Virgin Mobile Family Plans 2021 Review – Is Virgin Mobile Good For Groups & Families?

Existing Virgin Media Broadband and TV customers are able to save £2 for any additional SIMs they add to their existing Virgin Mobile deal. However, despite being able to get a discount on extra SIMs, the main account still needs to pay full price. But, this does mean you can save as much as £96 a year. Despite being a decent saving, the deal isn’t as strong as some of the larger discount schemes Virgin has offered in the past. We think they dropped some of these offers as they will be switching from running on EE’s network to O2’s network. After they’ve moved over we expect them to have some pretty strong offers available.

Existing Virgin Media Broadband and TV customers are able to save £2 for any additional SIMs they add to their existing Virgin Mobile deal. However, despite being able to get a discount on extra SIMs, the main account still needs to pay full price. But, this does mean you can save as much as £96 a year. Despite being a decent saving, the deal isn’t as strong as some of the larger discount schemes Virgin has offered in the past. We think they dropped some of these offers as they will be switching from running on EE’s network to O2’s network. After they’ve moved over we expect them to have some pretty strong offers available.

The additional SIMs can be cancelled any time without having to pay a penalty fee, but the main account will remain under contract. If you wish to terminate your contract early and switch to a new mobile network, you’ll most likely end up having to pay a cancellation fee.

Virgin Mobile’s mobile app offers a simple way to manage the bills and spending for all SIMs that make up the family mobile plan.

If you’re not a Virgin Media customer we recommend checking out alternative deals from other networks. Networks like EE, BT Mobile, SMARTY, Vodafone and Tesco Mobile all offer family mobile plans, and they might better suit what you’re in the market for.

We will try to keep things short and to the point here but if you want to discover more, make sure to read our extensive Best Family Mobile Plans in the UK guide.

SMARTY

Piggybacking on the Three network, SMARTY offers budget-friendly and contract-free SIM only plans to their customers. Any customer can benefit from their Family/Group plans, which gives a 10% discount on each additional SIM added. A SMARTY group can have up to 8 SIMs which is inclusive on the main account holder.

We strongly recommend checking out SMARTY’s unlimited data plan and if you want to learn more you can always read our SMARTY Review.

BT Mobile

If you’re an existing BT Broadband and TV customer, BT Mobile might be the best choice for you and your family. BT Mobile’s family mobile plans are pretty good, and they come with a number of features including a great free Wi-Fi service, even better than Virgin’s. Plus you get £5 off on all available deals & if you have BT Halo you’ll get double data.

BT Mobile’s discounts and extras are objectively better, plus you get 4G Calling and access to EE’s 5G network at no extra cost. Some plans even come with the BT Sport app. Make sure to have a look at our BT Mobile Review to discover more about their deals.

Virgin Mobile is currently using EE as its network provider, but this will soon change and the network will be powered by O2. EE has the most 4G coverage in the UK and they also have the fastest average 4G download speeds. Virgin Mobile customers get unrestricted, uncapped data speeds from EE and they also enjoy identical coverage.

However, EE’s pay monthly customers can still get better 4G coverage because the network also offers 4G Calling to their pay monthly customers. It’s a feature that’s not available on Virgin Mobile.

Having said that, Virgin’s soon to be provider O2 isn’t as great as EE in terms of 4G data speeds. In fact, O2’s download and upload speeds are considerably slower than all the other networks in the UK, but their users still get pretty good 4G coverage. You can read our O2 Review to discover more about the network.

5G Coverage

While Virgin Mobile is one of the bigger UK MVNOs (mobile virtual network operator), they haven’t launched a 5G service yet. We don’t expect them to offer 5G coverage until they make the switch to O2. We’ll update this section when the carrier launches their 5G network.

If you already have a 5G ready handset or planning to buy one, we recommend checking out Three’s SIM deals. All Three plans, including their traditional pay as you go service come with 5G at no extra cost. On top of that, they have the most locations covered and fastest 5G download speeds in the UK at the moment.

Voice Call Quality

Virgin Mobile customers get decent coverage across the UK, but unfortunately they can’t utilise EE’s unmatched 4G coverage for voice calls, because they don’t have 4G Calling. EE’s 3G coverage is also pretty good and their call setup times are much faster than both O2 and Three, and a bit faster than Vodafone’s.

Virgin Mobile offers free Wi-Fi across the UK in over 3.5 million locations and all plans come with free Wi-Fi Calling. Calls made over Virgin Mobile’s Wi-Fi Calling are usually better in quality. At least, the network is making great use of what they have in hand.

Virgin Mobile offers free Wi-Fi across the UK in over 3.5 million locations and all plans come with free Wi-Fi Calling. Calls made over Virgin Mobile’s Wi-Fi Calling are usually better in quality. At least, the network is making great use of what they have in hand.

We think there are much better family mobile plans available at the moment especially if you’re not already a Virgin Media TV/Broadband customer. If you’re looking for a brand new deal for the whole family we recommend checking out SMARTY and BT Mobile’s family/group SIM plans.

Keep in mind that Virgin Mobile will switch to O2 in the near future, so signing up for a long contract with them at this moment isn’t the best idea.