Exclusive: Sky Mobile boss says Brits are holding on to old phones to save cash
The boss of Sky Mobile has said people are keeping their mobile phones for double the time as the cost of living crunch sets in.
Speaking with City PM, managing director Paul Sweeney said that customers are increasingly holding onto older devices for as long as three years rather than the more standard year and a half when it comes to signing on to new contracts.
“People are looking to any bill possible to try and get value on it,” he said, adding that people were more inclined to fish around for better deals.
His comments come as Sky Mobile, which launched in 2017, today reveals that it has reached three million customers in the UK, making it one of the fastest-growing mobile providers in the country.
Sweeney explained that Sky first entered the “inflexible” mobile market to provide a respite from the “confusing contracts”.
Sky’s service allows users to carry forward any unused data, and offers one of the cheapest annual plans in the market, with 2GB for just £6. It also has a piggybank tool, which means households can share data with other sim cards.
Unlike many mobile phone companies, Sweeney said that the pandemic was a help rather than a hindrance to the online-first firm’s growth. This puts it in contrast to firms like the Carphone Warehouse, which shut its doors during Covid.