Austrian Mobile Operator Spusu Launch in UK with Cheap Unlimited Data
One of Austria’s top mobile operators, spusu, has today announced that they’ve launched in the United Kingdom with the aim of challenging the likes of giffgaff, VOXI and SMARTY. As part of that they’re offering customers a discounted unlimited plan (calls, texts and 5G data / mobile broadband) from just £19.90 per month.
The press release says that the headline package is £19.90 per month, although their website is offering it at £14.90, but if you click on it then that changes back to £19.90 (£14.90 looks like a temporary error). The package also features a price freeze until 2024, as well as the promise of no caps on your mobile broadband speed, no minimum term, free EU-wide roaming, eSIM support and 5G.
However, it’s unclear what the normal package price is, and in any case this deal will only be available to take until 29th June. Customers who use EU roaming should note that there are still some fair usage limits on the package too (e.g. 15 GB of Data, 500 Minutes and 500 SMS).
Advertisement
As for the network side. Spusu appears to hold a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) agreement with BTWholesale that enables them to harness EE’s national network.
Christian Banhans, Managing Director of spusu UK, said:
“Our team has created mobile services that deeply resonate with customers. We’re passionate about staying personable and accessible, especially during these challenging times of rising living costs and inflation. With spusu, the British public can breathe easier knowing they have both cost-effective plans and an award-winning customer service team at their disposal. Easily reach us with a call or connect with us on WhatsApp at 07356 010100. We’re here for you.”
But it’s worth noting that Smarty’s current unlimited data plan costs just £16 per month on a 1-month rolling term.
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.
« Ofcom to Only Conduct UK Customer Service Surveys Every 2 Years
Is it pronounced Spew Sue?
I found this is the T&C’s: “The SIM cards should not be used as long-term alternative to home broadband. If you download, send, or upload excessive amounts of content, we may view it as violation of this policy.”
Sounds like a challenge. I can’t find anything specifying an exact data limit so if it is truly unlimited (or very generously limited) then £20 for unlimited EE data is very good value.
> I can’t find anything specifying an exact data limit
That’s the whole idea. If they even suspect that you’re using this as a fixed-line broadband replacement, rather than a pattern of “typical” mobile data usage in a hand-held device, then they are free to terminate your service.
The cut-off point will be whatever usage level means it costs them more to pay EE for the service than they collect from you.
Should not ALLOW adverts UNLIMITED what the point? They won’t even tell me what the accepable usage allowance per month are? I would AVOID THIS COMPANY at all cost!
It is unlimited though, they are only saying the don’t want to be sharing 1 devices data usage between multiple devices.
I’m not sure why this is such a terrible thing.
Just like UW, this goes against the clear intention of (a) net neutrality laws, and (b) truth in advertising laws.
Challenge Accepted… ¬_¬
I can find a whole bunch of things to do…
My best 5G Speedtest on 3 last week did 1500 MBPS Down and 140 MBPS Up – It used 3 Gigs to do it.
FAQ says no minimum term and they offer eSIM.
Smarty offers coverage of 3.uk that is inferior to coverage offered on EE network (LTE/4G) so perhaps that explains why spusu is more expensive……
But there may be locations that 3.uk has better coverage over EE ……
My experience of having VF, EE and 3 is that EE is rock solid everywhere that VF and 3.uk luck the coverage. But there are “few” places in my patch of woods that VF and 3.uk have better coverage over EE
3.uk now deploying N28 so your phone will show you 5G icon but reality of usability is a different matter 😉
Perhaps ISPr. could explain the banding used by the ops and how misleading the 5G icon can be ….SA and NSA as well
EE already shows 5G on narrowband so nothing new.
EE might be rock solid, but its not clear if full-blown EE network will be offered or only cheap frequencies, rate-limited and lower priority for the whole virtual network.
For EE to offer premium service via third party with cut throat pricing would be unwise..
T&C do not mention anything about sub standard service (only cheap frequencies, rate-limited and lower priority)
https://www.spusu.com/imoscmsapi/files/general_terms_and_conditions.pdf
Only strange thing I have found is:
“If you terminate your contract within the first month after billing has started, we will have to charge
you a one-off fee of £4.00 for your SIM card.”
They have certainly covered themselfs – so no one knows what “excessive” really means 🙁
6.1 Responsible use for unlimited voice and data
Our unlimited plans are for personal and non-commercial use. The SIM cards should not be used as
long-term alternative to home broadband. If you download, send, or upload excessive amounts of
content, we may view it as violation of this policy.
