EE’s 3G-centric brands: Orange and T-Mobile weren’t in their customer’s good books at the start of the week following news that all active plans would undergo a mid-contract price hike of 3.3% in the coming months. In light of this, Tesco Mobile has come forward as one of the first rival networks to highlight its commitment to fixing their prices so that no mid-contract price tweaks will affect their customers.
With its Tariff Promise Tesco is the only UK network committed to never to raise its customers’ core tariff prices mid-contract – the monthly price will remain the same throughout the term of the contract.
Simon Groves – Tesco Mobile’s Chief Marketing Officer said: “We believe it’s only fair to stick to the contract that we make with our customers, and see no reason to change the core tariff price that a customer has signed up to. We’ve never put our Pay-Monthly tariff prices up mid-contract and this Tariff Promise demonstrates our continued commitment to our customers.”
As part of the company’s new research, it was revealed that 70% of mobile consumers who were already on long term contracts didn’t realise their carrier even had the power to change the price of the core plan once it had been initiated. Another irritant that many users can relate to is additional costing not advertised in the original plan, such as add-ons or paying for additional services like voicemail. One in four rank rising prices of mobile plans as one of the most irritating factors along with slow mobile data connections and overtly complicated tariffs.
We’re yet to hear anything from the likes of O2, Three or Vodafone on the subject, particularly now that they will be unveiling new 4G plans of their own in the coming months, following the allocation of available spectrum in Ofcom’s auction. Just as EE decided to alter the prices customers on its 3G plans once their 4G infrastructure was active, the same could happen with their leading rivals too, but we’ll have to wait and see and hope that the damage isn’t too severe.
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