Vodafone UK Donates 2 Million Free Mobile Data SIMs to Public

Mobile operator Vodafone has announced that they’ve made big progress toward their goal of helping 4 million UK people and businesses, usually reflecting those who are “experiencing digital exclusion“, cross the digital divide by 2025. As a result, they’ve so far donated connectivity to 2 million people, usually via free mobile data (broadband) and calling SIMs.

The programme predominantly provides people with a free SIM with 20GB (GigaBytes) of data (mobile broadband) a month, for 6 months – plus unlimited calls and texts – through a network of charity partners. The figure of 2 million (up from 500k in July 2022) was reached through Vodafone’s partnerships with related charities, such as The Trussell Trust, Barnardo’s and the Good Things Foundation, as well as the number of other charities.

People can support the campaign this Christmas by playing Elf & Seek – an augmented reality game which gives you the chance to gift one of 50,000 SIM cards to those in need, donated by Vodafone through its everyone.connected programme on their behalf. Other prizes up for grabs include an all-inclusive family winter sun holiday to Tenerife, weekends away, Nintendo Switch consoles, Lavazza Coffee machines and more.

Nicki Lyons, Chief Corporate Affairs & Sustainability Officer at Vodafone UK, said:

“At Vodafone, we’re committed to closing the digital divide all year round, and at Christmas we know that being connected to loved ones is more important than ever. We are proud to have now helped two million people and businesses cross the digital divide, with a commitment to double that figure by the end of 2025.”

We should point out that “helping” is not the same as “solving“, particularly since the free period only lasts for 6 months, but that’s still very impressive, and we can’t expect a commercial mobile operator to give away totally free services with no end date. The operator has also released some data on regional popularity.

The locations in the UK where Vodafone received the highest number of requests for SIM cards in 2023 are:

• East Midlands – East Lindsey, Leicester
• London – Hackney, Islington, Hammersmith & Fulham, Southwark
• North West – Manchester, Sefton
• Scotland – Glasgow, North Ayrshire
• South East – Brighton and Hove
• South West – Gloucester
• Yorkshire and the Humber – Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford

Vodafone has also published the results of a new online survey of 2,000 UK adults who celebrate the festive season (Christmas), which was conducted by OnePoll. The survey found that 90% of UK adults who celebrate the festive season will use connected devices to keep in touch with friends and family on the big day, with 67% connecting with others in a different part of the country and 33% overseas – though some are much closer to home, with 12% living on the same street.

Almost a fifth (18%) of people who celebrate Christmas will video call friends and family when presents are opened on Christmas Day, closely followed by Christmas Dinner (13%) and when enjoying games or quizzes (8%). The most popular ways to stay in touch this festive season are text messages (78%), messages on social media (48%), sharing pictures (46%) and video messages (30%), followed by voice notes (15%).

When asked how they’d feel if they were disconnected over the Christmas period, people said they’d feel upset, lonely or anxious (24%) with one-in-twenty saying it would ruin their Christmas (6%).