O2 UK Reduce Flexibility to Swap Your Phone After 90 Days, Now it’s 11 Months
Customers of mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media), specifically those with the ‘Switch Up‘ service on their plan that gives you the flexibility to swap your Smartphone after 90 days (without having to pay off your contract), have recently been informed that the operator will shortly extend this period to 11 months.
The change wasn’t mentioned to us when we queried last week’s somewhat controversial change to O2’s annual price rise policy (here and here), but customers with the add-on did later receive the following notification as part of that price change: “On 22 January 2026, O2 Switch Up will be changing from a 90-day cycle to an 11-month cycle. This means you can switch to a new device every 11 months.”
In fairness, the old 90-day period, which is currently still being widely advertised on O2’s website despite the impending change, always seemed to be an economically challenging feature to deliver and one that many customers probably wouldn’t use within such a short period of time (although a fair few do). On the other hand, changing the period to 11 months does make it more akin to just being an annual contract.
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As we understand it from O2’s community agent (here), the change means that if, for example, somebody Switches Up their device tomorrow (1st November 2025) then, as the 90-day rule will still apply, they’d be able to Switch Up again on 1st February 2026. But after that last switch, the period would be changed to 11 months. Credits to forum member meritez for spotting this change (here).
A spokesperson for O2 told ISPreview:
“We’re continuing to offer Switch Up, allowing eligible O2 customers to ‘switch up’ every 11 months instead of every 90 days. This aligns more closely with how the majority of customers are already using Switch Up, and will help to reduce the number of minimally used handsets in circulation, supporting our sustainability goals.”
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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It’s time people stopped being phone snobs wanting the latest & greatest phone with features that I guess the majority of customers never use. Perfectly serviceable smart phones are available on Amazon for £100 or less and find a decent MVNO rolling 1 month contract that works perfectly well for most people. I’m afraid the mobile phone operators see these people coming.
Depends on needs and wants.
Those dirt cheap phones wouldn’t suit me as they’re usually either missing features I want (and use) and/or have shorter update cycles compared to more expensive alternatives (buy cheap, buy twice).
Try and keep that £100 plastic thing as long as an iPhone, which can last for eight years. You’re in a false economy, not to mention an environmental disaster.
I change my Iphone every 4-5 years thankyou very much
And I have been on a 1 month contract for 10+ years
@Simon 4-5 years is not the latest & greatest, so you’ve made my point precisely.
I’m not being funny but it is generally a better experience if you either just splurge out or just get an older flagship and keep it for a few years. It’s honestly not worth upgrading every year, but touching budget phones also aren’t a great idea with the amounts of pre installed bloat you can get (granted it still happens on flagships), they don’t really get a lot of updates, possible that they’ll slow down sooner than others etc. I believe I also have heard that people tend to hold on to budget phones for a shorter amount of time?
I’m rocking a Pixel 6 Pro (bought a year and a half ago) and other than some weird mobile network quirks (and weird restrictions from Google), it works perfectly fine and still has updates for another year.
This seems to be a material change to the agreement, effectively ending the old service (90 days) and bringing I a new one (11 months), not just changing the date range a little on the existing offering…
Has there been some kind of leadership change, at this company? I think they want to quickly become the most known telco for rinsing their own customers.
Every customer has the option to walk following the recent announcement, and why wouldn’t they, given the uncertainty of the inevitable new contract change of the week?
Thing is phones last longer these days, still I dont agree with this because it defeats the original idea of switchup which was not having to wait to upgrade. I personally see a mass exodus of O2 customers.