If we have sufficient grounds to believe you are not acting within this policy, we will contact you and
reserve the right to disconnect your SIM card thereafter. We reserve the right to investigate your
usage, protect our network by imposing controls on your connection, suspend our services or
disconnect your plan.
I am not sure about EEs customer numbers, but looking at their PAYG plans one wants to cry how expensive they are.
EU calls included in the plan? Anyone else in the UK for this price doing this?
Hey john. There’s Vectone Mobile [uses EE’s networks] that offer EU/ int: calls. Some in plans, some as add-ons.
Id mobile offer no additional cost eu roaming
Been using it for my eu travels the last few years with no issues.
Chris, I’m pretty sure they’re asking whether they can make calls from the UK to the EU.
Lebara offers international calls on its plans to around 50 countries, I assume some EU countries are included with that.
@Michael Vectone have closed to new customers as of the end of last month.
No mention of Wifi calling
Let me guess, you’re going to raise it to a manager
Sorry I couldn’t help myself, but on a serious note I asked them andthey don’t have Wi-Fi calling but they 4G calling
4G&WiFi Calling go hand in hand. If they don’t have WiFi calling they don’t have VoLTE.
Bubbles you’re wrong
£19.90 seems quite reasonable given that it includes EU roaming which is capped at 15GB on the unlimited. That’s a little low for an unlimited data plan, but still usable on short trips I guess.
Apparently this is an introductory offer only available until 29th June, then the price goes up to £34.90. That is ludicrously expensive if true and if that’s the case, I can’t see how they are going to be a success. WiFi Calling isn’t even mentioned.
Neat. I have EE PAYG but I don’t get 5G on it because EE doesn’t do that for PAYG customers. So I would quite like to give it a try and see what speeds I get.
Why not move away from EE and onto the 1pMobile MNVO which uses the EE network and offers everything that EE offers non PAYG users.
They offer much better value for their packages than EE currently offers and are not limited in what they offer.
200GB for £20 seems a bit much. Can get unlimited for that price.
I would like to take this opportunity to emphasise that EE offers an advantage that many other operators do not, the availability of eSIM. While I understand that this feature may not be essential for everyone, it is a significant selling point for some individuals. Additionally, EE’s coverage surpasses that of any other network I have experienced in the UK.
However, it is important to note that EE does impose limitations on individual plans. For instance, even with a 20GB plan, the maximum speed is capped at 100Mbps. This particular detail may not be widely known among many people. Reading the T&C I could not find any limitation on data speed cap.
Lyca Mobile offers PAYG eSIM from £5 a month.
Guess Vodafone and Three probably won’t be happy that there’s a new MVNO on EE, guess that 90% figure will rise.
Either way, I’m glad there’s an actually cheap EE MVNO, when EE charges like 1GB for £15/mo. And some MVNOs like Co-Op charge 3GB for £11. It’s absurd.
£19.90 for unlimited data on an EE MVNO though is amazing.
Still doesn’t beat my £6.79/mo unlimited data mins texts on O2 though.
Has anyone got a link to the UK website?
https://www.spusu.com
It’s good that another MVNO is accessing the EE network as it seems plusnet is shutting down there service and agreement with EE.
I’ve never been with Plusnet, but the prices were fairly competitive, for example someone I know changes their Plusnet plan every once in a while, and right now they’re paying £6 for 5GB a month.
It’s at least 3x the price for that value on EE.
EE certainly have a clear value proposition. Or perhaps a “no-value” proposition. EE is very targeted to people who:
a) Don’t care how much it costs
b) Know and care but have no other options they’ll take
c) Don’t even know they can change supplier and keep the same number
Makes you wonder what % of their customer base fall into those.
Great to see more options using EE’s network. The prices EE offer themselves are an absolute joke.
NE555 says:
June 15, 2023 at 1:28 pm
> I can’t find anything specifying an exact data limit
I did ask them via social media chat but refused to tell me what the acceptable data limit are?
Waste of time!
eSIM, 5G No Cap, EE MVNO. That’s a lot of boxes ticked, VERY interested in this one. Will wait a few months to see how they do before considering switching.
Note that the price goes up to the normal price of £34.90 after 29th June as it’s an introductory offer according to their website. That makes it almost £5 more than EE’s unlimited plan which is ludicrous really. I wonder will it be one of those permanent ‘introductory offers’? So after 29th June, they may have a never ending sale. Who knows, but nearly £35 isn’t good value.
