Quadruple play or quad-play has been a rather popular strategy in the United Kingdom for a while now. The idea to combine a television subscription, broadband Internet access and telephone with wireless service into a single, attractively priced package has already been implemented by BT, TalkTalk and Virgin Media and the market is just about to get even more competitive. As it turns out, Sky is finally ready to make its own quad-play as the company just announced that registrations for its mobile network are opening on Monday, October 31st.
This revelation was made during the company’s annual Investor Day where Sky’s representatives noted that signups will be exclusively available to customers in the UK for the time being. The fact that Sky decided to debut its wireless service in the United Kingdom isn’t surprising given how that’s the company’s biggest market. In accordance with an announcement from Sky made in early 2015, the upcoming virtual mobile network will be powered by Telefonica’s British O2 network. While this initial rollout will be exclusive to existing Sky customers, a larger expansion is planned for next year. That’s when Sky is expected to start aggressively marketing its latest service and offer attractive deals in an effort to convince customers to switch providers.
Unfortunately, no details on pricing of Sky Mobile have been given yet but it’s expected more information will be available by the end of October because Sky certainly won’t expect its customers to sign up for a service without knowing how much it costs. Speaking of Sky’s customers, the head of the company’s UK and Ireland division Stephen van Rooyen recently revealed that latest in-house studies suggest more than two-thirds of Sky subscribers in the United Kingdom would consider switching to Sky Mobile. Given that report and the fact that Sky’s last expansion into broadband in 2006 went pretty well, it’s no wonder the company is confident about its future prospects.
All in all, while Sky may be a bit late to the quad-play game, more competition on the market can hardly be a bad thing for the end user. If you happen to be one of Sky’s 12 million customers in the UK, you can expect the company to offer you an attractively priced wireless service if you’re willing to leave your current provider.