Small EE Based UK Mobile Operator Zevvle Ceases Trading

Back in 2020 we reported on the launch of a new Birmingham-based Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) called Zevvle (here), which offered a bit of a different twist on pay-as-you-go data (mobile broadband) pricing. But mounting costs and limited customer adoption appear to have now put an end to the provider.

The first sign of problems emerged last year after the operator ran into financial difficulties (here), although it ended up being saved by new investors. The outcome saw those investors take on 80% of the business, while the original owner retained 20% of the new holding company – REAL Mobile Ltd.

Unfortunately this has turned out not to be enough to save Zevvle and the operator, which is powered by EE’s national network, has announced their intention to cease trading (here). A related discussion can be found on the ISPreview Forum (we’re a bit late in covering it due to a large workload).

James Davis of Zevvle said (5th Dec 2023):

“I regret to inform you that REAL Mobile Ltd. Zevvle will cease trading this month. We have tried very hard to keep the network operational and have made significant and consistent investment into ensuring this has happened to date. Unfortunately it transpired recently that the growth plans we had for the network were not going to be possible owing to the costs for this project mounting and it simply became impossible for us to be able to fund it.

We have spent the last week working very hard to make sure that all Zevvle customers have time to seek an alternative provider without any downtime and shareholders have made a considerable payment to enable all customers to have one week from today to find an alternative provider.

We will be sending a text message to every customer today directing them to the forum, this is the best place for us to communicate and where we will be sharing any further updates over the course of the next month.

…

I want to conclude by apologising for this situation and to thank you for your loyalty to Zevvle through the years. I know for many of you this was more than just a mobile network and whilst inevitably this will be a disappointment to many I hope you can see how we tried to keep the network operational for a long time despite the losses. We also wanted to help customers through the cost of living crisis and for this reason we did not put prices up for any existing Zevvle customers throughout our tenure.”

International usage and roaming outside of the EU switched off on the same day as the announcement, while Tuesday this week was the “last day” where customers could “make voice calls, send SMS and use data“. The full switch-off is expected to take place imminently at the end of the month and hopefully most customers will have already switched to pastures new.