Virgin Mobile and ID Mobile provide the cheapest price to get started with a monthly tariff, whilst EE and BT Mobile are the most expensive the figures show.
Which providers offer the cheapest tariff to get you started?
This list shows which provider is the best when it comes to the cheapest price for a monthly SIM only tariff to get you started with a mobile connection (prices at the time of the article).
| Provider | Price | Calls/Text | Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virgin Mobile | £5.00 | Unlimited | 3GB |
| ID Mobile | £5.00 | Unlimited | 2GB |
| Giffgaff | £6.00 | Unlimited | 2GB |
| SMARTY | £6.00 | Unlimited | 4GB |
| Sky Mobile | £7.00 | Unlimited | 3GB |
| Tesco Mobile | £7.50 | Unlimited | 2GB |
| Three | £8.00 | Unlimited | 1GB |
| Asda Mobile | £9.00 | Unlimited | 25GB |
| VOXI Mobile | £10.00 | Unlimited | 30GB |
| O2 Mobile | £10.00 | Unlimited | 5GB |
| Superdrug Mobile | £10.00 | Unlimited | 5GB |
| Vodafone | £11.00 | Unlimited | 1GB |
| BT Mobile | £13.00 | Unlimited | 5GB |
| EE Mobile | £14.00 | Unlimited | 1GB |
Results
The best providers for the cheapest SIM only deal are SMARTY, Sky Mobile, GiffGaff and ID Mobile, all at £6.00 per month. They all provide Unlimited calls and texts with their monthly SIM. However, SMARTY, Giffgaff and ID Mobile all give 4MB of data whilst SKY Mobile gives you 2GB of data.
Which providers offer the cheapest Unlimited Tarff
Here is the list for the cheapest monthly Unlimited Tariff for calls, text and data.
| Provider | Price | Calls, Text, Data | Contract |
|---|---|---|---|
| ID Mobile | £16.00 | Unlimited | 24 months |
| SMARTY | £20.00 | Unlimited | 1 month |
| Three | £20.00 | Unlimited | 12 months |
| Asda Mobile | £20.00 | Unlimited | No Contract |
| Virgin Mobile | £25.00 | Unlimited | 24 months |
| Tesco Mobile | £25.00 | Unlimited | 24 months |
| Vodafone | £26.00 | Unlimited | 24 months |
| O2 Mobile | £30.00 | Unlimited | 24 months |
| Giffgaff | £35.00 | Unlimited | 18 Months |
| VOXI Mobile | £35.00 | Unlimited | No contract |
| EE Mobile | £35.00 | Unlimited | 24 months |
Results
For unlimited minutes, text and data, ID Mobile is the cheapest at £16.00 per month. This is followed by Smarty and Three at £20.00 per month. For ID Mobile and Three, they require you to go on a 12 months contract, whilst with SMARTY, you are only on a month’s contract.
Customer Service
We take a look at the customer satisfaction as provided by users to find out if they are happy with their mobile provider. We have used Trustpilot, to use for this data.
Here is the list of providers in order of their customer service rating as given on Trustpilot. The rating is out of 5 Stars as the maximum.
- Giffgaff – 4.3 Stars out of 5 Stars (Excellent)
- SMARTY – 4.2 Stars out of 5 Stars (Great)
- VOXI Mobile – 3.9 Stars out of 5 Stars (Great)
- ID Mobile – 3.6 Stars out of 5 Stars (Average)
- Asda Mobile – 3.1 Stars out of 5 Stars (Average)
- EE Mobile – 2.4 Stars out of 5 Stars (Poor)
- BT Mobile – 2 Stars out of 5 Stars (Poor)
- Tesco Mobile – 1.7 Stars out of 5 Stars (Bad)
- Three – 1.6 Stars out of 5 Stars (Bad)
- Sky Mobile – 1.5 Stars out of 5 Stars (Bad)
- O2 Mobile – 1.4 Stars out of 5 Stars (Bad)
- Vodafone – 1.3 Stars out of 5 Stars (Bad)
- Virgin Mobile – 1.2 Stars out of 5 Stars (Bad)
Results
From the figures, we can see that Giffgaff has the best customer service rating from Trustpilot, which is 4.3 Stars out of 5 Stars. This is followed by SMARTY at 4.2 Stars out of 5 Stars in second place. In third position, is VOXI Mobile, with 3.9 Stars out of 5 Stars.
The worst customer service is from Virgin Mobile at 1.2 Stars out of 5 Stars and Vodafone at 1.3 Stars out of 5 Stars, the second worst. The third worst customer rating goes to O2 Mobile, at 1.4 Stars out of 5 Stars. Sky Mobile is not available on Trustpilot.
Mobile phone providers with their own network infrastructure
Here are all the providers from our feature, that have their own network infrastructure to deliver their mobile service.
- EE
- Vodafone
- Three
- O2
Mobile virtual network operators (MVNO)
Here is the list of MVNO’s and the providers they use.
| MVNO | Host Network |
|---|---|
| ID Mobile | Three |
| SMARTY | Three |
| Virgin Mobile | EE |
| Tesco Mobile | O2 |
| Giffgaff | O2 |
| Asda Mobile | Vodafone |
| VOXI Mobile | Vodafone |
| Sky Mobile | O2 |
| BT Mobile | EE |
Conclusion
This article would have given you some information so you can make a better judgement on the mobile provider that best meets your needs.
Here are links to the websites for the featured providers.
- Giffgaff
- SMARTY
- VOXI Mobile
- ID Mobile
- EE Mobile
- BT Mobile
- Tesco Mobile
- Asda Mobile
- Three
- O2 Mobile
- Vodafone
- Virgin Mobile
- Sky Mobile
Additional Information
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