Virgin Mobile UK Customers to be Switched to Equivalent O2 Plans UPDATE
Broadband ISP Virgin Media UK (VMO2), which in mid-2021 completed a mega £31bn merger with mobile operator O2, has quietly indicated that its own Virgin Mobile brand – still home to c. 3 million customers – may “soon” be coming to an end as subscribers will be “moving from a Virgin Mobile plan to an equivalent O2 plan.”
Until recently, the Virgin Mobile brand had been one of the market’s oldest and most familiar Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO), which spent many years being powered by EE’s network. But that changed in late 2019 when the operator signed a 5-year deal with Vodafone to run their MVNO platform (here), although the merger with O2 that followed resulted in that agreement being cancelled too (here).
Over the past 18-months or so we’ve seen Virgin Media and O2 take gradual stems toward more convergence between their products and services, such as via the introduction of their new VOLT bundles that mixed O2’s mobile plans with Virgin Media’s fixed line broadband, phone and TV services. Similarly, Virgin Media had been expected to migrate all of their Virgin Mobile subscribers on to O2’s underlying network, albeit while retaining the Virgin Mobile brand.
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So far, so predictable. But it now looks as if VMO2 may be taking a different approach with their long-running Virgin Mobile brand, which might not survive the growing convergence between the merged parties. In a notice that was added to Virgin Mobile’s SIM Only product page a few days ago (credits to Gareth for spotting), the operator states: “Virgin Media and O2 have joined forces so, at some point soon, you’ll be moving from a Virgin Mobile plan to an equivalent O2 plan.”
The key word above is “plan“, which suggests to us that they may be abandoning the Virgin Mobile brand as customers will be moving to O2’s plans, rather than just switching to the underlying network as would have been expected. Practically speaking, the difference here shouldn’t be too significant, at least for more recent customers, since Virgin Mobile’s plans are already fairly similar – in some cases they’re almost identical – to O2’s plans and VOLT has also narrowed the gap (1 million of their customers now take a VOLT bundle).
Nevertheless, the Virgin Mobile name is so familiar and has such a history in this market that its presence will be missed. On the other hand, this might indicate that VMO2 are learning from BT and EE’s challenges with their own merger. BT initially tried to maintain its own BT Mobile brand, but over the past few years they’ve walked this back and if you try to join BT Mobile today then the products are all from EE.
We have contacted VMO2 in the hope of getting some clarity on precisely what will be happening and when, or if this is simply a mistake in the wording they’ve used. We’ll report back once they reply.
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UPDATE 11th Jan 2023
VMO2 has just confirmed our report and revealed what it means, as well as the timescale for their migration (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, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Virgin hate EE (because of owner by BT) – bad move to o2 with lack of no 5G as o2 are the worst mobile provider for slow speed on 4G! Virgin is big mistake of leaving EE
Depends where you live, around here O2 and Vodafone are the only viable networks, EE only works outdoors, can’t even get a signal inside and 3 is not much better.
Surprisingly O2 5G rollout sped up recently at least in Cambs.
I wouldn’t say Virgin hate BT, Vodafone (who they originally switched to) would have offered then a better deal (EE is generally more expensive but better coverage). The switch to O2 is due to the merger.
Having been a Virgin and or an EE customer since mobiles began I found to my surprise in March 2022 that Virgin had moved away from EE without any notification from Virgin that this.was happening. Unfortunately for me I live in an area with only one EE mast, this was a serious problem for me so back to EE it was and all sorted. Appart from the business side of things Virgin would surely have been better to have stayed with EE.
Bit of a surprise, I assumed they’d keep both Virgin Mobile and O2.
It’ll be interesting to see what ends up being an ‘equivalent’ O2 plan. Virgin Mobile have a couple of features as standard on their plans that I don’t think O2 do, like rollover data and free data to messaging apps (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Twitter off the top of my head).
I don’t think they’ll be referring to moving customers to the O2 network but keeping them as VM, as that did that a while ago and that wording on the sim only plan page is new in the last couple of weeks.
