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AFTER A HIGH-PROFILE launch party on Friday which saw UPC officially rebranded as Virgin Media, the service gets down to business by officially launching its mobile service today.
It enters an increasingly crowded market – it’s the second new addition in about as many months - but how does it compare to the competition and is there enough there to convince people to switch?
The big part is there are no contracts for users to sign up to. Instead, it only offers 30-day contracts meaning customers can leave or switch at any time.
Much like Tesco Mobile and ID, Virgin Mobile is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) meaning it uses the infrastructure from Three to bring its service. Three did recently announce it was investing heavily in its infrastructure but for those already on the network, the results of that investment won’t arise until much later.
For the first few months, the service will be offering 2G and 3G services. All of its plans are ’4G ready’ meaning when it introduces 4G, all customers will get it automatically. Virgin Mobile say 4G will be introduced in the first half of 2016.
Interestingly, Virgin Mobile isn’t selling any phones or handsets. Instead, it’s only dealing with SIM-cards so you will have to stick to your current phone or buy a new one elsewhere.
The major takeaway for Current Virgin customers is the deals are a little bit cheaper for them, compared to new customers.
Since the focus is to convince existing customers to switch mobile providers, its unlimited offer is free for the first three months although the catch is you have to re-commit for 12 months on your Virgin Media fixed services (broadband and/or TV package).
Non-Virgin customers aren’t as lucky with the unlimited plan costing €30 per month and no free period to ease you in.
Here is the breakdown of both plans for current and non-Virgin customers.
Virgin customers
€15 per month - 250 mins, 250 texts, 1GB.
€25 per month - Unlimited calls, texts, and data.*
Non-Virgin customers
€20 per month - 250 mins, 250 texts, 1GB.
€30 per month- Unlimited calls, texts, and data.*
There is also the option to get an international add-on which costs an extra €5 per month. This isn’t a roaming package but instead applies to international calls and texts from Ireland.
The add-on includes 50 minutes and 50 texts to any landline and mobile in Europe Zone 1 which includes:
UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Greece, Belgium, Hungary, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Poland, Portugal, Luxembourg, Austria, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Liechtenstein, Greenland, Monaco, Andorra, San Marino and Vatican City.
*In this context, unlimited means a monthly allowance of 10,000 minutes (landline and mobile), 10,000 texts and 30GB of data. This only applies when you’re in Ireland and does not apply when you make calls or send texts to an outside number, or make them outside of the country.
These conditions are consistent across all of the other mobile providers out there.
In terms of choice, it’s limited. Two contract options – with the emphasis leaning heavily on the unlimited plan – doesn’t give much choice, especially when you compare it to other rival plans like the ones offered by ID.
However, it is priced competitively compared to its rivals, and it needs to be as it has much to compete against both established players and new and more flexible rivals.
All prices below are for SIM-only billpay plans.
Vodafone
€30 per month - (30-day contract) Unlimited calls/texts to any network* + 1GB data.
€35 per month - (12-month contract) Unlimited calls/texts to any network* + 5GB data + 100 international minutes + 100 international texts.
*No limit was specified in the terms and conditions for Vodafone’s SIM-only plans.
Three
€25.41 per month - (30-day contract) 350 flexi-units (calls and texts) All you can eat data, Unlimited Three to Three calls.*
€39.75 per month - (30-day contract) Unlimited* flexi-units (calls and texts) Unlimited Three to Three calls.*
*Unlimited refers to 3,000 minutes per month regarding Three to Three calls, 10,000 flexi-units, and All you can eat data has a cap of 15GB where going over it could result in limited access.
Meteor
€12 per month – (30 day contract) 100 minutes, Unlimited texts, 1GB of data (No 4G)
€20 per month - (30 day contract) 400 minutes, Unlimited texts, 2GB of data
€24 per month - (30 day contract) Unlimited minutes and texts, 5GB of data
€31.20 per month - (30 day contract) Unlimited minutes and texts 50 EU roaming mins and texts, 50 international mins and texts, 15GB of data
*Unlimited means 45,000 minutes and 10,000 texts.
Tesco Mobile
€10 per month - (30-day SIM<) 100 minutes, 100 texts, 100MB of data.
€20 per month - (30-day SIM) 300 minutes, 300 texts, 500MB of data.
€30 per month - (30-day SIM) Unlimited* minutes and texts, 15GB of data.
€25 per month - (12-month SIM) Unlimited* minutes and texts, 15GB of data.
*Unlimited means up to 10,000 minutes, 10,000 texts, and 15GB of data.
ID
Due to the nature of ID’s plans, there are numerous variations to choose from so listing all of the possible combinations would be both long and impractical.
