Revolut Mobile Disconnect Heavy Data Users from “Unlimited” UK 5G Plans
Nearly a year has passed since banking and money management app provider Revolut launched its own eSIM based mobile service – Revolute Mobile (here), which is powered by Gigs. But two customers have recently informed ISPreview that their “unlimited” mobile plan has just been “terminated, effective immediately” due to heavy usage.
Just to recap. Revolut Mobile typically offers an “unlimited data, calls and texts” plan for £14.99 per month on a “cancel-anytime contract“, which is competitively priced and also includes 20GB of data roaming in the EEA/US. Customers were also promised a plan that pledges to support tethering, a “maximum” data speed of “100Mbps” and “no throttle“.
However, the provider’s pledge of unlimited data is also subject to a slightly contradictory Fair Use Policy (FUP), which among other things warns customers not to use “excessive or abnormal amounts of data or by causing disproportionate contributions to network congestion (e.g., excessive roaming, hotspot use, uploads, downloads, streaming, or any other form of automated or continuous data usage)“.
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The policy goes on to warn that their service is only intended for “personal use” and not “commercial purposes“, before clarifying where they draw the line: “If your unlimited data usage exceeds 150GB per subscription period twice or more in a six (6) month period, we reserve the right to investigate and determine whether you are using data in a way that violates this policy.”
The policy initially suggests that users found to be “using data in a way which Gigs believes is harmful to the network” may result in Revolut Mobile introducing “certain traffic management measures such as reduced speeds or additional charges“, or switching you to a “more suitable plan“. But a little later they also “reserve the right to immediately and without notice deny, restrict, suspend, or terminate the Service for violations“.
The above is relevant because a couple of ISPreview’s readers have now reported being terminated for heavy usage, seemingly without Revolut Mobile first giving them a chance to change. The feedback we’ve seen suggests that these users may have been using between around 200GB and 500GB, so a fair bit over the FUP (one of the users might have gone into TeraByte territory), but whether or not it was fair to disconnect them so quickly is a more complex matter (read on).
Copy of Revolut Mobile’s Customer Termination Email (via Gigs UK)
Subject: Important update regarding your Revolut Mobile subscription
Hi [REDACTED],
We are Gigs UK Ltd. (“Gigs”), the underlying carrier of record that provides connectivity services for Revolut Mobile. We are writing to let you know that your Revolut Mobile line has been terminated, effective immediately.
We have identified that your SIM has been used in a device other than a mobile handset, alongside data usage significantly in excess of what is expected for personal use. This constitutes a violation of our Acceptable Use Policy, which forms part of your End User Service Agreement and applies to your Revolut Mobile plan.
Because this usage falls outside the permitted use for your plan, your Revolut Mobile line has been closed.
What happens next? Although your line has been terminated, you can keep your phone number. Simply give the Porting Authorisation Code (PAC) below to your new provider when you switch. They will handle the transfer for you.
Your PAC: [REDACTED]
Please note that this code is valid for 30 days.
If you have any questions regarding this email or the porting process, please respond to this email.
Yours sincerely,
Gigs Support
Mobile operators with unlimited data plans typically tend to treat their FUP limits as soft caps, which in practice means they’ll often warn customers about their usage first, as opposed to proceeding straight to a disconnection or other service restriction. In addition, the soft caps imposed by other mobile operators tend to be much more flexible than Revolut Mobile’s.
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For example, Vodafone’s FUP warns customers about exceeding 600GB per month twice or more in a 6-month period on unlimited plans, while O2 uses a figure of 650GB against a similar approach (EE use a 600GB figure). Suffice to say that this is several times larger than the 150GB+ figure that Revolut Mobile appear to define for excessive usage on their “unlimited data” plan, which may confuse some consumers.
A spokesperson for Revolut Mobile told ISPreview:
“Revolut Mobile plans are provided by Gigs, the electronic communications service provider and owner of the Acceptable Use Policy. To ensure network integrity, Gigs takes action only in cases of severe, network harmful misuse. While immediate action for such instances aligns with standard industry practice, such interventions remain rare and reserved for exceptional cases.”
ISPreview understands that the two service terminations we’ve heard about are currently the only such actions to have taken place. In both cases the customers are understood to have put their SIM cards into dedicated 5G routers, which seems to have been of greater concern to Revolut than the “excess” usage itself, although the provider’s letter does seem to give greater weight to the usage side.
Regular readers might recall that the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has, in the recent past, warned mobile operators like EE (here) to ensure that any plans offering “unlimited data” are directly qualified with the limits expressed in their associated FUP.
The ASA has also previously expressed that unlimited claims are only likely to be acceptable if (here): “the legitimate user incurs no additional charge or suspension of their service as a consequence of exceeding any usage threshold associated with a fair use policy (FUP), traffic management policy or the like“. This is one of the reasons why most other mobile operators tend to be fairly gentle or cautious with application of their FUP limits.