The wording is also on the phone plan page if you click through on to a specific device, under the plans table.
O2 plans are usually quite a bit more expensive than the Virgin equivalents so this is is probably a price hike in disguise. Having said that, it makes no sense for them to keep two brands. Virgin media o2 pay Richard Branson a huge fee to use the Virgin Brand name and I suspect over time they’ll rebrand their TV and broadband as o2 as well. Reading the info on their web site, I don’t think it can really be interpreted as anything else. They’ll scrap virgin mobile and just use the o2 brand.
Doubt they’ll scrap the VM brand – they’ve got a thirty year licencing agreement with Virgin Group to use the name that doesn’t run out until 2036/37. As I recall from published statements that I can’t now find, Virgin got paid 0.25% of all VM content revenues (mainly TV channel subscriptions), and I’d guess that’s a modest amount for the company to have to pay for such a widely recognised brand, and from Ole’ Beardo’s perspective, it’ll be what, £50m a year for doing absolutely nothing. No idea what the exit terms of the brand licensing agreement might be, but it should include termination clauses – if Virgin were any good at negotiating those will involve paying out any remaining years in full.
In a busy market brand recognition is king.
Many may know that O2 reception is terrible but less will know that their chosen mvno is actually works via O2.
The virgin mobile brand alone is likely worth hundreds of millions, virgin customers likely won’t care about O2.
We have a sky mobile sim in the household and reception is terrible, sky is an mvno on O2
The things is though that the virgin Brand doesn’t belong to them. Just like Virgin Money, They pay Richard Branson a very, very hefty fee to use it. I suspect that they’ll eventually rebrand everything as o2, including virgin TV and broadband. It makes no sense for them to pay so much to basically rent the virgin name.
Virgin Mobile seem to have added the same message to their pay monthly phone deals as well and not just SIM-only. eg https://www.virginmedia.com/mobile/pay-monthly/apple/iphone-14-and-watch
I switched from VM when they switched to Vodafone because the signal was non-existent anywhere I went. So I switched to O2 but then I used to see these large charges on my bill for App Store purchases that weren’t from my Apple account. (And the sim was being switched between Android and iPhone a few times).
What was especially strange was that I only used this line (& phone) to access WhatsApp and the work messaging app, Slack.
A few calls to O2 and they wouldn’t budge. Bill was at £700 at this point. They wouldn’t even confirm if the purchases were made from my device. Fortunately, Apple support were sympathetic and refunded the long list of purchases and confirmed they weren’t made from my account…
I didn’t know you could make purchases from the app store using your phone contract and they aren’t affecting from billing caps 😉
So I am slightly worried about any amalgamation… BT/EE are becoming less competitive imo because they’re not selling on third party resellers (fonehouse, chitter chatter, etc) anymore. I’m out of contract this month but I think I’ll stomach the cost until April and then look for a sim to beat possibly beat inflation hikes.
EE have become totally complacent and don’t appear to care about competing at all – they flat out refused to negotiate on my renewal, didn’t even try and match a new customer deal. They just said “we’re the biggest and fastest network”.
They were bad before, but it’s only got worse since the BT takeover. Unfortunately, there are just far too many people in this country who don’t care to even check they are getting good value.
The sad thing now is that they are exactly the same company, whether we like it or not. I had similar problems with o2 about a phone I had with them. It broke and they sent me a replacement. Then that broke and they sent me another. I asked for this to be unlocked and they kept sending me codes for the wrong phone. When I complained they said they had no record of ever sending me that phone. This went on for over a year and a complaint to the ombudsman before it was sorted. It’s a real shame that Three dropped their roaming otherwise I’d still be with them
My advice to you also is to look on the Quidco / top cashback websites. They have sim only deals for all the networks that often aren’t available elsewhere and you often get quite hefty amounts of cashback from them.
Does anyone actually enjoy using the o2 network?
I moved to O2 as part of a Volt upgrade, no problem using it at home, away from home or abroad (in Barbados and Grenada).