@Krabs had no idea, thanks for spotting the catch. You’re right, 35 is frankly ridiculous for a MVNO I’d hope it gets extended as I doubt they’ll amass many users in 2 weeks.
No problem. Yes I can’t see a provider that virtually no one in the UK has heard of by charging more than most other providers, MVNO or otherwise!
@Krabs
I was told by live chat that the price goes up to the normal price of £34.90 after 31st December 2023 as it freeze at £19.90 until 2024.
I think that’s if you take out the deal between now and 29th June. If you sign up after this date then the price will be £34.90. That is my understanding anyway. It does say on their website “Launch deal 29/06/2023”. Sorry if I confused anyone!
@Krabs – they just updated on their website UNLIMITED Plan price freeze until 31-12-2024 if sign up before 29th June 2023. After this date new sign up will be charged at £34.90 and offer deal until 31st December 2024 who already signed up.
Anyone else go to spusu.co.uk instead of .com by mistake? Sounds interesting
ahahaha indeed!!smart Suzy….LOL
oh my, that is an unfortunate coinkydink isn’t it. Bet they’ll be wanting to buy that domain from the young lady
Yep! Mind she might see an uptick in business ha.
insertfloppydiskhere says:
June 15, 2023 at 1:59 pm
£19.90 for unlimited data on an EE MVNO though is amazing.
Still doesn’t beat my £6.79/mo unlimited data mins texts on O2 though.
Where the link for o2 £6.79/mo unlimited data mins texts?
Ha ha, unfortunately you won’t be able to find that, I have been a customer with Virgin Mobile since August 2018, it was originally a 2GB for £5 plan, and I got switched to O2 last month, and they decided to make it unlimited data (5TB technically) for £6.79.
Maybe sometimes it’s worth never calling your provider up.
I have now 1p mobile with 200Gb for 20£ and I will give a try to Spusu with unlimited data for same price (19,90£ to be precise)
If I want to make a comparison I can say:
-1p mobile have wifi calling and also include Switzerland in the EU roaming, however they do not have an app (quite annoying) and a max 200 GB of data (which is huge amount anyway, I never use more than 10 since I use wifi at home). They aslo offer unlimited calls in the EU when roaming in EU and tethering is allowed
-Spusu do not include Switzerland in the EU roaming and offer only 500 min to call from UK to EU (whilst 1p mobile do not offer international calls in the bundle called “boost”) and also 500 min and 500 sms inside the EU, while SMS from UK to EU are charged 0,15£ (1p mobile offer unlimited calls, not sure about SMS in roaming but I think yes), they do have an app, by the way no wifi calling but they offer unlimited data (so theoretically over 200GB). They allow tethering too
Both piggyback on EE.
I am on 1pmobile now but I will try spusu as well.
O2 unlimted for less than 73 is a steal!Congrats!
Interesting compelling offer.
FYI, All the mobile data is routed via Austria via their parent company, AS51265 (Mass Response Service GmbH).
They have registered a new IP block, and it’s geo registered to the UK it appears, but from latency/data residency perspective, it’s not UK.
How does that effect a normal user in day to day use?
If it’s true, no doubt horribly with huge latency. I can’t think why they would do this though. Except maybe some sort of cost savings and having data centres in Aus. But sounds a bit ridiculous to believe. Got any source on this?
Suspect that they will rent some space in Data Centres soon – Lets see if this takes off. Sometimes the cost for Data Centre Access etc can be prohibitly expensive.
Austria hey? Better put some shrimp on the barbie!
I hear the beaches around Vienna are fantastic at this time of year. 🙂
CS told me the majority of the traffic is routed through UK and only occasionally a small part through Austrian servers, however they are working on itto fix it asap
Answer to my question about using a Sim in a mobile router and what is termed “acceptable data usage”
Purchasing an Unlimited Spusu SIM with the intention of using it instead of a home broadband connection would violate our terms and conditions as mentioned in your second question. We do not have a specific number as a data cap, but instead look at patterns of data usage to determine if the service is being abused or used commercially / as a home broadband.
If they’re seriously trying to restrict what devices you can use a SIM in (rather than just saying they can’t support it but it might work), then that would be a clear breach of Ofcom’s net neutrality rules (the same rules that prevented charges or bans on tethering). Not a good look.
Does anyone know the bands they use?
Thanks.
Hello
any of you know how to use the spusu sim inside a MiFi?I tried but it doesnt work