News
U.K. MVNO will cease operating in August, just over a year after it launched.
The MVNO service run by the U.K.’s Post Office will close this summer, just over a year after it launched, because the company cannot justify the spend required to continue with the rollout.
The service will no longer be available for use after 8 August, the Post Office announced. Customers have until 4 August to request a PAC code to enable them to move to another provider, and can still top up their prepaid account until 22 June.
"Since June 2015 Post Office has offered a pay as you go mobile service online and in 263 of its 11,600 branches, but has now decided to conclude the trial as the results did not give us sufficient confidence that mobile will contribute to our goal of commercial sustainability," the Post Office said, in a statement.
"The money needed to invest further in the mobile [service] could not be justified at a time that Post Office is investing in modernising our branches," it added.
The Post Office brokered a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) deal with EE in July 2014, but took a year to launch services, coming to market six months behind schedule.
The service was a budget offering aimed at those who already used the various services provided by the Post Office, including its home phone and broadband services.
The Post Office has given no indication that these services will be affected by the decision to pull the plug on mobile.
It did not reveal how many customers will be affected by the move.