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Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Maybe a more fitting term would be ‘limitless’
Lyca mobile class theirs are limitless already – and it’s on the app splash screen
Stop selling limited plans as unlimited with caveats…….simples. 150GB FUP could not in any way be described as unlimited.
If the users feel the need to abuse a mobile plan to the degree they have, they clearly have a sense of entitlement which we have seen in the past be dealt with in this way by companies. They can’t really complain.
Mobile data is expensive if operating a MVNO and the FUP of 150gb is a guideline for users, these 2 have smashed through it, and to smash through 150gb of compressed mobile data in a month takes some doing on everyday usage…
I think the saying is “mess around and find out”.
Still misleading though, whatever the circumstances. ‘Unlimited’ and ‘150GB limit’ are two very different things and shouldn’t be interchanged. I would agree with you if a customer is downloading terabytes of data, but these days 150GB isn’t a ton if you’re out and about watching videos etc.
>> In both cases the customers are understood to have put their SIM cards into dedicated 5G routers
In light of this I think it’s fair enough! Use in a 5G router rather than a handset significantly changes the likely usage profile, these customers bought the wrong product.
That’s completely legitimate under net neutrality rules.
The problem is mis-selling a limited plan as unlimited.
I don’t see the problem with this? If it’s personal usage it’s personal usage. Revolut and Gigs should be told to market the plan as 150GB a month if they’ll actually suspend or fire users for going over it.
I can’t remember the last time I took out an electricity contract that said you can use your kettle but not your washing machine. They have paid for a service & how they use that service is up to them. Unlimited is unlimited & capped is capped, it’s high time Ofcom woke up and stopped this unlimited with fair usage nonsense – it should either be truly unlimited or have a hard cap period.
@Big Dave There are limits on all kinds of services you can buy. For example for your car insurance you might insure it for 10,000 miles per year but what those miles can be used for depends on the contract you sign up to and you will pay accordingly. Social/Domestic/Pleasure, Commuting and Business use are different categories of coverage and will attract different pricing despite the mileage being the same.
Handset SIMs and router SIMs are priced differently for a reason. The usage patterns are different. If you create a regulation that says data SIMs can be used for any purpose then the price will just go up for everybody.
In this case there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that these customers were cut off for usage. The quote in the article says 150 GB+ twice in 6 months triggers an investigation not termination. They were investigated and found to be using routers instead of handsets in violation of their contract. How many have been cut off for using that amount of data on handsets?
Unlimited should mean unlimited (speed throttling heavy users that regularly exceed a certain published level is fair though, down to something similar to USO level e.g. 30mbs, maybe in steps: 100 then 70 then 30 then 10 then 1).
If the limit is (say) 600Gbs per month (however softly enforced) then providers should be required market the plan that way at the “headline” level.
Agree, if it’s not or has a FUP then it should be advertises at the usage not unlimited.
Olilo do something like that – almost unlimited and they explain about the FUP limit.
Just a shame it’s on Vodathree as they don’t work here
A terabyte‑level mobile user is not an ordinary individual, 100GB would be classed as a very heavy mobile user. This is fixed line broadband replacement either by a large household or a person doing things like heavy streaming and cloud backups. (Why pay about £40pm for something like Full Fibre 500 if you can get away with £14.99pm.) As a 1TB user costs Revolut far more than £14.99 in charges it pays to O2 and, more importantly, the usage of a 5G home router entails permanent automated usage, so the contract got axed without warning.
My 100GB contract on an MVNO costs £5 a month – but pre paid over 2 years. I don’t even use that because I feel like it’s hard for them to sustain – but it’s nice that it’s offered.
Maybe the users should be more savvy and read the agreement? I read it and it says the FUP is 150gb so didn’t buy.Having said that trading standards should be all over this unlimited thing as most aren’t.
Turns out Revolut’s “unlimited” has a rather limited imagination…
I switched to the Simp Mobile Unlimited plan which comes with a whopping 750GB fair-use allowance. Because 150GB is barely enough data to start a revolution.
But even they are mis advertising
“Is Simp really unlimited?
Yes – properly. You get unlimited UK data, unlimited UK calls and unlimited UK texts on both plans.”
but 750GB FUP – so not properly at all.
Like I said – I think Olilo are the only ones to get it right – “almost unlimmited” is how they sell their FUP based esim
“Unlimited” is garbage anyway. They should ban the use of “unlimited” because in reality its “unmetered” – even without a hard GB limit, 24×7 x download speed is your “limit”.
Hopefully someone points out what they’re doing isn’t the wisest and they change tactic.
Re: people defending the company. If the FUP is 150GB, and the first you hear of it is you get disconnected – then they’ve done a poor job in telling you your usage, too.
If this is a new contract, or someone’s usage habit is changing (eg theyre now going to be commuting daily) they may not know how much data they’re expecting to use. Pretty poor from the MVNO.