Vodafone UK have announced a number of improvements to their SIM only contracts, designed to increase the flexibility of their plans, especially for those customers looking to upgrade to an anticipated smartphone due out at some point in the not too distant future, but seeking to reduce their current monthly costs (because their two year contract has expired). The Vodafone plan allows customers to essentially “park” their number and wait for the next big thing to be released. Under the new rule, customers signing up for a flexible twelve month SIM only contract are able to upgrade to a new Pay Monthly ‘phone bundle after only three months without any early termination fees or complications such as adding the remaining up to nine months outstanding on the twelve month plan onto the end of the new Pay Monthly plan.
Vodafone’s twelve month SIM only plans start from £9.50 a month, which includes three hundred minutes, five hundred text messages and 250 MB of 3G data. Vodafone’s 4G LTE data is excluded from this plan. The cheapest LTE plan is £14 a month, which comes with 500 MB of data, 900 minutes and unlimited text messages. As an introductory offer, Vodafone are slicing 25% off the cost of their Red Bundles, meaning that the 1 GB plan was £17 and is now £15.30, which comes with 1 GB of data together with unlimited minutes and text messages. Paying £19.80 ups the data allowance to 3 GB a month and provides customers with six months worth of Spotify Premium, Sky Sports Mobile TV or a NOW TV Entertainment Pass as part of Vodafone’s Ultimate 4G Entertainment Package. Customers seeking more data can pay £24.30 a month to increase the allowance to 6 GB plus twelve months of one of the services detailed above.
Vodafone also include their Data Test Drive, which is designed to give customers the confidence to experiment with their new device (or plan) to better understand what their data usage requirements are. The Data Test Drive provides customers with unlimited data for the first three months with an encouragement to use as much data as they want (or need). Towards the end of the three months, Vodafone then let the customer know how much data she or she has used and present a number of data bundle options on the account plus the costs. Vodafone UK’s Consumer Director, Cindy Rose, said this on the matter: “Our SIM Only bundles are already massively popular with customers, but we knew there was more that we could offer, so we have! It means that our customers now really do have the flexibility to upgrade to a phone or bundle that they want, when they want to. And with access to our ultrafast 4G network, our great entertainment packages and unlimited data for the first three months of a contract with Data Test Drive, customers really can enjoy more of what they love.”