Lyca Mobile UK Launch Monthly Contracts with Price Freeze Until 2026
Mobile operator Lyca Mobile, which is still reeling from last month’s cyberattack and related data breach (here), has apparently decided that – instead of keeping their heads down – now is the time to launch a range of new monthly contracts with the promise of no price rises “until at least” 2026.
“The move beyond its prepay heritage is designed to shake up the UK mobile market, which is showing increasing signs of customer frustration at price rises and the reintroduction of expensive EU roaming fees,” said the announcement, without mentioning the other frustrations around security of personal data. Lyca also said they’ve “invested in network excellence.” Yep.
Customers will thus now be able to choose from four 12-month plans, starting at just £4 for 5GB of data and ranging up to £18 for unlimited data (mobile broadband). All plans will include unlimited UK minutes and texts, 100 international minutes, plus EU roaming as standard. There will also be flexible 1-month plans available, priced from £5 for 5GB to £20 for unlimited data, which can be terminated with just 30 days’ notice.
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Richard Schäfer, Group CEO of Lyca Mobile, said:
“In this day and age there is no reason why a high quality, reliable mobile service needs to cost the earth. UK mobile users deserve a fairer deal. We know that many contract customers are dissatisfied with the value they’re getting from providers – which is why we’ll be providing locked-in low prices on all our 12-month and rolling 1-Month plans.
Nobody wants to feel taken for granted, so in the face of skyrocketing bills, we’re confident that our new contract plans will appeal to both our loyal base and new customers alike. Lyca Mobile is uniquely positioned to provide UK mobile users with what they want. Adding this extra layer of product choice reinforces the strong foundations on which the company will continue to grow.”
We had half expected that Lyca Mobile might hold off on new promotions for a bit, at least until after they’ve fully completed their investigations into the recent data breach. We were wrong.
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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Their website only promises “No mid-contract price rises until 2026”, which seems a little meaningless given a 12 month contract doesn’t last that long…
You’d prefer an RPI+3% rise in April 2024?
No, I’d prefer it if it wasn’t advertised as a “price fix until 2026” — because that’s not what it is. It’s better than the big operators, but…
“High quality, reliable mobile service” – we’ll just pretend that incident last month didn’t happen.
Would not use ever
I wouldn’t use them if they were free, utterly shocking customer service! In fact their customer service makes Virgin’s customer service looks fantastic, that’s how atrocious they were! Glad I got rid of them before they got hacked!
Well your data was still included in the hack so surely better to be with them after?
I’m not on about the data theft, I’m on about their incompetence to not be able to provide PAC’s after the hack for whatever reason
And still with no VoLTE. No thanks!
The level of hate directed at Lyca is unwarranted IMO.
They’re so cheap it’s unrealistic to expect anything other than threadbare CS, the hack was unfortunate but won’t stop me using their services, 49p a month for 3gb of data in a second phone mainly used for Spotify is a bargain IMO.
Just use disposable or virtual debit cards when paying for their services.
Thing is Lebara are equally as cheap, I have 12gb for £6.90 and my son 21gb for £7.95 for example and their customer service is great so it can be done!
Cheap shouldn’t mean appalling. And they’re not that cheap either.
Agree with Yatta, give it a rest you critical ****s, your acting like the big players you all love never got hacked and lost all your data and also actually have the means to improve customer service but don’t and simaltaniously take it overseas too.
Lebara don’t do esims. that’s the only reason why I can’t switch to them
I agree, I use it for data as it is so much consistently faster than o2 in the areas I need it for. £2 a month for 20gb data through a comparison site couldn’t be beaten, since they use EE and not Vodashit
A very dodgy company (their French senior management team has just been convicted for money laundering offenses).
I am happy to use them for a throwaway data sim but I would not transfer in a number I would want to keep.
They’re just the company/people that got caught.
Having used them on five SIMs, Lycamobile is not fit for purpose – where is Ofcom when you need them? Really poor service, constant failures of SMS and phone calls between networks, constant excuses about why they can’t supply PAC codes to leave, a data breach and fines for a fraud investigation in France. By some distance the worst network I have ever used.
1. Use it for data only, like I do, you won’t need CS. They use EE, so I get fast and consistent data, o2 are just poor for data speeds and consistency.
Have you complained to Ofcom about them?
Have been using for last 3 or 4 months just wish could use it in mifi unit for WiFi in caravan as Smarty SIM card works
Worse than Smarty for reliability and customer service. Do not use!
Awww.I am famous now to the point I have a wannabe 🙂
I disagree with all the other me said 😀
They want £20 for 200GB but for that I would use 1pmobile. Same price but on 1p you get full network speed for the entire allowance. Lyca is throttled speed wise I’ve tested them both
id mobile is £15 for unlimited data
Depends if you can use Voda in your area, I cant here it’s only Three or EE.
They may be cheap but they are the worst provider by far. Lyca apparently cannot migrate the e-sim you have from one device to another directly via customer support. You first have to get a new free e-sim from them on there website then phone to move your number over.
Issue is this request free e-sim has been broken for over a month it seems.
So I now have a new iPhone but no second line and just told oh you have to wait and oh we can’t give you compensation because it was you who got the new phone they have not done anything to stop the line.
I have manage to go to my account into sim management and just selected current eSIM and then request new eSIM and email arrived with QR code and I got it working.
My husband just left them. Appalling service and they cut him off during the hack period because they were not able to collect his monthly card fee and so he was unable to make any calls. Took a week to get a PAC code
I had a spare Giffgaff sim with some credit on it so he’s moved there for now and ported his number onto that SIM
GiffGaff, Smarty and Voxi are just a con.
GiffGaff is owned, and run by o2 (not their members as they claim). Smarty is owned and run by Three and Voxi is owned and run by Vodafone.
The reason these networks did this was to con the unexpected that they were a new MVNO (network), they are not.
giffgaff is a con?
People literally live off the money they give them to type crap in their forums and to hand out SIMS. So a network that actually pays you every 6 months is a con?
OK!
Smarty is great, what are you on about?!
Find me another network that will give me 1gbps 5G, 120GB data, unlimited calls texts and picture messages for a tenner a month. Oh and EU roaming.
You can’t.
Eh? What are you on about? They are not conning anyone, Smarty and Voxi are well known as being partly or fully owned by the parent companies, Smarty was started by some ex Three employees. They aren’t hiding anything? Also what difference does it make? You can only use one network in the UK with any provider you can’t use 1P Mobile and use EE one day and Three the next with them, and there are plenty of providers to choose from.
I just did a test. I topped up £10 and they took 27p from me so I had to top up another £10 to get the package I wanted. Now imagine doing that a million times.. Easy money.
Scamming sods!
How does Lyca’s move beyond its prepay heritage aim to disrupt the UK mobile market, especially considering customer frustrations with price rises and the reintroduction of expensive EU roaming fees, and what role does network excellence play in this strategy?
Visit us telkom university
Despite “some” unhappiness with Lyca with your readers, I would like to know for research purposes before I jump in, when after paying on-line for a SIM only would my 1 month contract begin? I need to know an exact date due to my dumping (maybe temporarily) of my “3” monthly SIM. I would like to follow on with no break of service.
Thanks for an interesting page.
Regards,
Craneson.