Sky Mobile Hit UK Customers with First Price Increase in 5 Years UPDATE
Customers of the Sky Mobile service, which is an O2 (VMO2) powered Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) with upwards of 3 million subscribers, has begun notifying their out-of-contract users (equating to around 1.3 million customers) that they will see their first price increase in 5 years on 14th February 2023.
According to our sources, the first emails and letters on this began going out yesterday, and the rest are due to follow over the next two weeks. In simple terms, this change means that out-of-contract customers will almost all pay an additional £1 extra per month from 14th February 2023. Such a rise will obviously be felt more by those on Sky Mobile’s cheaper plans.
“We’ve tried to keep our prices as low as possible and this is our first price change in five years. The current economic climate has meant we’ve had to review the pricing for some of our data plans. And remember, we don’t raise prices in the middle of your contract,” said Sky Mobile’s statement. Customers who are currently mid-contract don’t need to worry, but that will change once their current term ends and the rise becomes relevant to them too.
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The increase is separate from any future price increases related to their Sky TV or Sky Broadband subscriptions, which will probably be taking effect in April 2023 sometime.
UPDATE 8th Jan 2023
Just to clarify. Sky informs us that they implemented this new pricing on 11th November 2022 for new, upgrading and ‘mixing’ customers (i.e. the out-of-contract base above is now catching up).
A Sky Mobile spokesperson said:
“This is not a decision we have taken lightly. We try to provide our customers with as much value as possible which is why our data plans have not increased in price for five years. However due to increased cost pressures the majority of our mobile tariffs are increasing by £1, with the average percentage increase being below levels of inflation.”
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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If anything, this just proves that the other mobile networks simply do not need to increase prices by a formula every single year. I’m tempted to move to Sky Mobile!
£1 increase only when their actual costs have gone up is infinitely preferable to 5-10% increase every April irrespective of what it costs them to provide the service.
Sky Mobile is fantastic. Only downside is they use O2’s network, which is poor at best. All the other features and price points are fantastic though. The ability to roll data has kept my bill low for years.
Yeah, price rises are unwelcome, but a first rise in five years, and not for in-contract customers? That’s as legitimate as it comes.
Sky mobile did rise prices for me if you were on a plan that was on sale or offer. Also, The speeds I got on Sky mobile were shocking. I almost never got over 5 mbps when I’m in a town or city (even with full signal). however, when I was in the countryside when there was good signal, all of a sudden I get great speeds (40+ mbps)! seems like Sky/O2 are heavily deprioritizing speeds to me…
I’m now on Lebara now and I get a actually usable service!
I was with SKY mobile for years They were very good and yes no price increases at all. Customer service great. Only left because 02 data service 4g / 5g has got so poor it is almost unusable. Now on Lebara , just as good and cheap but use much better Vodafone network.
@Bob
I daresay it depends on personal circumstances, but “fantastic” is stretching it… just a bit.
Utilising O2 in the middle of Hereford (or any small town) or at an event is usually a painful experience, unless you just want to SMS or call.
And their support for wifi calling/VoLTE on what seems to be anything else other than an iPhone or one of the limited range of other supported models purchased through them is disappointing (but they are not alone in that). My wife’s iPhone 13 mini bought unlocked elsewhere has it working on Sky Mobile out of the box. My Pixel 7 Pro bought at the same time, even though capable, cannot access these features on the network. I’ve tried everything that does not work (so if anyone has an idea that does work I’d be grateful).
All that said, I’m reasonably happy with them and am unlikely to be switching (me and the family) from them at the end of contract in 4 or 5 months’ time. The price points are good. And the ability to save and farm out unused data to the rest of the family is a superb feature.
They get an 8 out of 10 for me.
I dunno, you seem to describing a pretty fantastic service that you are happy to stay with despite the poor o2 coverage in your City. If the rest of the service wasn’t fantastic I would certainly be jumping ship in your situation.
“8 out of 10” with “superb” features and “good price point”, despite the underlying issues with o2. I guess you are just agreeing with me but arguing semantics at this point
“And their support for wifi calling/VoLTE on what seems to be anything else other than an iPhone or one of the limited range of other supported models purchased through them is disappointing ”
Say whhhhhhat?
I got a Oneplus – wife has a Google pixel – both had this right out the box – in fact Voxi lost their wifi calling on the phones so we swapped and never had a problem.
If the phone supports it – Sky Mobile/02 support it – fact
@Haha Well, you do indeed appear to be lucky!
I can assure you that if I go into Settings, Network and Internet, Internet, choose the Sky SIM settings then there are no options for VoLTE or WiFi calling (even though I have the latest Android version and security update installed).
Calls preferences and SMS preferences is greyed out.
