Mobile Network Comparison

With 4G finally becoming ubiquitous in the UK and smartphone-ownership at a new high, we thought it was time to take a look at the best value rolling bundles currently available on the market. We’ve always been a site that aims to save you money and PAYG rates simply don’t offer the value of SIM-only monthly bundles for the majority of users’ needs any more. In this post, we’ll be taking a look at the best priced monthly packages currently available on the UK market.

We’ll be rounding up the offers with at least 2GB of data per month. Why this size of bundle? 2GB of monthly data is plenty for the average customer’s browsing habits and, we think, is also at the price point that offers the best ratio of allowance to hard-earned cash.

It’s almost the weekend, so we’ll start off right away with the good stuff. In our opinion, the best choice for almost everyone is the TPO 2GB Goodness Plan which comes in at a bargain £6.49. For this, you get a generous 1000 any-network minutes and completely unlimited texts too.

TPO have been featured on this site a few times before and we’ve seen them consistently offer some of the most competitive monthly bundles on the market. Since they launched 4G last year, we’ve been happy to recommend them as an ethical and price-conscious choice.

TPO operates on the Three network (rated most reliable in the UK) and boasts 98.5% coverage and they also have great in-house customer support so you’re not compromising on service. They save money by avoiding flashy billboards — this also means that 10% of everything you spend with them goes to any cause or charity you choose, at no additional cost to you. Grab it while it’s hot!

Another offer that is worth mentioning in this round-up comes from iD Mobile. While it is a new network and doesn’t have the greatest of reputations, they do have well-priced deals with a £7.50 bundle that lasts 30 days and gives you 2GB of 4G data, 500 mins and 5000 texts which is as good as unlimited for all but the most dedicated finger-tappers. They also run on Three and allow data rollover which is a plus.

If you don’t have Three signal where you live, you might have no choice to go with an alternative MVNO. The next best offering is Giffgaff and, surprisingly, they are really not competitive at all. While price hikes have been a trend over at Giffgaff over the last two years, it is quite a shock how far off the rest of the top end of the market they are. If you want a monthly data allowance of 2GB you’ll get unlimited texts but will only have 500 included minutes. Worst of all, the goodybag costs over 40% more than TPO coming in at a pricey £10/month.

But, to summarise, TPO offers by far the best price and comes with strong credentials and customer feedback. For just £6.49 a month, 2GB of data, 1000 minutes, unlimited texts and knowing that you’re supporting an ethical network is about as good as it gets. TPO also love it when you spread the goodness. When you refer a friend to their service, you and your friend get £5 credit, completely free. That means they not only get to enjoy all the great TPO perks you do but you both get to support good causes with your phone together. You can find out more about this and other rewards when you sign up.

So if you want the cheapest 2GB rolling bundle and the feel-good factor of helping some great causes, what are you waiting for?

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LIFE Mobile is a virtual network offering 3G coverage to 99% of the UK population, on the EE network. They’ve just released some new monthly deals that offer excellent value from under £5/month on a SIM-only rolling tariff.

Currently, LIFE Mobile offers the following four SIM-only deals with 30 day bundles:

A key feature of the LIFE Mobile offering is their Smart Cap option. It is intended to give you better control over your monthly data expenditure. Smart Cap gives you a small buffer to limit your out-of-allowance charges. The default setting is £5 but you can call them and change this to anything from £1 to £30.

For example a Smart Cap of £1 on the £4.95/month tariff, your monthly bill from LIFE Mobile will never exceed £5.95. This is a great feature if you are paying the monthly bills on your children or someone else’s phone. You will never get an unpleasant surprise at the end of the month with Smart Cap.

LIFE Mobile’s cheapest offering at £4.95 has no rivals. If you are connected to BT Broadband you will get 200 minutes with 500 MB of data at a discounted rate of £5.00. This is 400 minutes less talk-time than you will get with LIFE Mobile.

Giffgaff can only offer 250 minutes talk-time and 500 MB data for £7.50. They do have a less expensive option at £5.00 per month, but that only gives 125 minutes talk-time, 500 texts and 100 MB data.

TPO offer some incredible deals but are also outdone by LIFE Mobile’s pricing. Their best priced option costs £5.99 and only offers 100 minutes of talk-time, 100 texts and 500 MB data. For £8.99 TPO still falls short with airtime at 300 minutes, but they offer unlimited texts and 2 GB of data which LIFE Mobile only offers in their £9.95 package. But LIFE Mobile supply 1000 minutes of airtime and 1 GB of data for £7.45. The choice is really whether you use your phone more for talking or for applications which will use up your data. For many users, data is less important since they are often in Wi-Fi zones where they do not use their data at all.

For anyone with their own unlocked mobile phone there are few strong alternatives. LIFE Mobile offers a true budget beating way to get connected. And their UK based call centre has been getting very good reviews from customers. This strong offering puts LIFE Mobile amongst the top UK virtual networks and completely trounces the likes of Vodafone and O₂.

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Charitable virtual mobile network, The People’s Operator, have launched a stunning new range of SIM-only plans for 2016. Available as a range of bundles we’ve compared them to some of the alternatives and it’s pretty clear they are some of the best deals currently available and maybe ever in the UK market.

So far this year, TPO have been signing up new customers at a ridiculous rate. And they’re not planning on slowing down – not content with offering such cheap deals, they’re also pulling out all the stops with an exclusive 50% off special offer for your first month. Here’s the current options available:

As you can see, these bundles are shockingly good value. For example, if you pay just £7.50, you will get a mighty 1000 inclusive minutes as well as 3GB of mobile data and completely unlimited text messages.

If you’ve only got £5 to spend, you still get a hell of a lot. TPO’s cheapest bundle includes unlimited SMS, 300 minutes of voice calls and a whole 1GB of mobile internet.

Ordering a SIM is completely free and you can get started in moments. You even get to keep your existing phone number very simply.

Here are some of the benefits TPO advertise for their SIM-only offerings:

Are these the best offers currently available? Do you know of any superior SIM-only plans currently available? And would you consider joining TPO for these deals?

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