U.K. company Virgin Media has signed a five-year deal with Vodafone UK to provide mobile services, including 5G, to more than three million mobile customers, the former said in a release.
Virgin Media’s current MVNO agreement with BT Enterprise, which has been in place since January 2017, will come to an end in late 2021, at which point Virgin Media’s mobile offering will transition to Vodafone.
Virgin Mobile confirmed that its 5G services are set to launch on the Vodafone network before that transition takes place.
The new MVNO agreement, which runs until 2026, will see Vodafone supply wholesale mobile network services, including both voice and data, to Virgin Mobile and Virgin Media Business. Under the terms of the deal, Virgin Media will have full access to all of Vodafone’s current services and future technologies, such as Vodafone’s expanding 5G network.
Lutz Schüler, Virgin Media CEO, said: “This agreement with Vodafone will bring a host of fantastic benefits and experiences to our customers, including 5G services in the near future. We’ve worked with BT to provide mobile services for many years and will continue to work together in a number of areas. We want our customers to have a limitless experience – it’s now the right time to take a leap forward with Vodafone to grow further and faster.”
“We are delighted that Virgin has recognized the huge investments we’ve made, and continue to make, in building the UK’s best mobile network and our role in challenging the market with new commercial services. As a result, they have chosen us to work with them in the next phase of their development,” said Nick Jeffery, Vodafone UK CEO.
“This is an exciting deal between two great British brands. We are combining our strong heritage in innovation to create a world without limits for our customers through unlimited data offers and 5G,” Jeffery added.
Virgin also said that a complementary wholesale agreement has also been struck between both parties in relation to the supply of network services by Virgin Media Business to Vodafone.
In July, Vodafone launched 5G services in Birkenhead, Bolton, Gatwick, Lancaster, Newbury, Plymouth, Stoke-on-Trent and Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool and London.
Last year, U.K. telcos obtained spectrum for the future provision of 5G services. Vodafone won 50 megahertz of spectrum in the 3.4GHz band after paying £378 million ($484 million).
