About Virgin Media Mobile

Virgin Media Mobile is one of the top mobile network providers worldwide, and in the UK in particular. Aside from having over 3 million mobile customers, Virgin Media also has licence holders in 8 different countries. These licence holders offer Virgin Mobile branded services in each country but handsets and deals may vary from country to country.

In the UK, Virgin Mobile doesn’t use its own network infrastructure. It practices what is called ‘piggybacking’ off another mobile network. This means it uses another network’s infrastructure instead of its own. A network which does this is known as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator, or MVNO.

Virgin Media logo and mobile phone
Phone Reviews

Virgin Media Mobile uses the EE network which works out very nicely for them since EE is the network with the widest coverage in the UK, proudly boasting 99% population coverage for 4G. Ultrafast network speeds are something that Virgin mobile customers get to enjoy as Virgins 4G network speeds are about five times faster than standard 3G speeds and faster than any rivals such as Three, Vodafone and O2.

Other things that people get to enjoy as Virgin mobile customers include data rollover, flexible plans, free use of messaging apps such as Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger and Twitter and access to 3.5 million hotspots in the UK on their mobile.

History and Past Operations

Virgin Media Mobile was first introduced to the world in 1999, as one of the many services that the Virgin Group brand already had to offer. It was a result of the merge between One2One (now known as T-Mobile UK) and the parent Virgin Group. The merger involved the resale of network bandwidth from One2One under the Virgin Mobile brand.

In 2003, Virgin Mobile reported its first annual profit after a successful Christmas period where it had gained 40% more customers than the previous year, bringing its UK market share to 4.6%. After that, in 2005, two cable companies, (NTL and Telewest), merged to form what is now known as Virgin Media in 2007.

Timeline

1999 - Virgin Group and One2One (now known as T-Mobile) merge

2003 - Virgin Mobile reports its first annual profit

2004 - German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom sells their 50% shareholdings in Virgin Mobile to the Virgin Group.

2006 - NTL and Telewest merge and purchase Virgin Mobile.

July 2006 - Virgin Mobile is delisted from the London Stock Exchange.

2007 - NTL-Telewest rebrands and forms Virgin Media.

2010 - T-Mobile and Orange merge to form EE, the network that Virgin Mobile will ‘piggyback’ off.

November 2016 - Virgin Media launches 4G to all their regular customers

December 2016 - Virgin Media releases a carrier update which fixes previous issues with 4G not displaying on some phones

Corporate Affairs (shares & finances)

Stack of money

Richard Branson had first considered making Virgin Mobile public in 2002 but it didn’t happen until later. It was the last company within the Virgin Group brand to be listed on the London Stock Exchange. The company was made public in 2006 when 37% of the company was made available for sale. The original plan had been to list about 40% of the company on the stock exchange, with a float value of £1bn.

Under the 2006 merger deal between Virgin Mobile and NTL: Telewest, Richard Branson planned to swap his 72% share in Virgin Mobile for a 14% share in NTL: Telewest. The final agreement involved Branson accepting 0.18596 of an NTL: Telewest share, and 67p in cash, worth in total £3.87. The newly formed NTL: Telewest delisted Virgin Mobile from the London Stock Exchange on the 4th of July in 2006.

In February of 2007, NTL: Telewest was rebranded as Virgin Media, which traded independently until 2013. Virgin Media was acquired by Liberty Global Plc in 2013, which trades on both, the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq exchange in New York. Virgin Mobile UK is a subsidiary of the Virgin Media group, now owned by Liberty Global.

Careers

If you’re interested in a career with the Virgin Media group, you can find out all about their vacancies in the careers section of their website. You’ll see a list of open positions by Job Title or Location and apply online.

If you’re not exactly sure where your skills might fit in, you can start by looking at the ‘Working Here’ part of the careers portal. Here you can read all about what it’s like to work at Virgin Media, benefits you’ll get while working there and find out answers to FAQ.

Virgin Media Mobile in the news

14/05/2019 - Virgin mobile network outage: A network outage caused by an unknown issue results in customers being unable to access the internet using their data, send messages or make phone calls. Furious customers demanded they be reimbursed and according to Virgin Mobile, they will be.

14/05/2019 - Virgin mobile price increases: Virgin Mobile is set to increase prices by 2.4% from 1st of July and customers find out during a network outage. This price increase will only affect SIM-only and customers on a contract and customers who are mid-contract might also be affected as the price increase is due to climbing rates of inflation.

Current Mobile Products & Services

Virgin Mobile Media offers a wide range of mobile phones and contract deals to its mobile customers. In terms of mobile phones, you can get pay monthly phones and SIM-free phones and in terms of contract, you can get pay monthly SIMSs, pay-as-you-go SIMs and pay monthly plans. You’ll find more detailed information on our pages dedicated to the products and services but below you’ll find a rough summary of what you can expect from Virgin Mobile.