I’ve been with Virgin for years, but planning to jump ship when contract ends in May anyway. I spend a lot of time in rural areas in West of Scotland where EE coverage is great (due to their emergency services contract,I assume). It wasn’t a big deal when they switched to using Voda, without telling me, as their coverage is generally equivalent, but the O2 switch has been a disaster. I was contemplating trying to argue a mid contract break as they hadn’t advised the switch (again) but can’t face it. Will be taking up a cheap BT/EE SIMO as soon as I’m out of contract, to piggy back on my broadband deal.
What you are saying is spot on with the change to Vodafone not too bad, change to o2 terrible. You won’t get a BT branded SIMO anymore, and you won’t find a cheap EE deal. They are extremely expensive compared to the rest, but I guess you get what you pay for!
Have a look at some of the EE MVNO operators… Utility Warehouse, 1P mobile, Plusnet to name a few
Ask Mark said Plusnet most are 30 rolling contracts and prices are unbeatable I would say EE based as well just one thing there’s no 5G yet or WiFi calling on plusnet plans. My dad is on a plan with them he doesn’t use much data 8GB per month 30 day rolling contract unlimited calls and text £6 per month.
Considering Virgin do TV, Broadband, Landline and Mobile, wouldn’t it make more sense to move all o2 customers over to Virgin and have Virgin remain as a quad play provider?
I wonder if it’s a case of Virgin Mobile customers are leaving in their droves since been forced onto the terrible o2 network…..
No, in a word. Just like Virgin Money, they aren’t actually part of the Virgin Group. As a result, they have to pay Richard Branson a very, very hefty amount to basically “rent” the virgin name. They’ll be keen to drop that and don’t be surprised if they rebrand everything, including TV and broadband as o2, which they do have the rights to.
Not happy last year i was talked into volt. 1gig Internet TV land line (why I don’t know haven’t had a fixed phone in the house for 5years) anyway with volt my sim would move to 02 on the same charges yeah right contract came though I’d be paying £20 instead of £8 so canceled strait away. 02 still took a payment and after many emails have never returned it. I got a new phone Saturday from Virginia so as normal I went into Middlesbrough town to get 1 of the 2 virgin shops to transfer the data from my old phone to my new. Both shops have gone but I noticed 02 advertising that you can sort your virgin out in there. So I asked as I’m a virgin customer can they transfer my data and was told no we don’t do that. Carphone warehouse will be my next new phone.
Have you made a formal complaints to them and taken it to the ombudsman? I had to do that with o2. The ombudsman sorted it
I hope that isn’t true. The o2 plans are generally quite a bit more expensive than the Virgin Mobile ones. The deal I’m in for example is 50% more expensive with o2 than Virgin.
O2 have always been strong on branding, just not so much the actual network.
Once this contract is up as part of Volt, I’m going back to GiffGaff or TescoMobile. The only two, as far as I can see, who don’t massively increase prices year on year.
Same goes for my other half who is currently on Virginmobile who are/were great. One price for the length of the contract.
Try Lebara. Works well for me: Vodafone network, 5G and European roaming included, 30 day termination, good deals available with discounted rates for first few months (e.g. via moneysavingexpert)
I switched when Three wanted to force my existing out-of-contract plan onto a new and substantially more expensive plan.
I made the mistake of leaving Vodafone for O2 last year, lured in by their pricing and a vague recollection they were pretty good last time I was with them 20 years ago.
Big mistake.
Their network is a cokplete joke. I often don’t have any signal, but even when I do, where is my data transfer? It took over 1 minute to load a basic webpage recently! It’s like dial-up in the 90’s.
If you are on a train, in a car, or even walking at a brisk pace, you can forget about any sort of data connectivity.
I’m actually considering going back to VF whilst i’m still in contract for O2.
