AO Mobile introducing a new membership model to the UK mobile market
This week AO Mobile went live, a little over a year since the electronics retailer announced it would launch a mobile service. Member only pricing sits at the core of the offer. Membership is £39.99, unlocking benefits that includes free delivery, extra savings, unpacking and recycling services for retail purchases, and finance deals on SIM free phones every 24 months. Plus there’s an exclusive ‘one size fits all’ member tariff for £12. It’s a straightforward 30 day SIM only deal with 500GB, unlimited calls and texts. It also includes a reasonable 15GB of roaming with an option to top up with boosters. The obvious comparison to make is with iD Mobile, which falls under the Curry’s brand. iD has led the way in terms of electronic retail MVNO models, introducing a range of price plans from monthly to SIM only, and device bundles. This leverages its retail strengths and heritage inherited from Carphone Warehouse. However, what iD has not achieved yet, is a full integration into the Currys shopper base, whereas it’s clear this is very much the intention of AO. It will be interesting to see how this plays out particularly as both MVNOs are on the Vodafone network. There is...
