The Carphone Warehouse offering up mobile phones for 1p

The 1p mobile from Alcatel
The 1p mobile from Alcatel

The Carphone Warehouse is attempting to show how wallet-friendly the humble mobile phone has become – by offering one for just 1p.

It's not strictly as easy as finding a few pence in your wallet and equipping your family with new Alcatel OT-209's though, as you'll need to buy £10-worth of credit at the same time.

It's no iPhone-botherer, let's be honest; this is a feature phone in every sense of the phrase with a rounded plastic design, small screen and big buttons, although it does pack a colour screen and FM radio.

All the small savings

Matt Stringer, UK MD of The Carphone Warehouse said, "This is a great deal which represents brilliant value for money. The competition in the UK mobile market has seen the price of phones driven lower and lower over the last couple of year.

"Now, we've become the first to offer one for just one penny, which we hope will prove a huge money-saving hit with our customers after Christmas."

While technically true, The Carphone Warehouse has trumped this deal by offering 'free' phones on PAYG before, giving you the Nokia 1650 in exchange for £30 credit back in 2008 – but this £10 deal still trumps that even after you add in that extra 1p.

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.