The UK telecoms giant is reportedly looking at reviving two retired brands as a cheaper option, while old Virgin Media email users face a deadline.
Virgin Media O2 is reportedly considering a comeback for Virgin Mobile, the brand it shut in 2023 when it moved 3 million customers to O2. A return for O2 Broadband, a cheaper home internet option, is also said to be on the table. Neither move has been confirmed.
The company is under pressure from customer losses, falling bond prices and a reported push for big cost cuts. Bringing back familiar names as budget options is one idea to win people back, though the group already owns giffgaff.
For existing customers, the change to watch is email. Old Virgin Media addresses, including virgin.net, blueyonder.co.uk and ntlworld.com, are moving to a provider called Junara.
Virgin Media O2 could bring Virgin Mobile back from the dead, three years after shutting the brand and moving its 3 million customers onto O2. A newspaper report says the idea is being looked at by the company’s consumer boss, Lyssa McGowan, alongside a possible return for O2 Broadband.
If it happens, UK shoppers could see two familiar names come back as budget choices for mobile and home internet. And there’s a second change already landing for millions of older customers: Virgin Media’s legacy email service is changing hands, with a hard deadline for anyone who ignores it.
Virgin Media O2 wants to slow the number of customers walking out the door and win back investor confidence, according to the report. The company is dealing with falling bond prices (the value of the debt it has sold to investors) and is reported to be chasing around £600 million in cost cuts.
A revived Virgin Mobile would reportedly be pitched as a cheaper alternative. That raises an obvious question, since the group already owns giffgaff, a low-cost mobile brand. Two budget labels under one roof could confuse customers rather than win them.
The company hasn’t confirmed the plan. A spokesperson said only that Virgin Media O2 has a sound financial structure despite difficult conditions across the market.
Virgin Mobile was a mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, a brand that sells phone plans using someone else’s network. It ran for years as a fairly successful name in the UK.
After Virgin Media and O2 merged, the business first moved Virgin Mobile customers off Vodafone’s network. Roughly a year later, in 2023, it moved all 3 million of them to O2 and retired the brand. Many people had expected Virgin Mobile to survive the merger, so the shutdown came as a surprise.
Virgin Media O2 wouldn’t be the first to change its mind. BT recently revived its own BT Mobile brand after earlier steering customers toward EE.
The second brand on the table is O2 Broadband, a fixed-line home internet service. A relaunch would reportedly aim at price-conscious households.
There were hints earlier this year. In June 2026, an O2 Broadband page briefly showed up on O2’s website listing surprisingly cheap full fiber plans, before it was taken down once people spotted it. Full fiber means the cable runs all the way into your home, which usually gives faster and steadier speeds.
Nothing changes on your current mobile or broadband plan because of this report. No launch date, prices or plans for a new Virgin Mobile have been announced.
The email change is real, though. Virgin Media stopped handing out new email accounts years ago, and it is now moving management of existing ones to Junara, a specialist email provider owned by Atmail. It covers addresses ending in virginmedia.com, virgin.net, blueyonder.co.uk and ntlworld.com.
Customers are being contacted in phases, starting in September. You’ll get three choices:
You’ll have at least 45 days after your first message to decide, plus an extra 120-day window to recover the account if you miss the notice. After that 165-day period, accounts with no action taken are permanently deleted.
Possibly. Virgin Media O2 is reportedly considering it, but nothing has been confirmed or priced.
Only if you ignore the notices. You can move to Junara, switch providers or close the account, and inactive accounts are deleted after 165 days.
Not for now. No changes to existing O2 or giffgaff plans have been announced.
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