Mobile Network Comparison

If you haven’t already seen it, check out the first part of our interview with Zevvle, a new network hoping to shake up the MVNO market.

We’re back with their co-founder, the creative wacky Nick Goodall, chat a bit more about the new network.

Hi again Nick. It’s clear that being transparent and running a pay-for-only-what-you-use model is important to you, but are other MVNOs offering better value on their monthly bundles? How can they afford this and why is your offering superior?

The ‘better value’ depends where you’re standing. 10GB for £12 is great if you use 10GB. But that’s rarely the case; according to Citizens Advice, over 12 million SIM only customers are wasting an average of £63/year on unused contracts, totaling £800m/year. That incentive alignment is messed up as well – the more you waste, the better for them.

So what’s the uptake been like so far? What are your growth plans and forecasts?

Better than planned to be honest; we’re aiming for 10% week-on-week growth, but have done 12% since launch.

Where did the share idea come from and how successful has it been? Or was it just a cheap/bootstrap way of incentivising customer acquisition?

It was Tim’s idea, and I was immediately hooked. All our growth so far is word of mouth, and it’s not like we have 100’s of thousands of people waiting (our share price is hardly anything to write home about).

And quite the opposite of something cheap; we hope it’ll become one of the more valuable referral programs around. Considering the fervor with which founders hold onto their stock, it’s nice to do something different. A free £5 bonus or whatever is fleeting, whereas a part of Zevvle isn’t.

Why in particular did you choose to work with EE in the UK?

Mostly because of our direct supplier, Transatel (an MVNE behind Plusnet, The Phone Co-op and China Telecom), who met our requirements for launching. Having the fastest network with the best coverage (on average) is a bonus.

What was the reasoning behind the subscription model?

To cover the cost of the SIM + multiple SIMs. We’ve now decided to field the cost of the first SIM and then charge a fixed rate for additional SIMs.

Can you explain more about the decision to use a post-pay system?

If you mean post-pay on the backend, it comes down to a) cost and b) ease of setup. We were able to launch relatively cheaply & quickly, whereas the traditional pre-pay model is a lot more involved.

Why do you think so many people are stuck on expensive PAYG plans when there are so many cheap alternatives available now? What’s the main thing holding people back from switching?

How many are still using true PAYG I don’t know, as most of them seem to offer “bolt-ons” effectively turning them into PAYM. If you use your phone once every 3 months, PAYG is still great, but with our £5/month minimum we don’t really cater for that use-case…

Why are calls and texts still so expensive in 2019 and is there any scope for movement on your pricing especially in the future if wholesale data pricing finally comes down?

Re. being expensive, it’s because they still use the old technology, instead of the internet. It’s slowly starting to change, but with money on the line there’s understandably inertia. Yes, hopefully our pricing will come down and we can pass that saving onto customers. The eventual goal is to make it all internet-based anyway, and maybe even bridge into something like Matrix.

Finally, where do you see the network in five years?

Our rough plan is 1) launch & grow, 2) connect directly to a network host, 3) expand internationally and 4) become one of the first networks on Mars. In 5 years I hope we’ll be somewhere around # 3.

Thanks Nick for spending the time with us and please let us know in the comments below what you think about Zevvle.

Zevvle is definitely an underdog but, for us, it’s one of the most exciting shake ups to the mobile network industry in a decade.

In just a few months they’ve managed to put together a brand new virtual network including a completely bespoke fully-featured app. We’ve been following since rumours and leaks started appearing online about a year ago and were excited to be one of the first 70 customers to sign up to test it out in the UK.

We’ve been trialling the service for a month now and you may have noticed that our full in-depth Zevvle review is now live on the site.

We got together with their co-founder, Nick Goodall, to ask a few questions about Zevvle. Nick is a bit of a prodigy starting a network form scratch on his own at the age of 23.

