Virgin Media brings back 12 month phone contracts

Virgin Media is holding its mobile tariffs upside down and agitating them by the ankles, shaking loose a slew of new bolt-ons and — joy of joys — some 12-month contracts.

Contract lengths have crept ever upwards in recent years, like some kind of expensive spider, with 24-month contracts sadly now the default. That’s annoying, because advances in the mobile world are coming thick and fast, and the idea of spending 18 months with a hopelessly out-of-date mobile leaves most gadget fans coughing up hairballs of disgust.

Hopefully now we’ll see the glorious return of the widespread one-year contract as other networks respond to Virgin’s offer. 

We’ve taken a gander at Virgin’s site, and it looks like there are some rather delicious mobiles up for grabs on year-long contracts.

The Samsung Galaxy S2, for example, can be yours for £300 up front on a £28 per month contract, which gets you 200 minutes, 250 texts and a mighty 2.5GB of data. That totals about £636 all things considered. The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is available for the same amount (though we know which we’d prefer), and the HTC Desire S is going on the same tariff, but for £250 up front.

On the more affordable end of the scale, a £16 per month 12-month tariff comes with 200 minutes and a pathetic 25 texts (nope, not a typo), but could net you a neat little mobile, notably the Samsung Monte or the Samsung Wave 723.

As for the new bolt-ons, for £2 per month you can double your allowance of monthly minutes, and data-munchers can grab an extra 5GB for £5 per month.

There are also some rewards to be had if you fancy combining Virgin’s home phone services with its mobile offering, namely cheaper mobile tariffs.

Virgin Media is moving into other areas, notably with its rather spiffy TiVo box, which uses terrifying robot intelligence to decide for itself what you’d like to watch, and records it for you. In fact you might say Branson and Co are (wait for it) ‘Virgin’ on world domination! Thank you — don’t forget to tip your waitress!

Are you with Virgin Mobile? What do you think of it? Sound off in the comments section below or on our Facebook page. 

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