Appliances Retailer AO.com Launches Own Virtual UK Mobile Network
Bolton-based electrical appliances’ retailer AO.com has today become the latest UK company to try their hand at launching their own 4G and 5G virtual mobile network operator (mvno) with AO Mobile, which reflects a new partnership with Vodafone. Not that the market needed another one, but you’ve got it now anyway.
AO Mobile will support both physical SIMs and eSIM functionality from launch, which makes it a bit more sophisticated than the myriad of eSIM-only providers that have been popping up from every direction in recent months. But at launch the service will only offer a single SIM-only plan called Ultimate 500GB.
The 30-day rolling plan is priced at £12 a month for AO members and £18 a month for non-members. As you might expect this will get you unlimited UK calls and texts, a 500GB monthly data allowance (this is pretty close to the soft Fair Usage cap that many mobile operators apply to “unlimited data” plans), 15GB of inclusive EU roaming allowance and “99% UK population coverage with access to fast and reliable 5G“.
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Customers can also add up to 9 additional SIMs under the same account, making the service suitable for individuals and families alike.
AO’s Founder and CEO, John Roberts, said:
“We’ve been disrupting the status quo since 2000 to make things better, simpler, and cheaper for customers. We want to remove complexity and keep mobile simple so that it’s easy for customers to understand. Our pricing is transparent, our contracts are flexible, and our prices are fixed.
For AO, this feels like the right approach because a mobile phone is so central and critical to everyday life. AO Mobile simplifies everything with just one tariff. AO members get 500GB for only £12 including 15GB of EU Roaming every month. No gimmicks, no price rises in the first 12 months, no surprises and a rolling 30 day contract.
It is typical AO value. We don’t need to tie you in because you’ll never want to leave. It is simply amazing value, which is why AO is the most trusted electrical retailer.”
The catch, if you can call it such, is that to benefit from the lowest pricing mentioned above you need to be an AO member and membership typically costs £39.99 per year. Otherwise, at £18 a month, the price is still good for a 30-day plan, although giffgaff and iD Mobile, among others, can do similar without the need for an additional membership.
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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The AO membership is a bit of a rip-off. They price it so that it’s cheaper to have the membership than to pay for delivery, installation, removal of your old appliance. But most people don’t buy that many electrical appliances in a year, and they make it really hard to cancel, so the next you hear of it is another £39.99 coming out of your bank account a year later.
When I had it, I actually had to call them up to cancel – another example of something that can be signed up in a few clicks online, but needs a physical phone call to cancel. I don’t know if that’s still how it works.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly5x9qlnvjo
I bought one item, paid for the subscription because I then got free delivery etc and it was still cheaper than elsewhere. A few weeks later I logged into my account and cancelled the subscription renewal. Easy peasy.
There is a way to cancel it online. Had to do it 4 months ago.
It wasn’t obvious though and it did also state that you have to call them which is a lie.
Most new appliances are built crap nowadays which is why you need a new washing machine every 4 or less years whilst the 1980s one still lasts to this day. Right to repair loss have been a huge disadvantage in recent years also by sealing the parts making it impossible for consumers to self repair and “warranties” which needs signing up first and then their hotline tries to sell you insurance products or “warranty will only cover parts but not labour and other expenses. You can bypass most of that part by exercising your rights using the Consumer Rights Act legislation. Still an unnecessary arse ache tho.
FWIW, I found it very easy to cancel online. I did it as soon as I got my appliance, and the membership is now showing as “Membership set to cancel” and “Benefits end on “
To be fair even for a one off that is still cheaper. I did a cooker through currys and it was £125 to install because it needed a sparky. it was then £25 to recyle and £15 to take the pacakging away. If this is covered in the £39,99 it is a genuine Bargain
If not then it’s about breaking even if you get appliance 2 in the same year.
I had never heard of AO.com until now. I got 4 new appliances last year. about the same price install etc I could have got another oven!
At least they haven’t called it “unlimited”. Maybe other operators that have limits on their plans can take note.
Wow, another one…
More MVNOs than there are planets in the sky at this point.
Still, their prices are more reasonable than that of the four main operators.
Mozillion are good if you want EE cheap. I was paying £34 a month for unlimited but only using 11gb a month on average.
When that contract ended I went to Mozillion for 100GB a month – they had a deal on for 2 years for £120.
So £5 a month – for the same thing
There are definite question marks over Mozillion’s long term viability so hope that you bought your bargain sim with a credit card!
There’s been an increase of non telecoms related companies unnecessarily creating MVNOs such as Zable Mobile, Monzo mobile and now Online cooker delivery store mobile, will get Amazon prime mobile next!
DOn’t forget Starlink mobile too – but that one might be actually useful and cheaper as roaming charges/allowance wont even be a thing when you are already roaming the world.
That might be a game changer if more and more companies use it
Many are not actually MVNOs. They are just launched using a service like Gigs OS with very little work needing to be done. In cases like that, Gigs OS is actually the MVNO.
We’ll see a lot more of them because now any company can simply decide to launch a mobile service on a whim.
AO’s one of only two online retailers from whom I’ve had the displeasure of follow-up sales calls after ordering through their webpage. AO tried to sell me an extended warranty, but worse, cartridgepeople phoned to convince me to buy a cheaper own-brand toner instead of the genuine one I’d bought that’ll last me a decade!
As Brenda from Bristol would say – What another one?
The UK really does not need any more MVNO’s tbh