(off topic) Virgin did very well when SRB owned it and they had an incredible arrangement with T-Mobile, that saw Virgin getting paid a small amount per month for every active sub.

Suffice to say, Virgin didn't rush to cut inactive SIMs and gave them out like candy. When I was at What Mobile, every review phone had a SIM and a few to give away, and they loved competitions to give more away. They all had £5 of credit pre-loaded, so it was probably possible for some people to never pay a penny - just chuck one SIM away and activate another...

I always wondered how they managed things when T-Mobile renegotiated the deal and that money went, and suddenly Virgin had a lot of inactive subs affecting their ARPU....

****! I just asked for a PAC looking to transfer to Sainsbury's on Monday evening! Guess I'll be staying with Lyca for a little longer, though Tesco looks like the alternative beyond that.

I think the reason Tesco have not sold the mobile side is
1, They are 50% owned by O2
2 They wouldn't get a lot of money for it and it wouldn't even make a dent on the Tesco debt.
So keeping it they are still making some money and not losing it.

I was in Sainsbury’s last night and they still had their PAYG phones on the Sainsbury’s network on sale.

A network closure notice comes up when you call for a balance from your Sainsbury’s mobile on 40775 so no more top up from me.

TalkMobile https://talkmobile.co.uk/order-payg-sim/

Vodafone network. Similar pricing.

How many times has Sainsbury's tried and failed to get into mobile? I can remember back to their amazing scheme that compared all the tariffs and put you on the right one (or something similar), a bit like Orange tried to do - although there you had to do the leg work yourself I think.

No doubt Sainsbury's will be back next year with a tie-up with another carrier and we'll see how long that lasts.

That was Sainsbury's One which launched in 2001 on O2.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/978350.stm

It only lasted a couple of years (so about the same time as their latest effort). All the subs (~60000) transferred to O2. Just as it closed, Tesco Mobile launched...

Just had a text on my Sainsbury sim that said something like being “sorry for letting you down but we will add £5 credit to your Nectar card and give double points until July 16”.

As I’ve only got about £5 on my sim and another 3 months to get rid of it I think I’m going to be quid’s in.

Talkmobile Essentials is 8p / min, 4p / text, 25p / day for 25 MB.

Other Vodafone MVNOs include talkxtra, Kontakt, Lebara and SMART UK.

Details are listed at my site.
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Pete Forman
http://petef.22web.org/payg.html

Seems they hope to continue mobile. I wonder if Three will be amenable to a link up.

I wonder if Tesco will try and nip in and get the customers then?

It's a shame something couldn't have been sorted with another network if this has got to the point of no return.

They say that credit will indeed expire on 2016-01-16.

When Asda announced they were going to void credit when they changed MNO they ended up doing a U-turn. Sainsbury’s must be aware of that story so don’t hold your breath.

The report of this in Computer Weekly states that other Vodafone MVNOs are not affected.

http://www.computerweekly.com/news/4...-joint-venture


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Pete Forman
http://petef.22web.org/payg.html

You'd hope so, but given Sainsbury’s seems to do more harm than good with its loyalty schemes, nothing would surprise me.

I can't think of another store where giving me a voucher can actually make me angry!

Wholly owned by Vodafone too, so there shouldn't be any messy closure in the future.


That would be good. Or EE, if they don't mind 'sharing' with Asda Mobile.

Are any MVNO on Vodafone safe mobile by sainsburys was a 50/50 venture talk mobile is the same

I was looking at giffgaff but tesco lite sounds better

Vodafone own 100% of Talkmobile

It looks like that is the real question. Suspect not though now as if they can get rid of what is a more branded one, what else will go.

Let's hope Tesco mobile continue and doesn't go the same way, howveer suspect they are a much bigger player in the market. Looking at the data published on here, customer wise they must be the 5th largest network in the UK?

I bet Tesco and Asda are glad they were not using Vodafone.

Sainsbury's saying they have 150,000 customers. Not a great total.

Asda were, they had a messy switchover to EE

One member of my household has a Sainsbury’s PAYG SIM.

A general tip for unused credit when you are about to use a PAC is to find a suitable charity which accepts donations via SMS. I don’t see why Sainsbury’s should pocket it.

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Pete Forman
http://petef.22web.org/payg.html

Don't even remember sainsbury's ever having a mobile business before.
I have had a mobile phone from the start in the late 80s early 90s when they were like bricks my first phone was a Vodafone Brick and then i switch to cellnet which was a bit smaller, i've had Orange,One2one, btcellnet all the way to nowadays which i now have 3, O2, T-Mobile/EE Ive even got the new Freedompop sim.
But never new about sainsbury's and Btcellnet joining up.

Maybe with PAYG ususually looking like a monthby month contract they simply want rid of standard PAYG.

Whereas Three do a 3,2,1 PAYG Talkmobile charge 40,14,10 PAYG.

Oh yes remember people talking about that now. So the writing was on the wall really then for Sainsburys. You would have thought they would have changed networks, unless it just simply was not worth all the hassle.

Sainsbury's appear to have a refund process in place from what I've read. Contact the 03xx number they have and it can be requested.