All SIM-only billpay plans are 30-day contracts and all amounts (minutes, calls and data) offered are listed alongside their cost.
Minutes - 100 (€3.50), 250 (€5), 500 (€6.50) 1,000 (€7.50) and 5,000 (€8).
Texts - 100 (€3.50), 250 (€5), 500 (€6.50) 1,000 (€7.50) and 5,000 (€8).
Data - 125MB (€3) 500MB (€5), 1GB (€7), 3GB (€10), 20GB (€13).
On the surface, its unlimited plans and data allowance looks great. 30GB is a generous allowance per month and its closest rival, ID, offers 20GB at best.
But the unlimited deal that Virgin offers will only be tempting to those who are already customers since the first three months, the price is reduced slightly (even without the free months, the plan would cost €300 per year) and it requires you to commit to Virgin Media services for another year.
The 30-day contract offer does mean you can opt-out of its mobile service at any time, making such a transition less risky if it not quite what you’re looking for.
If you’re a non-Virgin customer, then it doesn’t quite work out as well as the cost for the unlimited plan is €360 per year, which similar to many other plans out there. You might not even need unlimited calls and 30GB, while generous, could be overkill if you’re not a heavy data user.
There’s also the small matter of waiting till next year for 4G coverage, meaning you’ll be hard pressed to reach that limit with a 2G/3G connection (something to think about if you’re switching from a plan that allows 4G).
In short, if you’re already with Virgin, then the unlimited plan is an interesting option to consider, especially if you’re a heavy data user and intend to continue using its broadband and/or TV services for the next year or so.
For those who aren’t already customers, it’s recommended you look at the breakdown of calls, texts and data you use first before you make the leap. It’s tempting, but shopping around first could be better for your wallet in the long-run.
Update: An earlier version of this article had the mobile tariffs for Meteor and not the SIM-only plans. This has now been corrected.
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Would have been nice to have even a single comment from a sex worker rather than Ruhama (an organisation rooted in Catholicism with a definite agenda) or the Gardai. Poor quality journalism
@Eoin Silke: Except this is about trafficked women who are being clearly exploited.
“The brothels used by these gangs are staffed almost exclusively by a transient workforce of sex workers trafficked into Ireland. ”
This isn’t about someone choosing to become a sex worker for whatever reason they choose. This is about people with no say in the process.
@Tricia G:
The quote
“The brothels used by these gangs are staffed almost exclusively by a transient workforce of sex workers trafficked into Ireland” is attributed only to “Sources with a knowledge of the investigations” which is meaningless in terms of evidence, any time I have tried to chase up similar statements in the past they turn out to be anonymous opinions with no factual basis.
I am a source with knowledge of the investigations, I even took that a step further by conducting my own investigations today and establishing that €1000 pw for self catering accommodation can be quite a bargain in many areas. Not only do you have my real name to go with that, you can find the evidence yourself on booking com and airbnb.
The only way to know an facts about coercive sex trafficking is to stop using it as an excuse for laws that harm and endanger everyone who sells sex (including coerced victims) and start to think of it, and investigate it, as the serious crime it is, on par with kidnap for ransom. So far, nobody ever seems to have even tried to do that, with the result that if someone is being coerced into selling sex there is little to no hope of anyone identifying and locating them let alone doing anything to help them.
https://mymythbuster.wordpress.com/victims-of-the-same-fiction/
Legalisation and start demanding that our government starts treating us as adults.
@Robert Halvey: remember the article is about trafficked women who are not choosing to be sex workers but subjected to daily rapes by their ‘customers’ and violent coercion by the gangs controlling these operations.
@e: Amazing how people completely ignore the victims in all this. Even the article refers to them as sex workers, they’re not workers. They’re sex trafficking victims being horribly exploited by ruthless criminals who think people can be treated like property. Sadly I’m not even surprised some landlords are fine with what’s going on in their properties.
@Rui Firmino: look at the article again, there are no specifics from verifiable sources and unsubstantiated opinions expressed by an unverifiable and anonymous source.
The headline is spun into clickbait around what turns out to be a scary, but, currently, perfectly normal, charge for any self catering accommodation.
The only way to care about any victim is to go looking for the hard facts of their circumstances rather than blindly following expedient, agenda driven fiction for appearance sake.
@Gaye Dalton: You sound awfully defensive.
@Rui Firmino:
@Rui Firmino: good point. And a very big difference too.
@Brendan Harlowe:
Alternatively there is reality
https://mymythbuster.wordpress.com/victims-of-the-same-fiction/
Men, stop frequenting these places! The cops should arrest the Johns. The unfortunate women in these situations need our help, not our willies.
Remember folks, criminalising sex work facilitates trafficking. Current anti-sex work laws increase violence against sex workers and victims of trafficking.
