SMARTY Mobile Takes Stand Against Mid Contract UK Price Hikes
Mobile operator Smarty has today taken a stand against the current trend of communications providers imposing huge annual price hikes, which it has done by pledging to new and existing customers that it will “not … introduce annual mid contract price rises” or RPI (inflation) linked annual price rises.
Smarty, which is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) on Three UK’s platform, has only recently switched-on their ultrafast 5G mobile (mobile broadband) service, and they now appear to be seeking some bonus brownie points by making a commitment to “new and existing customers not to introduce annual mid-contract price rises.”
Elin Mclean, General Manager at SMARTY, said: “Almost everyone is feeling the effects of cost increases at the moment and, in a promise to remain true to our SMARTY values, we only want to make things simpler. So, we are standing out from the crowd and making a commitment that SMARTY has never and will not to introduce RPI annual price rises. It’s time to do mobile the right way!”
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Reading between the lines, Smarty don’t appear to be specifically saying they won’t introduce any price rises this year or next, just that they won’t do it mid-contract or by using the same RPI based formula as other operators. Fair enough.
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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Isn’t Smarty more like build a prepaid bundle than a contract?
Or did they sneak out some pay monthly/contract options?
If there is no ‘contract’ as it’s a 30d rolling term then it’s pretty easy to promise no mid ‘contract’ price rises.
Quite.
Smarty’s bundles are prepaid. For items not included in the bundle (e.g international calls), you have to top-up via card or PayPal in advance.
Mid contract price rises are cheeky as hell. It’s companies having their cake and eating it. If companies want to put up prices, then they shouldn’t have long fixed term contracts.
Certainly, I don’t think the way price rises are advertised with small print is fair. It flies in the face of the reforms made back when major ISPs advertised broadband for only £5 a month (small print: plus £20 mandatory line rental).
Moreover, linking price rises to RPI is dodgy. RPI is no longer an official statistic, and for good reason. RPI is flawed and biased to be large. Moreover again, it’s cheeky double dipping when ISPs say they “won’t apply” the inflation measure but only if it’s negative.
So SMARTY refusing to do mid contract price rises is good policy. That said, do they even do longer than a month’s contract?
RPI isn’t as flawed as CPI though making it look like inflation isn’t anywhere near as high as it really is…..still doesn’t make it any less shady.
@Buggerlugz, yes, I strongly believe (as Jack Munroe was recently pointing out) that CPI underestimates cost of living increases for people who have to buy basic as opposed to luxury food.
That’s a huge flaw, with a one size fits all measure of inflation.
But that’s not relevant to broadband. ISPs aren’t consumers and don’t buy basic baked beans. Moreover, RPI isn’t higher than CPI because RPI attempts to model the cost of living for poor people—it doesn’t try to do that.
RPI is simply statistically flawed on its own terms, and as such is no longer an Official Statistic.
Seem like pointless PR from them as you they don’t seem to do contract over a month, too bad the no annual price hikes doesn’t apply to Smarty owner Three.
Damien – I’m not so sure, I’m not an expert with contracts, but if your contract says the price will increase by x amount or RPI/CPI and that clause was in there when you took out the contract, I was under impression you have to accept the rise. If the contract doesn’t specify this at the point of you taking it, that’s when you can leave without penalty.
Any contract experts or people with experience feel free to give more substantial info please?
Smarty doesn’t do pay monthly so wouldn’t be able to increase prices mid contract.
Smarty is also owned by Three, who raise their prices every year.
The hypocrisy is shocking.
Agreed. It’s fake news from Three. I would say its even unbecoming of them, but that’s not at all true.
Couldn’t agree with you more Dave.
Have some Skype free forever. Na.
Have the One Plan. Na
Have Feel like home roaming. Na
Just another bit on marketing spin. Na thanks.