Virgin Media announces free landline-to-mobile calls offer

Other carriers could follow suit to reduce customers switching providers

The free calls are to Virgin mobiles only

UK carrier Virgin Media has announced it is to offer free landline-to-mobile calls from 1 April.

Although the offer is limited to calling Virgin Mobile customers, the offer could be a big inducement for customers to switch provider to Virgin Media.

If Virgin Media starts to gain significant market share, its competitors may begin to offer similar deals.

Mike Wilson, Moneysupermarket.com's manager of mobiles and broadband, said it will be interesting to see if other landline providers follow suit, particularly as TalkTalk has just launched a TV and mobile service on top of its existing broadband and landline offerings, meaning it is now competing much more directly with Virgin Media.

Currently, Virgin Media's free calls packages apply to landlines only, and depend on whether customers want free calls at the weekend (which costs £11.99), at evenings and weekends (£15.44), or on an unlimited basis (£19.94).

All that would change on 1 April is that customers would get free landline-to-mobile calls as well, according to the package they choose, with no price increase.