Ruhama is NOT a trusted source.
@Conor McK: The Garda Protective Unit believes there are trafficked women forced into prostitution here. Are you saying that should be legalised?
@e: “ Then stop the trafficking, but what about the women who voluntarily do this?
Women should be free to do what they want with their bodies.
@e: Less opportunity for traffickers if there is already a legalised established trade. I don’t think anybody is advocating trafficking here.
@e: There are women forced into marriage.
Should we criminalise all bridegrooms?
Legal to sell, but Illegal to buy… Irish logic
@Stoic Savage: because historically women were blamed and charged. It was changed to blame the people soliciting (so that’s the pimp or the John), in order not to victim blame those doing it, as they often had no other choice. I agree if women want a safe space to engage in sex work it should be legal. But equally there are many women, either literally forced into sex work by threat of violence or for other reasons such as feeding addiction, social isolation or financial insecurity. It needs a whole government response rather than relying on charitable organisations to do these studies.
@e: The only organisation exclusively, and lavishly, funded to research the sake and purchase of sex is SERP at UCD which was founded by the same person who founded and lead the “Turn Off the Red Light” campaign, which aggresively demanded the current legislation over the opposition and concerns of people who sell sex.
So far, since they were founded, they seem to have limited their total consultation with current sex workers to 4, or possibly 5.
We cannot ever understand anything without real, objective and impartial research.
https://mymythbuster.wordpress.com/serp-ucd-transcript/
Open borders,cheered on by the likes of this publication,is a destroyer of Irish society.
This didn’t happen when Irish people went to mass weekly.
@ggg: You’re right. Back then the church looked after the sex on our behalf.
@ggg: Yeah the good old days when you could take advantage of a young woman and know that everyone would keep quiet for shame and she’d end up in a Magdalene laundry if she got pregnant.
@ggg: Yeah, they would just get raped by the priest later. Much better!
@Diarmuid Hunt: We’re talking about prostitution.
@west awake: ggg was talking about the time when all went to mass in Ireland, are you telling him that we’re talking about prostitution?
@west awake:
@west awake: So going back to what ggg was saying and my reply can you see why there would be less demand to pay for sex in a shame controlled society (not that it didn’t happen because it did then too) where it was easier to prey on women? Also how do we know that there was a lower percentage of prostitution per capita, do you think reporting on this topic to either Gardaí or the media happened as often back then?
This seems to be a load of nonsense centred on PR for Ruhama and trying to deflect culpability in the murder of Geila Ibram. away from the 2017 Sexual Offences Act.
Fact: The 2017 Sexual Offences Act forces women who sell sex to work alone, hold large amounts of cash and hide from Gardai to be able to make any money..
Fact: When you force women to work alone, hold large amounts of cash and hide from Gardai to be able to make any money you endanger them.
Fact: The 2017 Sexual Offences Act specifically targets the income source of people who sell sex
Fact: When you attack the only source of a person’s income you do them harm. If it is their last resort survival income you also threaten their life.
Fact: €1000 for one week for one person in self catering accommodation is not even slightly unusual, and, in some areas would be such a bargain you would be tempted to ask if the offer available above is limited to people selling sex, or can anybody apply?
5000?? Fcuking hell.
Once again we see a lucrative business handed to organised crime gangs who run it to squeeze the maximum profit to themselves with no regard for anyone else.
Why do these people have such a large market for their imported slaves ? Large enough to go to the trouble of importing them!
Clearly making the customer a criminal hasn’t destroyed their market – presumably far too few get caught.
To my eye the most unacceptable part of prostitution is the exploitation and control involved. If it is to happen (and it is not for nothing it is known as the oldest profession) it should be by choice and the prostitute should keep her earnings with only the taxman permitted to gouge her for a share. The current setup, while in principle it seems to protect the prostitute working solely for herself, in practice it seems that only the slavers get to operate.
Legalisation and licensing would seem to be the only way to wrest this business from the hands of organised crime and remove the incentive for them to cause so much misery.
Remember a few years ago seeing a young Eastern-European woman looking nervous at Dublin Airport with some late 50’s gangster-looking Dub. The whole scene looked wrong but didn’t know how to intervene. To this day I’m pretty damn sure this was some kind of trafficking situation but even with hindsight not sure what I’d have been able to do. Very sad.
Just wondering if the policy of allowing Ruhamma the ability to vouch for so called Sex workers still is a way to get Irish residency. In other words saying you have been trafficked into this country is a positive in order to gain residency. It’s hard not to be cynical with regards to so called asylum seekers. How are these people coming across our borders, have we no vice squad anymore leaving aside the end user, which is another matter ?
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