Then I have options for Mobile data, Roaming, App data usage, Data warning & limit, [nothing where I’d expect VoLTE option to be], Preferred network type, Carrier settings version (sky_gb-42000000036.10 2022-09-23) [and this is roughly where I’d expect the WiFi calling option to be], Automatically select network, Access point names, Allow 2G
Sky Mobile Device Support for Pixel only lists Pixel, Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL, Pixel 4, and Pixel 4 XL, and all the APN info is identical and is the same as the Generic Android settings: mobile.sky, MCC = 234, and MNC = 57, which is what I have set.
No, it is not universally available on Sky Mobile. They only guarantee it on a limited list of phones, as a trawl of the Sky Mobile website and forums shows as recently as the end of December 2022.
Fact: “One to watch out for: If you didn’t get your phone from us, it might not be compatible with Sky Mobile Wi-Fi calling. To check, set up Wi-Fi calling and try making a call over Wi-Fi. If the ‘Wi-Fi call’ indicator doesn’t show, then your phone isn’t compatible.”
And since Sky Mobile aren’t into supplying Pixels, that was a non-starter.
And on O2, the O2 website suggests you need (1) O2 firmware (i.e. have to have bought it from them) and (2) request wifi calling on your account (even with firmware present). I can’t comment on whether either of those is true or not.
So, how is your wife’s Pixel (which version, btw?) getting wifi calling?
Just had the email, 4 sims going up by £1 each in February.
However, I ported all 4 sims away to a mix of Voxi and Lebara in November last year due to the unreliable O2 network in our area and Sky’s inconsistent implementation of WiFi calling. Glad to see Sky’s systems are up to date.
Being able to use data I pay for on the move via the Vodafone network has been a revelation, something we only achieved on Sky Mobile while roaming abroad!
Yes that is exact reason we switched from SKY to Lebara back in September. SKY seriously need to ditch 02 as their network as it is almost Impossible to use data in so many places now. This has become much worse in last 6 months. My previous tariff of 3gb will be £7 on SKY, I am now getting 12gb for £6.95 (after my 6 months at £0.01 expires) and it actually works…even in city centre and football stadiums!
Agreed. I think the 2 sims on Lebara we have are 21gb a month for £7.95, 3 months half price but only a 30 day contract.
I was paying similar for 2gb with Sky Mobile. I liked the rolling data and being able to manage all our sims in MySky, but can’t use them again unless they change the underlying network and fix WiFi calling properly, something they denied was even broken for well over a year before admitting.
O2 5g in my area is 35 mbps hardly 5g is this normal for o2?
No that’s not normal for O2, it’s usually a lot less than that so you’re lucky! I’ve seen speeds less than 1Mb on O2’s 5G network. I jumped from them late last year, tried Three (via SMARTY) and they weren’t that much better. I’ve now settled on EE which is absolutely amazing but does unfortunately require me to remortgage my house every month to pay for it. I suppose it’s a case of you get what you pay for though!
I’ve piggybanked 600gb over 12 months as I just can’t get enough signal to use it. It’s a pitty Sky can’t use Vodafone or three
Or you signed up for a plan with a data allowance that is too high for your use case.
In my case, I signed up for 25GB for two sims because the introductory offer price was very good, and all I need mobile data for is streaming spotify when out and about. Ended the year with 180GB banked and no complaints about signal quality. Now I’m on the cheapest plan and living off the data in my piggy bank.
Their speeds aren’t the fastest, but they’re good enough that I am still here. Fixed predictable pricing is worth it to me.
This is terrible news for consumers currently drowning to death in a cost-of-living crisis. As an iPhone 14 Pro Max customer who needs an affordable plan, it’s a devastating blow.
Any suggestions for another budget mobile service provider who rolls data over like Sky does it?
Honestly – that statement LOL
Cost of living Crisis and a muppet who pays £1400 for a phone which cost Crapple £78 to make -should not be whinging about the cost of living!
A £40 smartphone from Ebay will do the same job – and then you have £1360 to stay a float with
Have I just solved the Economy? 😀
https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/guides/what-is-data-rollover-and-which-networks-offer-it/
Best I could find
Oh i was not calling you a muppet – just anyone else 🙂
@haha must be a robit, because you don’t understand sarcasm.
Please fill in this captcha to prove otherwise
Left Sky mobile after 3yrs but my wife and daughter still use it.
I switched to Lebara taking advantage of a 6p per mth offer for 6mths (30 day contract) . The mobile speed is 100Mbs on 4G which is much faster than the Sky mobile speed. 4mths in and I’m delighted with all aspects of the service.
I left Sky mobile because of the increase and went to Talkmobile which is on the Vodafone network. Was paying Sky mobile £6 for 2gb now I’m paying £5 for 4gb and on a better network in my area.
Thanks Sky! :))