O2 Launches ‘No.10’ £10 Public Sector 4G Mobile Tariff

O2 says its new £10 tariff for public sector workers can improve productivity, encourage remote working and improve work-life balance, claiming that government and other third sector organisations are missing out on savings of up to £7.5 billion due to poor connectivity.

The ‘No.10’ tariff, presumably named because the monthly fee is the same as the house number of the Prime Minister’s residence on Downing Street, offers unlimited calls, texts and 1GB of 4G data each month with the voice and data option, or 5GB with the data only plan.

It will be available under Lot 6 of the PSN Services Framework as a direct service, meaning public sector workers can take advantage no matter what their department or organisation. Customers can receive either a Nokia Lumia 635 or Samsung Galaxy S3 as part of the deal.

O2 public sector

O2 was recently awarded the (CAS(T)) government approved network security certification and the operator says the tariff will be supported by a fully verified wipe of existing handsets. It also promises the ability to recycle all old devices.

“We recognise the increasing pressure on the Public and third sectors to save money and increase productivity, and the No.10 proposition has been built to respond to these exact two things,” says Bill D’Arcy, managing director of public sector business at O2. “By giving public sector workers access to the latest digital technology, we can ensure that citizens are being served by the Government in the best possible way.”

Research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) and O2 say poor tools and connectivity is costing each worker 53 hours in productivity each year, but with the right tools, employees could choose to spend another 22 days working from home – a 90 percent increase.

The Telefonica-owned firm has long been a champion for flexible working and successfully held a trial before the London Olympics in 2012 which saw all 2,500 of its employees at its UK headquarters in Slough work from home.

O2 believes that the advent of 4G and Wi-Fi, along with cloud services like Office 365 will encourage this trend and allow workers to take advantage of recent government legislation that allows employees to request the right to work remotely.

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