Tesco Mobile Drops £2.50 Premium For 4G

Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Tesco Mobile will not charge existing and new customers any extra for 4G connectivity, after it dropped the £2.50 premium it had levied on tariffs since October.

The change applies to all pay monthly and SIM-only deals, with existing customers receiving credits on their monthly statements.

Tesco Mobile 4G tariffs now start from £7.50 a month for 250 minutes, 5,000 texts and 500MB of data. The operator says it is looking to roll out LTE on pay-as-you-go in the coming weeks and expand its device range to include the Sony Z1 compact and the Moto X.

Tesco Mobile 4G

“After giving customers the chance to try 4G at their own pace with our flexible 4G tariffs, we’ve seen people really benefit from what it has to offer,” explains Simon Groves, chief marketing officer at Tesco Mobile. “Customers should be able to expect more from their mobile network, so as we see demand for 4G become more widespread, we wanted to take a different approach.

“Introducing free 4G is a clear example of our intention to provide all of our customers with the very best at no extra cost.”

Tesco Mobile became the first MVNO to offer 4G when it launched last year, running on O2’s network and mirroring its LTE coverage. Unlike Tesco, O2, along with EE and Vodafone, charges a premium for its LTE tariffs – a practice which Groves says he hopes is eventually phased out.

“As a network we hope that this move will challenge others in the market and encourage the industry to follow suit,” he says. “We want to see 4G with no extra cost become the norm and networks making the very latest technologies accessible for all.”

Three, the UK’s other major operator, does not charge a premium for its LTE service, which is currently in the process of rolling out in the UK, starting with Birmingham, London, Manchester and Reading.

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