Sainsbury’s to end mobile service as partnership with Vodafone breaks

Vodafone said: “We regret that Mobile by Sainsbury’s – a joint venture between Sainsbury’s and Vodafone United Kingdom – offering a mobile phone service to Sainsbury’s customers, is ending”.

The decision to close the MVNO was reported by the BBC as being due to the supermarket being unable to secure an agreement with Vodafone to extend the service beyond the middle of next January.

“We’ve loved having you as a customer, and we know that changing your service provider can be a hassle”.

Contract customers did not have to do anything, but their numbers will be deactivated in January.

Sainsbury’s has confirmed that it is shutting down its mobile network.

Brands such as Giffgaff, TalkTalk and Tesco Mobile are known as mobile virtual network operators (MVNO) and run on infrastructure provided by other carriers, including O2, Three and EE.

Sainsbury’s said in a statement: “Our priority now is to help our customers and make sure they are inconvenienced as little as possible”.

“Firstly, we’re telling you now so that you have plenty of time to decide what to do”.

Contrary to reports that circulated earlier in the year, Vodafone’s spokesperson told Computer Weekly that the operator had no plans to exit the MVNO business altogether.

The move has prompted speculation that Vodafone may be withdrawing the MVNO market altogether, though the provider has denied this.

“There has been relatively low take-up in the 2-3 years Mobile by Sainsbury’s has been around”, he said.

Mobile by Sainsbury’s attracted just 150,000 subscribers, which the BBC understands did not meet Vodafone’s expectations.

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