Virgin Media O2 invests £2 million with charity to help disadvantaged get digital skills

Virgin Media O2 has begun a £2 million three-year strategic partnership with Good Things Foundation, to help disadvantaged people across the UK get online and gain vital digital skills.

Earlier this month, Virgin Media O2 announced that it is enabling more people than ever to sign up for its social broadband tariffs, Essential Broadband and Essential Broadband Plus.  It means 9.7 million people in the UK receiving Income-based Employment Support Allowance (I-ESA), Income-based Jobseekers Allowance (I-JSA), Income Support (IS), Pension Credit (PC) or Universal Credit (UC) are eligible for the tariffs.

This month the thousandth National Databank Hub to provide free mobile data. The initiative is part of the National Digital Inclusion Network, at Summit Learning Trust in Birmingham

The National Databank was set up by Virgin Media O2 and Good Things Foundation in July 2021 to provide free mobile data, texts, and calls, to help low-income people stay connected. They can access 20GB of free O2 data enough for around 220 hours of internet browsing a month. People can find their nearest National Databank Hub here.

Since it was set up the National Databank has provided more than 70,000 free O2 SIM cards and 50,000 free O2 data vouchers. Virgin Media O2 has committed more than 61 million GB of free O2 data to the initiative by the end of 2025. At the end of last year, brought the National Databank to the High Street for the first time, trialling the initiative at 10 O2 stores over the Christmas period.

The National Databank website has had double the number of visits so far this year compared to the same period in 2022. last year as people search for how they can get help in staying connected during the cost-of-living crisis. 

Television personality, Gail Porter is appearing in a campaign to raise awareness of how the National Databank is helping people access free mobile data.

Good Things Foundation is a digital inclusion charity which works with thousands of Digital Inclusion Hubs to deliver access to the National Databank, the National Device Bank and free online courses on the Learn My Way platform.

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