Sky Broadband to Open Sky Mobile for Sign-ups on 31st October

The CEO of Sky UK and Ireland (Sky Broadband), Stephen van Rooyen, has confirmed that existing customers who are interested in taking their forthcoming Sky Mobile plans will be able to register their interest from 31st October 2016.

Last week Sky confirmed that the imminent launch of Sky Mobile had been their “key focus” during the third quarter of 2016 (here). As part of that they’ve been busy completing the “final readiness milestones,” such as “successfully completing our first live calls, SMS and data sessions, provisioning our own SIMs, and concluding international roaming agreements.”

The new service is powered by a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) agreement with O2, which is similar to the setup that TalkTalk is in the process of adopting. The new product, which should launch before the end of 2016 as planned, will be used to fuel a new range of triple and or quad-play bundles with broadband, phone and TV services.

Stephen van Rooyen, Sky UK and Ireland CEO, said:

“Mobile, at £15bn in revenues, is our largest adjacent sector, so the opportunity to enter and take share is substantial. There are some obvious parallels I would like to draw between our experience in broadband and how we think of entering the mobile market.”

The move should help to stem some of the operator’s churn, although much will depend upon the attractiveness of their offer and many consumers remain nervous about putting all of their communication service and TV entertainment eggs into one basket with a single provider.

One of the key goals of a bundle is to save money, although recent price hikes and the growth of dynamic competitors in the TV space (e.g. Netflix) have put some strain on that notion. Consumers have also become frustrated with the tendency towards mid-contract price hikes, even if they do allow you to exit a contract early, and many would prefer some certainty in the price they pay.

Further details about the various tariffs, 4G support and prices should be revealed shortly.