greenmobile.co.uk

Green Mobile is a virtual mobile network that is the first in the country market to itself as being environmentally friendly. They run on the O₂ and Vodafone networks and have their own customer service agents. As well as mobile phones and mobile phone tariffs, they also offers other ecologically-conscious products such as a landline service and zero-emission electric scooters. Green Mobile won the Kingston Local Guardian ‘Green Business’ award in 2008.

Although they are only now getting more publicity, they have actually been running for over 10 years. They were founded by a British company called Resource Utilities and aim to be an eco alternative to the other mobile networks. Part of the reason for creating Green Mobile is the toll on the environment the telecommunications industry is taking at the moment. By partnering with charities such as the World Land Trust, Friends of the Earth and the Environmental Investigation Agency, they have raised £1000s for environmental causes. For example, their charitable efforts have resulted in the planting of thousands of trees in the UK and have saved over forty acres of rainforest.

Green Mobile review

As Green Mobile focuses so strongly on being environmentally friendly and ensuring that it has a carbon neutral operation, you might expect that it can’t be the most competitive virtual network based on price. You would be somewhat mistaken about this but there are some pretty great benefits they can offer. For example, probably the best thing about all its mobile phone tariffs is that you get unlimited free calls to other Green Mobile customers.

However, having said that, they definitely are one of the pricier mobile phone network options available. Even on pay as you go, with no allowance included, you have to pay a £2 monthly charge. Their voice calls pricing is in great either with phoning other mobiles costing a hefty 30p/minute.

Still, despite this, the work they do the charities is really quite incredible. If you’re trying to be more ethical in all aspects of your life, it’s definitely worth considering them. And even if you just want to ease your own conscience, they are definitely worth considering. After all, compared to many other “ethical” companies they donate almost five times as much of their turnover to Green charities.

One of our favourite things about Green Mobile is the fantastic customer service. We’ve never been kept waiting on the line more than a few seconds and the advisers are very helpful indeed. Another great feature is the per second billing and, best of all, free itemised billing. We’re really fed up for the networks that come up with excuses why they can’t offer this vital feature. If you’re on a pay-as-you-go network, it only really fair that you are able to easily see where your money is going.

PAYG Pricing

At a glance

Details

It must be admitted, that none of their rates are special at all. In fact, in some areas they are one of the most expensive mobile networks in the UK. Even though you have to pay the £2 monthly charge, calls to mobiles are comparible to the mainstream networks at 30p/minute. Luckily, you do get a discount for calling landlines which will only set you back 10p/minute.

Texts aren’t too bad at 10p each and thankfully MMS quite sensibly priced. However, you’re really losing out if you want to use mobile data as the standard pay-as-you-go rate is a humongous £5 per MB. Whatever you do, don’t accidentally leave this turned on on PAYG as downloading the average movie on your mobile will set you back about three and a half grand! The best thing about the pricing scheme is that they all include unlimited free calls to other Green Mobile users which can make a massive difference if your most frequently contacted friends and family are also on the same network.

They also have some 18 month tariffs that use the O₂ network. However these are pretty poor value for money unless you’re willing to spend at least £20 a month. And in any case, it’s not a great idea to get locked into an 18 month contract especially when they’re such good pay-as-you-go deals you can use instead.

They also offer refurbished Nokia mobile phones for new customers. Their figures show that hundred million mobile is a phone away in Europe each year and only half as many as this bought new. Only a tiny proportion of mobile phones ever recycled even though it takes over 30kg of carbon dioxide to make one small mobile phone. Also lots of hazardous and dangerous chemicals harm the environment in mobile phones if they’re not recycled and used again. However, although the handsets they offer are very environmentally sound, they are rather dated and overpriced. We would recommend you buy a new handsets elsewhere instead.

Arguably, it would be better to go for a cheaper PAYG network where you’ll save much more than the 5% Green Mobile donate to charities. Then, you could pass these much larger savings on yourself to whatever environmental charities you prefer.

Deals

With the extreme expense of mobile internet, it’s a relief that they have some data-only bundles. This is actually rather reasonably priced with 500MB of data costing only £7.50 per month. This comes to an average of just 15p/MB. That’s comparable with the best deals available elsewhere.

The other great bundle they’ve got is unlimited texts for only £6 per month. Again, this is a really great value deal and this is pretty much what you be paying from the cheapest options from any other mobile network.

Price comparison

To compare Green Mobile’s to all the other mobile networks, please see our price comparison page.

Coverage

Summary

Coverage map

Green Mobile runs on both the Vodafone network and the O2 network. You should get previews it coverage the matter where you are in the UK. Please see our Green Mobile coverage page to learn about Green Mobile’s network coverage in your area. For more information, compare it with other mobile phone networks’ coverage.

Rating

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