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Tesco Mobile offers 4G upgrades for just £2.50 per month extra

by Mark Tyson on 18 October 2013, 11:07

Tags: Tesco (LON:TSCO), Nokia (NYSE:NOK), PC

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qab36b

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Tesco Mobile has launched its first 4G tariffs. The supermarket chain is allowing its pay monthly customers to upgrade to 4G LTE for a small premium of £2.50 per month. All your existing contract parameters - the amount of minutes, texts and your data allowance - will stay the same. Due to the limited coverage of the O2 network (of which Tesco is a mobile virtual mobile operator (MVNO)) for providing 4G connectivity, this new offer will only be available to Tesco Mobile customers in London, Leeds, Bradford, Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, Sheffield and Nottingham at this time. New customers can also sign up for Tesco 4G contracts.

With the new 4G LTE tariffs now in place it is possible to get a SIM-only 4G deal from Tesco for as little as £10 per month with a commitment to a 12 month contract. Tesco’s cheapest SIM only contract of £7.50 for 12 months offers 250 minutes, 5000 texts and 500MB of data – upgraded to 4G for an extra £2.50pm resulting in a monthly cost of £10. The cheapest option with 1GB of data is £12.50 in total; you’ll also get 500 minutes with this option. For 2GB of data per month the cheapest option is £15, including the £2.50 4G upgrade, which will also provide you with 1000 calling minutes. There are no unlimited data options from Tesco.

Tesco also have a page full of 4G phones available on 24-month 4G contracts. A pretty nice deal available right now is with the Nokia Lumia 920 for £17.50 per month with 250 minutes, 5000 texts and 500MB of data. A quick calculation shows that, over the life of the contract, you are paying £180 for the Nokia Lumia 920.

The Telegraph reports that rival mobile operator EE has very recently slashed the price of its entry level 4G contract. You can now, says the newspaper, get a 4G handset on an EE 4G contract from £18.99 per month, down from £26 per month. This new deal didn’t seem to be live on the EE website when I checked just now.

In related news, last week Talk Talk launched the UK’s cheapest SIM Only mobile phone tariff which costs £3.50 per month for 12 months. For the price users get 100 minutes, 250 texts and 200MB of data per month.



HEXUS Forums :: 8 Comments

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Well I guess it's one of the best tariffs - still would like to see where Three rolls out to.
I'm still waiting for 3G in my area!
The market is certainly looking more competitive these days - well done Tesco :)

Even EE are more competitive now - I am paying £21/month for unlimited text/calls and 3gb of data - I have not been able to find a cheaper price for that deal anywhere else. It's sim only but was a general offer, not an upgrade etc.

Currently EE still have a stranglehold but it will be interesting to see how much further the prices drop when the other networks get some coverage :)
Better but still pretty poor!

£15 p/m for 1000 minutes 5000 texts and 2GB of data… its good compared to the majority but Three certainly have my backing, buy the one plan from Three for £15 12 month tarrif get 5k minutes/texts and unlimited data along with tethering, I pay £8.5 for mine due to quidco or topcashback deal so I am pretty happy with mine so far (4 months in now I think), cant wait to grab a Nexus 5 and make use of the upcoming LTE this year or next year depending if it ever comes to plymouth :P.
I'll be switching to 3 once the Nexus 5 actually materialises. £15 on Tesco gets you 2gb a month, £15 on 3 gets unlimited data & tethering.

Of course, 3 have yet to actually roll out LTE (though the upgrade will be free), so if you need LTE now it's obviously not an option. Tesco certainly have a better deal than O2 or Execrable Everytime.