Plusnet enters mobile market with Life Mobile boost

TV, broadband and fixed-line provider Plusnet enters the increasingly crowded quad-play market today with the addition of mobile services.

The launch of Plusnet mobile as a 4G MVNO on the EE network also comes with a subscriber boost in the form of a takeover of Life Mobile’s customer base, which was previously owned by EE.

Life Mobile began life as Phones 4u ‘s MVNO – a way for the now defunct high street mobile retailer to expand vertically while also reducing their reliance on the UK’s networks. When Phones4u entered administration in September 2014, EE acquired Life Mobile and its 85,000 subscribers a month later in October for around £5 million.

Four-way solutions

Life Mobile’s customers will be absorbed into Plusnet Mobile on 29 November in what Life Mobile told customers would be a “seamless” transition.

Commenting on their move into the mobile space, Plusnet CEO Andy Baker said, ‘This is an incredibly exciting moment in our company’s history. True to our Yorkshire roots, Plusnet has always prided itself on offering customers more for less, and extending our offering to include a mobile service is a natural next step as we move to become a full-service quad-play provider.’

A staff member from Life Mobile told Mobile Magazine that they were informed a week ago that Life Mobile was to be purchased by Plusnet and were told the move would lead to an expanded team and more "opportunities" for staff at the MVNO.

Desire Athow
Managing Editor, TechRadar Pro

Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.