Mobile Phones and Devices

Mobile phone

In terms of mobile phones, Virgin Mobile offers the latest models from Apple, Samsung, Sony and Huawei, which you can pay for on a monthly contract. These deals are known as ‘Pay Monthly Phones’

Apart from Pay Monthly Phones, you can also get SIM free phones, which are designed for those who are happy with their current plan but would like to upgrade their phone. The mobile phones that you can currently get with this deal are the iPhone 6S, the Huawei P Smart, and the Samsung Galaxy J3, which are normally very expensive with a long-term contract.

Virgin Mobile Deals

Virgin Mobile offers something called Freestyle plans which are plans with a monthly fee over 24 or 36 months. The SIM-only deals are offered on a 12-month basis. Currently, there are no 30-day rolling contracts for mobile deals which is a bit strange considering Virgin offers 30-day contracts with its TV and broadband bundles.

The mobile options are quite attractive with perks such as unlimited texts, no upfront fees (unless you choose to pay for a phone outright), unused data rollover, data-free messaging on WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Twitter and access to its public Wifi hotspots free of charge.

SIM-only Deals

Virgin Media Mobile also offers some great SIM-only deals for those looking for a data plan without the mobile phone. You can see a summary of these deals below or go to our Virgin mobile deals page to see the deals in detail and find out how to sign up.

Pay monthly SIMSs

With Pay Monthly SIMs, you can choose fromthree different options that come with SIMs that fit into all phones, free delivery, access to Virgins free Wifi hotspots and a 14-day return policy. There’s also a special deal just for TV and broadband customers only. Below are the four Pay Monthly SIMs that Virgin is offering.

Virgin Media Mobile Pay Monthly SIMS Plans

2 GB data plan

10 GB data plan

40 GB data plan

Data unlimited (TV & broadband customers)

£7 per month

£10 per month

£19 per month

£27 per month

1500 call minutes

5000 call minutes

5000 call minutes

Unlimited minutes

Unlimited texts

Unlimited texts

Unlimited texts

Unlimited texts

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Pay-as-you-go SIMs

Even though Pay-as-you-go SIMs are offered on a pay-per-month basis, you will still be locked into a 12-month contract that will renew automatically each month. With these deals, customers have the same benefits as the Pay Monthly SIMs.The SIMs still fit in all phones, can be delivered to you for free, have the option of a 14-day return and access to over 3 million Wifi hotspots.

Customers choose pay-as-you-go plans because they are easy to set-up and change, they renew automatically each month, you have the option to Roam Like Home in 43 countries and unlimited calls to other Virgin Media mobile customers.

Virgin calls their pay-as-you-go plans, ‘JAM Packs’ and below you can check out the options available.

Virgin Media Mobile Pay-as-you-go SIMs

2 GB data plan 6 GB data plan 10 GB data plan
£10 per month £15 per month £120 per month
500 call minutes 1000 call minutes 2000 call minutes
500 1000 2000

Virgin Media Mobile Contact

If you’re interested in joining Virgin Mobile or in finding out more about their mobile products and services, you can contact Virgin directly.

If you want to join

If you’ve already made up your mind and you know you want a Virgin Media mobile deal, you can contact their sales team directly, using the following number, 0800 052 2525 during the following times: Monday to Friday 8am-8pm or Saturday: 8am-6pm. The sales department is not open on Sundays.

General customer service

For general customer service enquiries related to Virgin mobile, you can contact them on 0800 064 3820 on Monday to Sunday between 8am and 10pm. You can also contact the customer service team via live chat Monday to Friday between 8am and 8pm or Saturday between 8am and 6pm.

For a full list of ways that you can get in touch with Virgin Media mobile, or if you want to make a specific request, i.e. a request related directly to accounts and billings or rescheduling appointments, head to the Virgin contact page.

Virgin Media Mobile Reviews

Stack of papers

Taking a look at Virgin Mobile reviews on the site Trustpilot, things are not looking good in the customer reviews department. 91% of customers who left a review, gave Virgin Mobile the worst score possible. The customers who gave Virgin Mobile a ‘bad’ score had said that they were appalled at how bad customer service is.

Customers claimed it takes forever and a day to solve anything, that it’s very difficult to actually cancel a plan as they keep charging you and of course, there are the mobile coverage issues. Virgin Mobile has already had a few hiccups with their mobile coverage, with customers experiencing complete outages of their mobile services. In these cases, customers normally take to Twitter and demand compensation.

Customers are mostly disappointed with the unexpected price hikes while they’re still in contract, network outages and poor customer service while trying to cancel a service, get owed money back or replace a mobile device.

It’s not all bad news for Virgin Mobile however, with 4% of customers who reviewed them on TrustPilot giving them a score of ‘Excellent’ or ‘Great’. The customers who gave Virgin Mobile such positive reviews did so because according to them, they can’t fault Virgin Mobiles’ customer service. They said problems are always resolved in a timely manner with no issues and that mobile coverage is always great. You can read about Virgin Media reviews in more detail in our comprehensive reviews page.

Virgin Media Mobile