Virgin Cellular evaluate: Poor service spoils good offers

Regardless of the 2021 merger of Virgin Media and O2 UK, Virgin Cellular continues as a separate digital cell community, operating – moderately oddly – over Vodafone’s community. That association was because of final till late 2026, however the brand new firm, Virgin Media O2, is eager to maneuver its clients over to its personal know-how sooner – one thing to consider for those who’re signing as much as a long-term deal.

For now, Virgin Cellular has some respectable SIM-only offers and a few tempting provides on pay-monthly telephones, however we haven’t all the time been impressed with its customer support or satisfaction scores. Is Virgin Cellular going to show issues round on this 12 months’s Knowledgeable Opinions Cellular Community Awards?

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Virgin Cellular evaluate: What do you get?

Virgin Cellular typically has the newest smartphones at attractively low costs, although you could take care when making value comparisons, because it tends to advertise 36-month contracts with a decrease month-to-month price. Nonetheless, proper now you can have an iPhone 14 with 30GB of month-to-month information for £49.50/mth on a 24-month contract, or with 250GB of information for £51.50/mth. To place that in perspective, EE sells the identical cellphone with 125GB for £59 a month plus £30 upfront.

There are related offers available on the perfect Android telephones. Fancy a Samsung Galaxy S22? Virgin Cellular sells it on the very same £51.50 deal, whereas EE remains to be providing you with half the info for £7.50 further a month. Positive, you possibly can have the identical cellphone with limitless information on Three for £1.50 a month much less, however solely with a £30 upfront price.

As for SIM-only, most of Virgin Cellular’s packages are actually operating as 30-day rolling plans, beginning at £7 per thirty days with 10GB of information, limitless calls and limitless texts, and going all the best way as much as a limiteless information bundle for £30 a month. A few of these plans are very aggressively priced, although the line-up will be complicated, with a number of plans providing the identical information allowance at completely different value factors, or completely different allowances on the identical value.

Regardless of all these tempting low, low costs, Virgin Cellular’s scores for worth in our Cellular Community Awards survey are pretty center of the street. With 83% of shoppers pleased with the worth they’re getting from the community, Virgin is in entrance of EE, O2 and Vodafone, however a means behind different digital networks comparable to Giffgaff, iD Cellular and Smarty, who function at related value factors.

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Virgin Cellular evaluate: Customer support

Buyer satisfaction has lengthy been a ache level with Virgin Cellular, and the information isn’t good on this 12 months’s survey. Solely 23% of shoppers instructed us they have been very glad with the community’s customer support – the bottom rating for any community – although 48% described themselves as pretty glad. Solely Lebara and iD Cellular worsen outcomes general, and practically 19% of Virgin Cellular clients stated they weren’t very glad or not glad in any respect.

Ofcom’s most up-to-date report involves related conclusions. Virgin has the worst rating – 83% – for general satisfaction, and the third-highest variety of clients with a motive to complain. Virgin Cellular additionally has extra Ofcom complaints per 100,000 clients than any rival, with 16, whereas customers have been additionally much less doubtless than the common to advocate the community to a pal.

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Virgin Cellular evaluate: Protection, reliability and pace

Possibly shifting to O2’s community and infrastructure will enhance issues, however for now Virgin Cellular remains to be operating over Vodafone. Based on the newest take a look at information from RootMetrics, Vodafone’s UK median obtain pace – 23.8Mbits/sec – places it in third place behind EE and Three, at 66.2Mbits/sec and 29.9Mbits/sec respectively. Nevertheless, it nonetheless delivers good 4G speeds in most areas and a few glorious 5G speeds the place obtainable.

Vodafone beats Three for pace in Wales and Northern Eire, and is severely speedy In some UK cities, with median obtain speeds of over 50Mbits/sec in three of the 16 areas the place RootMetrics exams. 4G protection extends to achieve over 99% of the UK inhabitants, and Vodafone now provides 5G providers in over 127 places, protecting roughly 35% of the nation. That also places it behind EE and Three, with protection of round 50%.

Three and EE additionally prime the charts for 5G speeds, with median obtain speeds of roughly 200Mbits/sec and 150Mbits/sec respectively. Nevertheless, Vodafone’s 130Mbits/sec is to not be sniffed at, and its 5G speeds ought to enhance with time. In fact, by that time Virgin Cellular might have moved to O2, at present in fourth place for UK median obtain speeds. Just below half (49%) of the Virgin Cellular 5G clients we surveyed have been glad with their connection; a bit disappointing, however common, with an absence of 5G protection the largest challenge – 47% of dissatisfied clients pinpointed it as the explanation for his or her unhappiness, with 38% mentioning an absence of any noticeable pace enchancment.

Virgin Cellular’s figures for reliability present some indicators of hope. 88% of customers say it is largely or all the time quick sufficient for shopping the net, with over 20% saying all the time; a greater consequence than Tesco Cellular, O2 and Three. Nevertheless, solely 56% suppose it’s all the time or largely quick sufficient for audio streaming, whereas video streaming is worse at 48%.

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Virgin Cellular evaluate: Roaming

Virgin Cellular nonetheless helps free EU roaming although its Roam Like Dwelling scheme, permitting you to make use of your UK allowance of minutes, megabytes and texts. Outdoors of that, utilizing your cellphone can get costly, with costs of £2 per minute, 50p per textual content and £5 per MB in lots of territories, and name prices going as excessive as £5 per minute in some international locations. When you’re travelling exterior the EU, it’s good to get your arms on one other SIM.

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Virgin Cellular evaluate: Different providers and spending caps

Virgin’s 5G plans include an information rollover, in order that unused information from one month rolls over to the following. You may also message and tweet on WhatsApp, Fb Messenger and Twitter with out utilizing information, although voice and video calls are excluded. Spending caps are additionally obtainable, and you may arrange a security buffer of between £0 and £100 to offer you a most spend over your regular month-to-month outlay.

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Virgin Cellular evaluate: Verdict

Regardless of some very tempting offers, it’s a battle to advocate Virgin Cellular. Speeds and reliability aren’t what they could possibly be, whereas customer support appears to be an ongoing challenge, primarily based on each our survey information and Ofcom’s analysis. Maybe the largest indictment, nevertheless, is the share of shoppers that will advocate the community to a pal. Solely 61% of Virgin Cellular clients would achieve this, the bottom determine for any community in our survey.