media UK has quietly made an important little change to their top unlimited mobile data plan, which removes the requirement for those who take it out to be an existing customer of their current pay TV, fixed line internet or home phone products.
The tariff, which also comes with unlimited UK texts and calls, is currently selling at a discount of just £25 per month on a 12-month minimum contract term or £20 on a 24-month term (SIM Only), which makes it one of the more competitive unlimited data (mobile broadband) plans – this discount is due to run until 6th April 2021. The pricing is the same for both the 4G and 5G versions of this package.
A spokesperson for Virgin Mobile confirmed to ISPreview.co.uk that they “first started selling unlimited data plans to non-cable customers last month,” but didn’t make a formal announcement about it (a couple of readers helped us to spot this). However, we note in the small print that their unlimited data plan is still listed as being available “for Virgin TV, fibre or home phone customers only,” but this appears to be incorrect (we’ve highlighted it to VM).
We should point out that Virgin Media are currently in the process of transitioning away from their existing EE based Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) platform and on to a new Vodafone powered one. Further down the road they’re also expected to more closely integrate O2’s network, although the plan for that will depend upon the outcome of their on-going merger process (here).
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Do they have any fair usage policy for unlimited data plans? I could not find any mention on their webpage.
Hi Bill
They kick off if you use it in a router but other than that I’ve hammered mine and had no issues.
I’ve used mine in a mifi and done over 3TB in a month and no one has ever kicked off at me.. That was when I had internet with them too
They can’t kick you off if you use it in a router, Ofcom forbids it in Der Net Neutrality
Excessive usage policy seems to apply to phone plans but that’s about it.
My guess is because its bandwidth limited service anyway that all should be OK.
So you could be on a great EE connection currently and sign up for 12 or 24 months and end up on a shonky Vodafone mast down the road, or visa-versa.
Probably costing Virgin a lot less for Vodafone instead of EE, this makes me think.
Maybe it’s cost considering Asda Mobile are changing back to Vodafone soon. How many more networks who use EE will jump ship!
Little bit antisemitic Lugz?
125US maybe google the word? did he mention anything about that?
125us
WAT ?
It does concern me slightly how the Vodafone network is going to cope with more MVNO moving onto the network especially larger ones like Virgin and Asda even more so if they start promoting Unlimited data bundles. I do think a number of Virgin customers are going to be disappointed when they switch
The Vodafone network in the East side of the country (O2 controlled zone) is already struggling with their own customers with speeds now often around 10-18Mbps in a number of places with upload often faster as not such demand. The large cities like Nottingham,Leicester,Derby,Northampton,Peterborough still have no 5G so all traffic remains on the 4G network
I agree, this is the problem with MVNO’s and another reason why Virgin should be made to unbundle its cable to other suppliers in my view. It’s all well and good offloading people onto 4g and 5g but the current system has a quickly dwindling amount of bandwidth to share across most networks. As home broadband becomes more accepted the masts are going to quickly become overwhelmed slowing down not just virgin’s customers using 4g but also vodafones customers too.
An interesting point! Paying for Vodafone’s Unlimited Max on two lines, I’d want Vodafone to guarantee that as their direct customer, I’d be protected from MVNO traffic. At the moment, I’m touching 200Mbps on 4G alone, so preserving customers with a direct relationship and prioritising them is something I believe they should do. If an MVNO customer wants the full speed and priority; join Vodafone directly.
For sure it will slow down.
Three uk is the case model with average 4g download speeds in the big cities measured in kbps.
They have clearly oversold with their cheap plans and unlimited data and clearly have no solution to the problem other than hoping for a gradual migration to 5g where they promise the UK’s fastest network. In the meantime if you call to complain they just advise you to switch your device to 3g.
Why should Virgin have to provide wholesale access to their network exactly? Their cable network was built using private funds over many years. The Openreach network was built using public funds which is why they are required to sell wholesale. BT requested Ofcom force Virgin to provide wholesale access years ago and that was basically Ofcoms response.
Been on Virgin Mobile for years and the 4G service here is excellent. Fast data speeds of nearly 70mbps most times.
Got a text a few days ago welcoming me to 5G. So they must have switched my purple SIM over from EE to Vodafone as I have a 5G phone.
When I get a 4G signal of one bar, the speeds are now 8mbps on average, and often the phone will go to just EDGE!
