Virgin Media has announced it will follow in the footsteps of BT and offer its bundle subscribers free unlimited 4G data if their broadband goes down.
In an effort to persuade its subscribers to stay loyal to its services after a series of outages last month, Virgin Media says it will offer unlimited 4G data to all Virgin SIMs registered to a customer’s account if their Virgin fibre broadband goes offline again in the future.
Virgin’s connection promise is available to both new and existing customers signed up to Virgin Media’s combined broadband and mobile bundles which launched at the end of April. Those who are not members of Virgin Media can sign up with a virgin games promotional code for various discounts and deals.
Jeff Dodds, Managing Director of Virgin Media, commented:
“We know how important it is for our customers to stay connected and that’s why Virgin Media’s new service promise offers peace of mind, no matter what happens.
“It’s a simple, transparent and straight-up commitment to our customers that we’ll keep them online with superfast unlimited 4G mobile data if they experience an issue with their broadband, plus they have the option of a next-day engineer appointment to get things fixed.
“Our service promise is at the heart of our un-limiting Oomph bundle line-up which offers our customers an unrivalled connected entertainment experience in and out of the home – at great value.”
The announcement comes after Ofcom introduced new rules earlier this year that makes it easier for customers to walk away from their broadband contracts for free if the speeds fall below those advertised or the service becomes unreliable. ISPs will no longer be able to rely on locking customers into 12 or 24 month contracts, but instead compete on service speeds and reliability.
ISPs will have to maintain these improvements to customer service if they are to compete with the 5G services already starting to launch in the UK with speeds of up to 300Mbps. EE, a subsidiary of BT, has already launched the UK’s first 5G service, and its superfast connection speeds were demonstrated last week by the BBC, which broadcast a segment over the network in clear and stutter-free high definition.
Virgin Mobile currently piggybacks on EE’s network for its infrastructure as an MVNO, but it remains unclear when the company will launch its own 5G service or how much it will cost. The UK’s other mobile networks, O2, Three, and Vodafone, are all also expected to launch their own 5G services within the coming months.
