Virgin Media O2 humiliates rivals by not reinstating EU roaming fees

Virgin Media O2 is taking a playbook once written by rival Three and will buck the trend of reinstating EU roaming charges.

Gareth Turpin, Chief Commercial Officer of Mobile at Virgin Media O2, said:

“We’re starting the year by giving our customers some certainty: we will not be reintroducing roaming fees in Europe for customers on O2 or Virgin Mobile.

Unlike all the other major mobile networks who are bringing back roaming fees, we will not be following suit....

10 January 2022 | Networks

O2 is gifting data to Big Issue sellers this Christmas

O2 is getting in the festive spirit by gifting free data to hundreds of Big Issue sellers.

The free data, given as part of the National Databank initiative, will help the sellers to access essential online services and go cashless to help them grow their business.

Over 200 Big Issue sellers will receive 7GB of data per month in addition to unlimited texts and calls to help them keep in touch with friends and family.

Rodney Lyall, a Big Issue vendor based in...

29 November 2021 | Operators

Virgin Media O2 expands National Databank to tackle data poverty over Christmas

Following a successful three-month trial, Virgin Media O2 is expanding its National Databank across the UK to tackle data poverty over Christmas.

A shocking 1.5 million homes in the UK are currently without internet access. This “digital divide” limits opportunities all year round, but it’s especially bleak around Christmas.

Lutz Schüler, Chief Executive Officer at Virgin Media O2, said:

“With many millions of people still facing digital exclusion, now...

12 November 2021 | Operators

Digital Connectivity Index: The UK needs to build momentum to “level up”

The first Digital Connectivity Index shows the UK needs to build momentum to climb the rankings and reap the substantial benefits.

Economic modelling experts Oxford Analytica and Virgin Media O2 partnered up to create the index which is based on “thousands” of OECD datapoints.

Of the 24 OECD countries, the UK is currently ranked joint eighth alongside Spain, Norway, and Lithuania:

CountryIndex...

2 November 2021 | Broadband

Virgin Media O2 launches its first joint product since £31B merger

Virgin Media O2 has launched Volt, the company’s first joint product since the £31 billion merger between the telecoms giants earlier this year.

Volt is a service that combines Virgin Media’s speedy broadband network with O2’s mobile connectivity into a single “supercharged” package for customers.

Benefits of taking up a broadband package and pay monthly mobile plan with Volt include:

A broadband speed boost to the next tier available (e.g. 100Mbps...

18 October 2021 | Broadband

RootMetrics: EE is the sole UK operator with 5G availability above 55% in any city

Independent tests from RootMetrics find that EE is the sole UK operator with 5G availability above 55 percent in any city.

In fact, the UK’s largest operator by mobile subscribers can boast everyday 5G availability above 55 percent in four major cities: Birmingham (64.6%), Nottingham (63.9%), Manchester (59.4%), Leicester (57.8%), and Cardiff (55.8%).

Compared to last year, EE managed to improve its 5G availability in 13 cities. Furthermore, the operator has the...

5 August 2021 | Networks

RootMetrics: EE maintains performance lead, but rivals are catching up

The latest Mobile Performance Review report from RootMetrics shows that EE remains the UK operator to beat, but rivals are catching up.

EE swept six RootScore awards for overall performance, reliability, speed, and data, call, and text performance. The operator delivered the fastest median download speeds – across all network technologies – in every city.

Marc Allera, CEO of BT’s Consumer Division, said:

“Delivering the best mobile experience for...

22 July 2021 | LTE

Opinion: EE brings back fees for EU-roaming Brits

British operator EE is planning to reintroduce fees for roaming in the EU from next year while others are lowering their existing fair use policies.

Back in 2018, I wrote an opinion piece that roaming fees were unlikely to make a return. Anti-Brexit campaigner and Labour MP Hilary Benn tweeted this week that it hasn’t aged well:

In my defence, all of the operators committed not to reintroduce roaming fees—a pledge they recommitted to as late as January...

25 June 2021 | Networks

Virgin Media O2 gives small businesses a broadband speed boost

Virgin Media O2 is giving small businesses a broadband speed boost to help them recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a rough year for most businesses, Virgin Media and O2 received some rare good news in May when the Competition and Markets Authority cleared a £31 billion merger between the industry giants.

Virgin Media O2 is now helping small businesses that likely didn’t have such good fortunes over the past year by boosting the upload speeds of customers using its...

21 June 2021 | Broadband

CMA green lights £31B merger of telecoms giants Virgin and O2

The Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) has given the green light to a £31 billion merger of telecoms giants Virgin and O2.

Provisional approval of the deal was granted last month but today’s announcement clears the companies to form a combined entity that can better compete against BT/EE after their own £12.5 billion merger in 2016.

Virgin and O2 both sell wholesale services to a number of mobile operators in the UK. In the case of Virgin, their wholesale...

20 May 2021 | Legislation & Government