So service now dire in my area in the South East. Would rather be on the EE 4G (there is no 5G here yet anyway)
exactly what I expected to happen then.
Will never trust them again after I previously had “unlimited” SIM only with them which they one day decided to change to “unlimited” with a 2Mbps cap after the first 2GB.
What provisions are in place from a regulator position to enable customers who see a decline in performance moving from Virgin’s EE MVNO to Vodafones? Can they just leave without penalty?
I suppose it depends if customers who took 5G ‘coming soon’ contract agreed to the switch.
As for pre-5G Virgin EE Mobile customers they shouldn’t be getting moved until last and for those who do get moved I suspect Virgin can just put them back on EE until the final switch off.
Does Virgin’s 5g have WiFi calling?
Virgin Media have WiFi calling, its nothing to do with 4G/5G.
Virgin Media now has VoLTE via Vodafone’s network.
if only they weren’t moving away from a fast network to a slow one (vodafone)
Depends where you are… Vodafone plenty fast in many areas.
I’m sitting in my house now and I can get well over 100mbps on Vodafone from a mast nearly 1km away.
Unlimited Data doesn’t mean Unlimited – you have been warned! Read FUP Policy!
Actually, on Virgin it does. EE has an FUP limit for their own customers of 600GB. But, Virgin Media Business provides a lot of the backhaul network for EE’s masts. Under this deal VM don’t have to set up limits like other MVNO providers on EE do
Virgin back hauling EE masts, sounds a little stupid considering its a BT company.
For years Virgin Media Business has been providing backhaul on its synchronous Ethernet network to EE (as well as Vodafone, Three and O2). After EE was bought by BT it would probably have cost too much for EE to get out of the contract.
Roger – I know just a bit silly that VM running BT’s network
Yup! Virgin Mobile Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) Unlimited Data *100GB per month*
Really? Explain my 3.5TB usage in a month?
You don’t know anything Max
@Anna, how does a non commercial connection consume 3.5tb a month?
Even in a multi person household, people go out to work or school and have to sleep.
So again how does a non commercial connection manage to consume 3.5tb a month. It is impossible!
I don’t believe in Anna doing 3.5TB in a month. Way impossible for Sim Only.
It’s not impossible to consume 3.5TB a month at all. I averaged 2TB a month a year ago and I’m now averaging 6TB a month. You’ve clearly being living under a rock… At a time when we are being encouraged to stay at home as much as possible (there’s a pandemic didn’t you know?) of course everyone’s usage is going to go up!
Where are you seeing this? Roy
I went through Virgin’s Terms and Conditions last night and didn’t find any reference to fair usage policy and traffic management doesn’t apply either.
However Virgin do have an excessive usage policy in place, I would guess it operates similarly to EE’s where they advised not to do more that 1TB or you could face being contacted to move to a business plan or disconnected, but at this time I’ve not heard of anybody facing the problem with EE.
Also Virgin Media’s plans are limited bandwidth wise, on EE the download was limited to 80Mbps and now it seems with Vodafone its 85Mbps so these limits alone should avoid issues on masts from heavy users.
@ Lee, 3.5 tb monthly datacap is impressive.
Is that (ballpark) 10 solid days of 4K UHD streaming?
Can be streaming and downloading xbox / ps games
Aled – Downloading at 70Mb/s it takes about half a day to consume 3.5TB, So assuming 4K is about 25Mb/s would take about 1.15 days.
JP, at 70Mbps you can download 370GB in 12 hours. It would take almost ten days to download 3.5TB.
Mike – Ooops I mad a bit of a boo boo there, just tried that again and its coming back 5 days and 2 hours.
Well I’ve been having a look through some of the new terms and conditions, seems that speeds are limited to 85mbps down and 35mbps up not exactly what I wanted to hear from a 5G service.
I did do abfair bit of digging and couldn’t actually fins any FUP for unlimted data plans, knowing Virgin this probably doesn’t mean there isn’t one, just not documented.
Shirley if it’s undocumented then it’s unenforceable?
They do have a policy on excessive usage and that would certainly apply with some of scenarios that have been imagined above.
If that’s the case its not exactly 5g is it? Or even 4g in this country!
OK so the latest I’ve come across is https://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/threads/virgin-mobile-move-from-ee-to-vodafone-results.36997/
As you will see the aforementioned limit isn’t applied here, but of course doesn’t mean it won’t be