When the time to switch networks comes, I definitely recommend having a look on both the Quidco and topcashback websites. They often have special deals from the networks that aren’t available elsewhere, and you also usually get some nice cashback with them too. For example I got a 12 month sim only deal from then for Three. £10 a month for 100GB, unlimited texts and calls, and £60 cashback. It paid for half the year’s contract. When the contract ended, I moved to pay as you go on a different network, then moved back to Three and got the same deal again. I did that for about 3 years before three stopped their roaming. Moved to virgin mobile after that and got some cashback with that too.
I just agreed a contract with them (VM) last week and this was not mentioned.
Cancelling that contract tonight.
What we need is MVNOs who can use whichever underlying network offers the best reception and service in any one part of the country. They buy wholesale capacity from all O2 Visa and EE and then just offer a branded front end with great calls and connectivity…….
Well it’s a dream worth trying
It sorta exists (anywheresim) but its incredibly pricy.
Clearly a dreamer as you don’t understand how mobile telcos are set up and interact. Not to mention the IT and billing platforms and the data extraction needed.
I wouldn’t be surprised if in a couple of years we see an end to the Virgin Media / Virgin Mobile / O2 brands in the UK.
Like someone else has mentioned in the thread, Liberty Global (The owners of the Virgin network) will be paying a hefty fee to Richard Branson to be able to use the Virgin branding. Virgin Media is typically the stronger brand when it comes to TV / Broadband deals and I would assume most people in the UK would associate them with that. Where as O2 is typically a stronger brand when it comes to mobile networks.
Personally I think it would make more sense to have a unified brand for TV / Broadband / Mobile. Thus making the brand more valuable to potential investors and potentially Liberty Global or Telefonica buying the other partner out and retaining the unified customer facing brand name.
If they do move to a unified brand, and it’s likely that they will, I’ve got a great idea! We’ve had Orange, and that’s of course long-gone (sadly). So let’s have Yellow, with a nice yellow filled-circle. A nice bright brand, brightens the high street a little with the stores, and no other network has that colour. It’s also not an issue for colour-blind folks. Sorted (I’ll take my £250,000 creative fee please VMO2!)
Yellow circle is a bit like EE (two yellow circles), no fee. 🙂
I have just moved from 3 back to VM to take advantage of the EU roaming – I hope this will not change. (I’ve had a 2nd VM SIM for yrs which my OH uses)
I switched from Smarty (Three) to O2 for my virgin media Volt boost, I get 50gb of mobile and and my 500mbit went up to Gig1 (1150mbit).
Whilst I was happy at paying £2 a month more for more data and a speed increase, I am now hugely regretting it.
Where I live, I was getting 150-200mbit in Smarty (three) and now on O2 my data often goes to H and generally at the best of times I get a 1-5mbit download and usually a 0.05-1mbit upload, that’s when it’s on 4G.
These speeds persistent throughout the UK when traveling… With the odd stretch of motorway giving me 100mbit randomly.
I recently had a heart attack and went in to hospital, the signal was horrific, barely hitting 1mbit, the hospital offered a free 1 up and 1 down, but it just timed out constantly. I was miserable.
My bros visited and bought a Three simcard for me, and although there was no official 5G signal for the area I thought yolo, even 10mbit would suffice…
My phone has a dual sim, out of over a week in hospital never above 2mbit did I get on O2. Three.. Well.. Lol! I had speed tests of between 500mbit and 700mbit.. Insane, legit crazy. No prime video buffering just bish bash bosh it’s on.
No matter what they brand O2 as, its a hot pile of garbage, whatever VM paid for O2 was too much, ten fold too much, they would be better off using Threes network, infact, hey virgin, sell off all O2s equipment etc and just do that.a
Absolutely shocking.
As soon as Threes 5G come to my area I’m going 5G mobile broadband, VM are jokers and BT and it’s wholesale idiots are scammers and it should be illegal to be called fibre, what’s this full fibre joke?
Still gets me Sky pushes 35mbit as “superfast”..i guess it is if you’re using O2 data..
I presumed that the network was going to crap out because of this, it seems that I was correct. From 50-80Mbps to 2-5. Great .