Nick, described as the “creative wacky one”, is a former Elmfield Steiner School and King Edward VI College pupil from Stourbridge in the West Midlands His vision for Zevvle is to provide fair and sensible pricing, useful support and features designed for customers

Nick, exciting times finally launching! First of all can you explain a little more about the genesis of the company and the ideas behind it?

It was late 2017 and I needed to talk with my mobile network after traveling. The experience was awful, and that coupled with watching the rise of fintech gave me the idea to do something in telecoms. “If those non-bankers can do well in banking, maybe I can start a mobile network.” I thought. Monzo was probably the biggest inspiration as I’ve been with them for 3+ years, and I wanted to found Zevvle on fairly similar principles: transparency, great service and modern tech (reasonable people may disagree).

The whole network is just run by you and your older brother Tim at the moment. Can you tell us about yourselves?

Tim started out as the first employee of a bicycle company, then worked over ~14 years to become the CEO of a 50+ person team.

Personally, I’ve done a bit of everything – studied engineering, managed a martini bar, worked as a chef, a cowboy, a software developer for a New York startup and then freelance, and now running a mobile network…

Could you describe the brand in three words?

Built for you.

To add some context, we’re building everything we can (& should..) from the ground-up. Our apps, billing software, etc.. We don’t yet route calls and such – our supplier does that – but we’ll take the same philosophy to that as well.

That’s cheating! Way more than three words! Okay, then who do you see as your closet competitor?

Friendly, fair, responsive.

Great! But who do you see as your closest competitor?

Probably Giffgaff, as that’s a question we get a lot – “How are you different from them?” Hint: pay only for what you use, multi-SIM accounts, native mobile apps & a near-realtime usage feed.

That makes sense. In many ways, there’s a lot of similarities between the origins of Giffgaff and fintech. What similarities do you see between Zevvle and new fintech banks looking to shake up finance?

These banks are partly why Zevvle exists! The industries are both massive with lots of inertia that haven’t fully taken advantage of what the internet has to offer, so the neo-banks started simple with a neat application, instant notifications, etc., and we’re not a million miles away — starting with a 3rd party, then slowly bringing the bigger infrastructure in-house.

The MVNO market is incredibly saturated and competitive, what’s your one USP?

Only pay for what you use.

It is saturated, but nobody’s trying to push the needle. As you ask below – why, in 2019, does it still cost to send an SMS? There’s work to be done.

Make sure you check back for the second part of our Zevvle interview with Nick which will be published here next week 🙂

This Spring we’ve rounded up some of the most cracking deals on 2019’s hottest smartphones.

Featuring the latest and greatest dual-SIM models running Android 8.1 Oreo as well as offerings from Sony and Samsung, we’re such one of these bargains will be up your street.

OnePlus 6 (Dual SIM)

Was £469.00 Now only £389.99

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor and the Adreno 630 GPU make the OnePlus 6 a complete experience. It’s superfast, the battery lasts for ages, and the camera has beautiful colours.

The facial ID and finger scanner work seamlessly like a dream and you won’t believe the number of features they’ve crammed in. We can say enough times how much we appreciate dual SIM slots and the phone is topped off with mad build quality.

Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact

Was £529.00 Now only £399.00

The Xperia XZ2 Compact is another tip-top offering from Sony. Thank god there’s still someone producing high quality and truly compact smartphones.

Every aspect is lightning fast (apart from the cool slow motion camera feature of course. Great resolution and sound quality as well as being IP68 resistant – the only issue is no headphone jack.

Samsung Galaxy J3

Was £187.99 Now only £129.99

Designed with anal attention to detail, the dirt-cheap Samsung Galaxy J3 carries a sick metal finish with no camera protrusion whatsoever, The 5″ screen uses 2.5D glass and sits on top of a 2,400 mAh battery.

The phone is a comfortable size and weight with looks that belies its low price. It even include great features such a an f/1.7 13 megapixel camer and NFC and MST payments.