Who is virgin mobiles carrier

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Price when reviewed. Starting at. Members can also enter to win special prizes and sweepstakes. Some prizes that have been awarded include free vacations and gift cards. Virgin Mobile supports bring your own iPhone and also sells iPhones. Current subscribers who own an Android phone can still upgrade to another Android by purchasing one directly from Virgin Mobile. Android phones are also still sold through various retail channels which include Amazon , Best Buy and Walmart.

Legacy and current wireless refill cards are also available through a variety of outlets which include Target and Walmart. Customer support is available through email by way of a contact form on the Virgin Mobile website. Ok, we will not track your page views as you move around any part of the SIM Sherpa website. But we will use that one cookie to remember you don't want to be tracked. Click here to unblock tracking cookies. Thank you for accepting cookies for the SIM Sherpa website. This will help us constantly improve our content.

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Now that Virgin Mobile no longer use the EE network, we look at what differences there now are for coverage, speeds and benefits. SIM Sherpa is your trusty guide. Last updated: 25th May Read network guide. For decades, Virgin Mobile used EE and its precursors' networks for signal.

That's no longer the case. Virgin now use the Vodafone network. While EE is owned by BT and own their own. Using the Vodafone network should be an advantage for Virgin's basic calls and texts. Where Virgin have lost out vs EE is 4G data. EE is the biggest UK network for coverage Vodafone are second biggest.

The difference isn't noticeable in residential areas but when you're travelling round on road and rail. So it's a mixed picture and depends on what you use your phone for and where you use it. Definitely give both networks' latest coverage checkers a go before signing up and don't just check at home.

Useful link: Use EE and Virgin's coverage checkers. See latest locations. Every major network is now rolling out 5G at an impressive pace. Virgin benefit from Vodafone's rollout and sell all there plans as 5G-enabled for new customers, at no extra cost. On EE, you choose a 5G-specific plan. Out of the two, we'd say EE are doing the better job. So not a huge difference on paper.

But we would say EE are doing a better job within those places of spreading out the coverage to more areas. So, again use their checkers to find the best near you. But also consider that EE are probably the most likely of the two to start offering 5G in your area at some point during your contracts. Useful link: What difference does 5G make vs 4G? Check EE coverage. Check Virgin coverage. It's the most useful technology: use it for data and calls via 4G calling. But Virgin are no slouch either.

It's a close thing and both are top tier. See all EE's awards. Out-and-out 4G speed dominance is something else that Virgin Mobile have traded in by moving to using the Vodafone network instead of the EE. EE have long tested as the fastest on average:. Independent network testers Opensignal and Speedtest by Ookla say you can expect typical 4G downloads of In cities, we found both networks can go 2 - 4x faster than that.

The main difference is in smaller towns, villages and rurally, Vodafone slows down below to half their average while EE holds up in 15 - 20 Mbps range. If you're sensitive to speed, we'd say you're likely to be happier on an EE-based provider. If you live urbanly or don't really mind, Virgin are still better than O2 and Three for speed.

Useful link: Our best 5G networks guide. Virgin's speed claims. It's early days for 5G data on all networks and there's not that much information available from the independent networks testers of the speeds you can expect. But Speedtest have got some results from London :. They put typical 5G on EE at So it's a huge move on from 4G.

The results are better than most people's home broadband. There's no mention of a speed cap on Virgin vs Vodafone , so we think it's reasonable to assume you'd get the same. Check supported phones. EE's WiFi calling has been around a lot longer than Virgin's, which only launched in we believe Virgin are using their own custom technology for it too, not Vodafone's.