Virgin Media puts BT on hold with Vodafone 5G deal

5g

Virgin Media has marked a break away from BT by launching its 5G service with Vodafone’s mobile network.

The cable operator has rolled out 5G connectivity through Virgin Mobile to 100 towns and cities, meaning a tranche of customers can access speeds 4.5 times faster than 4G.

The move is Virgin Media’s first step towards severing ties with BT’s EE network, which had secured a string of deals to underpin Virgin’s mobile offer.

Virgin Media, which is controlled by billionaire “cable cowboy” John Malone, signed a five-year deal with Vodafone in 2019 to shift 3.3m mobile customers onto its service.

Virgin customers with 5G plans and 5G phones will be moved immediately onto the Vodafone network, while 4G customers will remain on EE until the BT deal ends in late 2021.

Virgin expects all mobile customers to be moved onto the Vodafone network by early next year.

The 5G launch comes as Virgin Media looks to win competition approval for its £31bn mega-merger with mobile operator O2.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) agreed in December to the companies’ request to fast-track the deal to a Phase 2 investigation so it can make a ruling more quickly.

The watchdog said last week that it plans to investigate whether the deal could bump up prices for mobile customers or make wholesale agreements more expensive for telecoms firms accessing Virgin Media’s leased lines, which connect mobile masts to the grid.

The tie-up of O2, owned by Spain’s Telefonica, and Virgin Media, the broadband provider controlled by Malone’s Liberty Global, would create a telecoms giant with 46m customers.

O2 currently supplies around 40pc of the wholesale mobile market, with its network underpinning services from Sky and Lycamobile.

Virgin Media’s mobile operation could eventually switch to the O2 network once the merger wins the backing of regulators.