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Asda has made the next step in the supermarket prices wars by halving (yes, that’s right) it’s PAYG charges, as some of the more traditional rivals are raising theirs.
The supermarket group said that it would cut its flat-rate calls from 16p to 8p, with the price of texts falling from 5p to 4p, from September 1.
Asda has about 150K mobile customers, and is now claiming to be the cheapest Operator in the UK, which was a title previously held by Ikea. As mentioned previously, supermarkets are busy stripping their prices back, but the MNOs are actually raising theirs – tariff rises have been seen on O2, T-Mobile, and Orange, with Vodafone increasing theirs soon.
The supermarkets and suchlike are in this game for a loyalty kick-back with customers, whereas MNOs are under fire to try and plug the drop in earnings from recent issues such as the regulators capping prices.
It’s not just Mobile costs that the likes of Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s are cutting – core foods such as milk have also seen their prices dropped, to try and lure cash-strapped customers. But Asda is still going to have to go some on the Mobile side, if it wants to catch the UK’s biggest MVNO, which is Virgin Mobile – it has around 435K customers.
[Via: Times Online]
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
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Ben Robinson
