Mobile Operator iD Mobile Tops 2.6 Million UK Subscriptions
Low-cost mobile provider iD Mobile (Currys), which piggybacks off VodafoneThree’s (Three UK) national 4G and 5G network via a virtual operator (mvno) partnership, has reported seeing subscribers grow by +18% over the last year to total 2.6 million (up from 2.3m in January 2026) – putting them ahead of their 2.5m target for the year.
The operator, which is now aiming to reach 2.8 million subscribers before the end of this year, also revealed that they ate some £27m of capital expenditure in the year – mostly of which can be attributed to handsets provided upfront and recovered through customers’ monthly payments. But this was offset by efficiencies in the rest of the business.
According to Currys: “We help customers get the most out of their tech, most importantly through connectivity. iD Mobile, our 100% owned mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), grew subscribers to 2.6m, +18% YoY, ahead of our 2.5m target. iD Mobile is a structurally attractive business. It’s high-margin and recurring, with economics that improve as the base scales, with a distribution advantage through Currys stores and online channels that few MVNOs can match.”
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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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deals with id mobile via currys/carphone are incredibly good.
often giving you high/unlimited data and the odd free item on the contract which if you price match with say voda/o2/ee their equivalent would only give you 3gb data with no free items and on a 36 month contract whereas id is 24 still.
same as most of the MVNO’s are ie better value than going direct ie lebara are also very good price wise too. there are exceptions ie mother uses a cashback site that uses vodafone mobile, she pays out £14pm for 120gb mobile data, unlimited calls etc, direct with vodafone and averaged out over the year gets £9.33 cashback back per month ( has to send the bill in every few months, gets a cheque back etc )
One of my household numbers is with them. It’s undoubtedly good value for money. However, I don’t think it has access to the VF masts yet, as it still often falls into the not-spots, whilst my other number (on VF) has signal in those areas.
They will have access to Vodafone’s masts (via MCON), your area just hasn’t been enabled for MCON which allows for the cross-sharing of masts
agreed. seems vodafone (expected) prioritised VF customers getting access to three masts. not sure if my talk mobile sim (vf owned) has access to 3 masts yet, I suspect it does.
also a bit of a tactic to get customers over to vodafone although eventually we will see id and others eventually gain access, although it is entirely possible to still not be enabled. I suspect ofcom might have a say in such matters as anti competative.
I’ve noticed that as well, I wish Three would connect to more Vodafone masts in Manchester as three can hobble along and slowdown in some parts of Manchester, whereas VF is solid.
I’m on EE right now, but I do see VF as a good alternative
MOCN has only made things slower for me. As a Three customer, I know everyone is affected by MOCN including networks like iD Mobile. When my SIM connects to a Vodafone tower, speeds drop from 200Mbps to 1Mbps. Who knows why it hands over to Voda when Three has more masts, stronger signal, better bands, sometimes the Voda tower just metres away from Three’s tower on the very same rooftop?
I had my SIM in a 4G router with decent 30-80Mbps speeds. Suddenly it started dropping below 1Mbps and I could tell something was up. Stuck it in my phone and ran Cellmapper. Turns out MOCN makes it connect to Voda masts, even when the Three mast is closer, faster, and better equipped with long range bands like B28 (2+ mile range that hits 20-30Mbps). Not to mention, most Voda masts around here are actually hosted by O2 (in the east, O2 hosts and Voda shares, with connection priority going to the host network). Seeing a Three SIM connected to a Voda mast that’s actually hosted by O2 is bonkers. Three’s customers are being knocked down to lowest priority on one mast serving 3 different networks.
It’s clear which network got the bad end of the stick after experiencing such severe network stalling lasting up to 5 minutes at a time. I had to restrict bands so that Vodafone frequencies were blocked from connecting. Maybe it’s completely different for Vodafone customers with not-spots eliminated and blazing fast data speeds like they advertised? Somehow I doubt it…
Tried them but were poor I my area which is unfortunate because their app is good to use and customer service was pretty good too.
I’m finding that my business 3 sim has a slower speed than my consumer Vodafone sim in the same location
I used to be with three since they started yearly price increases. Now Speed caps moved all my family members to iD Mobile and Giffgaff two plans: £15 unlimited everything with no price increase and Giffgaff £14 unlimited everything for 18 months. All the major providers are just ripping us off big time.
Only three and Vodafone direct customers get it and mvno’s are limited for some reason
With all due respect I don’t think there’s any truth to your claim
We switched to them recently from Vodafone and the signal is considerably worse to the point of total blackspots with no signal so we’re looking into complaining to try and break our contracts.
No annual increases on their sim only which I suspect is also helping them. Some of the low cost plans being advertised by the main networks are shocking value with the annual increases, anything between 33% and 50% increases over that period
ID mobile uses 3 network not Vodafone as stated in this article.