Anyone on here with Virgin Mobile?

Their Sim Only deals seem like very good value, but would like to know about quality of coverage, customer service, do they have an android usage app and any problems you have experienced?

Thanks in advance.

Quality of coverage will be the same as EE (TMobile and Oranges 2g and 3g Service) as Virgin a MVNO (or whatever they are called, they piggy back onto EE's network).

Cant answer the rest im afraid, although I think that if you have a technical complaint against the network it goes through EE's system.

John

As someone said above the coverage is the same as EE (T-mobile orange and 3 for 3G) I know a few people wit them and they have not had any problems. They are the biggest or second biggest MNVO in the UK. ( the other being tesco mobile)

My mother is actually going to sign up for them today due to the great prices and same service as EE

I took out one of the 30 day sim deals in late November last year and i've been quite happy with it ever since, mainly because I get a much better 3G reception than I had on Tesco mobile.

I also appear to have had a free month out of them as well as I rang in December to change my billing date to be in line with all of my other outgoings and they advised me that my January bill would be the equivalent of two months' payments, which I was fine with.

The bill was produced and it's only for one month

Sod's law they'll charge me extra in February though, but at the moment i'm quite happy !

If you look back at my posting history, you'll see that I was in the same place as you a couple of months ago.

To re-iterate - I was with Orange for 9 years, but due to a combination of laziness and being daunted by the plethora of handsets, operators and plans, I had metaphorically stuck my head under the duvet and stayed with an expensive legacy contract and an ancient handset (the Sony Ericsson P910)

Anyway, I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to an S3 with Orange - however I then twice returned the upgrade in the cooling off period as I was unhappy with my data allowance. No matter how hard I tried, Orange refused me unlimited data - the only thing they offered on the data side was the garbage BT Openzone. Even though they kept trying to entice me with extra discounts, after much agonising and trepidation - partly because I had always been treated fantastically well by Orange CS - I finally took the plunge and switched to Virgin.

Best thing I ever did - fantastic customer service and a great deal.

S3 £19.99
2700 any network mins
U/L landline mins
U/L Virgin-Virgin mins
U/L texts
U/L data with tethering (truly unlimited with no FUP)
Insurance included.

£36 pcm.

This equates to £27 pcm net of insurance. Of course if you don't want insurance then the deal is not as much of a steal - similarly it's £5 more if you aren't a Virgin Media customer.

They also have a monthly bolt-on which allows you £250 to any 08 number for an extra £5 or so. I did consider it at one time - if I wasn't getting a Digital Media Services package from Virgin media, I might have ditched my landline and taken it. Of course other companies may offer something similar, but I wasn't aware of a similar offer on Orange.

One bonus is that apparently Virgin don't brand their high-end handsets - my S3 is unbranded.

They also seem to be doing stupendous retention deals, which is something I'm hoping is still the case in a couple of years time. For example, I negotiated the following for my mother.

Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus £15
2700 any network mins
U/L landline mins
U/L Virgin-Virgin mins
U/L texts
U/L data with tethering (truly unlimited with no FUP)
Insurance included.

THIRTEEN pounds a month - or FIVE pounds a month net of insurance.

I'm happy with my deal, but I could have wept with jealousy when they gave my mum that. (Her handset is Virgin branded, but at that price, who cares?)

Anyway, if my experience is anything to go by Virgin is the best choice at this moment in time - especially if you want truly unlimited data with tethering. I don't always use huge amounts of data, but the peace of mind of being able to use data at will without bracing yourself for a ridiculous bill is well worth it. I would never voluntarily surrender this benefit again.

coverage is fine, customer service is no problem. Don't know about a monitor app, you can check your usage online, I think its updated nightly. Else there are plenty of generic android ones that monitor usage.

I had the same issue with Orange, had 1GB data and used it really quick all the time so I asked them if I could have unlimited data, she said it's not possible but she added the 2GB data bundle (that costs £20 a month) to my account and gave me a £20 a month discount so you can see what's happened, ive got 2GB of free data + the 1GB of my plan meaning I have 3GB and they did that for me half way through my contract as Kept going over my 1GB every single month, I then also added the Orange U24 (1GB more free data for being under 24 years old) so ive got loads of data now for free.

I think I was very lucky what rep i spoke to though as im not sure they would usually do that, she just noticed I go over my allowance all the time.

No, Virgin just use EE, which is JUST TMobiles 2g and 3g, and Oranges 2g and 3g.... EE do NOT use or share '3' 3G signal.

TMobile and 3 have the sharing deal under MBNL but customers of each do not share the others network.

More recently, MBNL are now sharing Oranges legacy sites for their equipment but EE and 3 do not allow customers to use each others signal.

John

There is a 10GB fair use policy, After you use 10GB your speeds are slowed to 384kbps.

But like i've said in previous threads this doesn't matter for 99% of people.

Virgin are a great network due to the fact EE have excellent 2G and 3G coverage throughout the UK. Also their plans provide excellent value. Being able to get 1200 mins for under £12pm is unheard of on any other networks standard tariff. Plus unlike other networks they throw in unlimited calls/texts to other Virgin customers which other networks charge for.

I've heard a few good and bad stories about their customer service but then again that goes for all networks so i guess it's who you speak too.

No idea if they have an app to track usage but you can always download a manual tracker to track stuff. This would probably be for mins and data as texts are 5000 anyway.

I do have to say Virgin seems like amazing value!

In the last year I've moved from T-Mobile, to 3 (lasted a month, dire coverage near me), to GiffGaff (Poor service, text/internet outages) and eventually to Virgin. On 1200 mins, unlimited texts and unlimited Internet for £17/month. Service been great so far, and no issues at all since I moved in October.

I've heard about these deals. I'd give my right arm for something like that but I doubt i'd ever get close

I was told something different. I suppose it's possible that they were being economical with the actualite and that they meant you don't get charged or cut off however much you use. Anyway 384kbps is faster than my home connection was years ago, so I guess I could live with it in an emergency.

Still, as you say it makes no odds whatsoever to me. I doubt I'd go over 10 Gb as I would the 2Gb Orange were offering. Running up data costs was my main concern and the peace of mind of being able to do whatever I want online without thinking about it is great. Given that I would always want insurance, the deal works out £8 cheaper than 3 for me, even if their data has no fair use policy.

Everyone I know is jealous, including me. The infuriating thing is that she's barely using it as she doesn't have the patience to learn Android. She's actually paying to use her old Lebara PAYG feature phone that she used to only use for international calls, so I'm trying to get the Ace Plus unlocked so she can swap SIMS. I could strangle her to be honest.

I had a look on Google play and yes you can get an android VM app.

Just bare in mind that new tariffs with Virgin Mobile do not allow tethering and are subject to a 3.5GB data cap at full speed. See this topic: http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1790721

After the cap you are reduced to speeds of less than 384kbps, which is only just above EDGE speeds really.