Dan Howdle | November 12th, 2021

What is Virgin Media Volt?

Virgin Media has recently dropped its existing mobile network partner, EE, in favour of O2. And that means big changes are afoot. Previously the Virgin Media Oomph add-on, Virgin has renamed it to Volt. But what is Volt, how does it work, and what exactly do you get?

What is it?

Virgin Media Volt can be thought of as a money-saving way to boost your existing Virgin Media and O2 mobile packages, or something to add on and save money with if you're a new customer to either or both. It applies only to customers that have, or take out, a Virgin Media Broadband or broadband and TV bundle, along with a mobile contract from O2.

Provided you take out the necessary services, Volt will upgrade you to the next broadband speed, and double the data on your O2 SIM deal. You'll also get some additional hardware to improve the coverage of your home wifi network. Virgin Media calls this 'supercharging' and its customers 'supercharged'. There's a lot more detail in the following sections, but broadly, that's about the size of it.

What you get with Volt

The Volt add-on offers a lot extra. It should be viewed as a way to save money, since you can now take up a packages with broadband speeds and mobile data below what you ideally need, then use Volt to boost it up. Here's a more detailed look at what you get.

• Upgrade to next speed level – Whatever broadband speed you either have or are considering signing up for, Volt will upgrade you to the next speed level. So, for example, if you have Virgin Media's M125 broadband, with an average speed of 132Mbps, Volt will upgrade you to the M250 package with an average speed of 264Mbps
• An O2 mobile SIM – You'll need to take out an O2 SIM with your bundle to have access to Volt. With that in mind, Volt will double the available data. So a SIM with a 5GB limit will become a SIM with a 10GB limit, for example
• Virgin Media WiFi Pods – We will talk about this in more detail in the next section, but if you qualify for Volt, Virgin Media will send you three 'WiFi Pods'. These can be placed around your house to create a 'mesh network' delivering wifi flawlessly to every room, even those that your router traditionally has a hard time reaching
• Extras – With Volt, your mobile SIM will allow you to use your phone in 75 countries, get up to £150 off an O2 Custom Plan (more detail on that in the last section), and will allow you to receive intermittent offers and deals on High Street brands, tickets and experiences

Virgin Media WiFi Pods

Anyone with a home with thick walls or that's relatively spread out will have encountered this problem: Your wifi reaches almost everywhere except those one or two rooms where it doesn't. There are a few ways to solve this problem. You can throw down big money on an obscenely powerful router that will reach your whole home with brute-force signal strength, you can use often-unreliable third-party range extenders, or you can set up what's called a 'mesh network'.

A mesh network is one with a primary router, accompanied by smaller wifi relay devices dotted about your home. It's not the 'best' solution, but unless you want to drop £500 on an absolutely crazy-powerful router, it is the most effective in terms of cost and performance. The Virgin Media WiFi Pods will automatically connect to your Virgin router, and you can place them near to rooms where you can't get signal. It's a great solution, and what's more, it's free with Volt – Virgin Media will send you three of them.

Virgin Media Volt extras

With the main elements of the Volt add-on already explained, there are still one or two more niche bits and pieces left over that are also included.

• O2 travel inclusive Zone – Your O2 SIM will be able to be used in 75 other countries. Travel is a tricky business right now with the pandemic, but that doesn't mean a bit of forward thinking isn't a good thing
• Money off an O2 custom plan – An O2 custom plan is where you select specific amounts of minutes, data and the number of months over which you want to pay back the handset. If you're 'supercharged' with Volt, you'll get up to £150 off of one of these plans
• Priority deals – Working with various partners, O2 will send you offers of money off on High Street goods, as well as live performance tickets, and various entertainment experiences