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Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has confirmed that they’re currently in the process of “enhancing” their Pay As You Go (PAYG) SIM services and plans during the second half of 2025, which among other things seem to be finally adding support for their latest 5G (mobile broadband) network.
At present O2’s PAYG page still doesn’t make any mention of 5G support and until recently their related FAQ section continued to state that PAYG plans didn’t support it (despite last year’s confusion). But this started to change in July 2025 after a number of PAYG customers began to notice that the 5G icon was popping up, for the first time, on their phones.
Readers of ISPreview will know that there’s often a big difference between seeing the 5G icon and actually getting a true 5G connection on your device (sometimes 5G is still a 4G service), so such things do have to be taken with a pinch of salt until confirmed. But the good news is that O2 has now confirmed the change to be true (credits to Jonathan Jeffrey Cox for spotting).
O2 Support Statement
Just to clear any confusion, we are currently enhancing our Pay & Go connectivity during the 2nd half of this year and customers will start to receive 5G services as their Pay & Go Bundle allowances refresh.
If you’re not currently on a Bundled product you will receive 5G service over the coming months.
Our online pages/FAQs will be updated to reflect this in due course.
The news will no doubt be welcomed by those on O2’s PAYG plans, particularly given that the lack of 5G support has often caused a few grumbles. But we should add that there’s currently no mention of whether this also extends to include the latest end-to-end 5G Standalone (5GSA) network technology, but we will be asking that question today and will report back.