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The TV and broadband firm says 300,000 people just keep paying huge monthly bills even after their phone subsidies are paid off Sky Mobile launch has launched in Ireland Sky Ireland CEO JD Buckley and director of mobile Aideen Chambers. Photo: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile More than 300,000 Irish mobile customers are overpaying for bills based on phone subsidies that are already paid off, according to Sky. The TV and telecoms company says its research shows “conservatively” that hundreds of thousands of us continue to pay exorbitantly high mobile bills after our two-year phone subsidy contracts are finished.
Sky says that people may not be aware of the discrepancy in their billing because they believe they’re part of an upgrade programme. Under consumer law, service providers such as mobile operators are obliged to inform customers when their contract periods are coming to an end. However, such emails from service providers can end up in junk mail folders, meaning customers often never see them.
The company was speaking about overpayments in the market at the launch of its new Sky Mobile offering – Ireland’s 11th mobile operator. The service includes a low-cost bill-pay offering priced at €15 a month “for life” for unlimited calls, texts and data, and a €10-per-month service for unlimited calls, texts and 10GB of data. Both services are bill-pay options using a credit or debit card, with no pay-as-you-go top-up option available.
The €15 service requires a 12-month contract. The operator, which is going head-to-head with similarly priced discount operators such as GoMo, 48 and Tesco, says that when a phone bought as part of a plan is paid off, the cost will automatically be removed from the following month’s bill without any intervention required. However, although the company says it hopes that this will be regarded as part of a “quad play” offering with its TV, broadband and home phone services, there will not be integrated billing with other Sky services.
Sky Mobile will operate using Vodafone’s 4G and 5G mobile network. The company said there would be no “fair use” limits attached to its main offer and that it would not engage in “speed throttling”. However, Sky’s terms and conditions on its UK mobile site, with which Sky Mobile Ireland is integrated, warns customers about restriction of use based on “breaching” fair use limits.
Sky’s fibre broadband in Ireland has a “fair use” limit of 2TB per month. Sky Mobile is hoping to entice families to use the service with transferable data between accounts. A €15 account automatically gets 5GB extra to allocate to a €10 (10GB) account every month, giving secondary accounts 15GB.
Unused data on lower data accounts can also be banked and used the following month up to a period of three years. The higher-tier €15 Sky Mobile plan also comes with the option to buy a phone on a 24-month or 36-month repayment plan. However, despite advertising this service as a “0pc” repayment option, Sky is charging significantly more for the cost of the phone over the repayment period than the phone’s actual retail price.
For example, it is charging €972 for a Samsung Galaxy S24 over 24 or 36 months when the actual retail price varies from €819 to €919 in most retail outlets. This mark-up is undeclared by Sky. By comparison, a Samsung S24 bought with Sky Mobile UK costs £672 (€796), which is substantially cheaper than the general UK retail price of £799 (€946).
While this hidden pricing leaves Sky’s Irish customers worse off than its UK customers when a phone is purchased, the overall cost of Sky’s sim-only service is significantly cheaper in Ireland than in the UK. Sky Mobile UK charges £14 (€16.57) for 45GB of data or £35 (€41.
44) for “unlimited” data compared to €15 for “unlimited” data in Ireland. The operator says that those opting to buy a handset can swap it for a newer model a year before the 24-month or 36-month phone-purchasing contract ends, although they may need to pay a higher price for the new model. The company says that customers will be able to sign up either online, over the phone or in Sky shops, although not in other retail outlets that sell Sky services.
Accounts will come with an adult content filter automatically applied, removable by request from the company. “Our research has told us that when customers come to the end of their contract with some of the other operators in the Irish market, they continue to pay more than necessary, because they are still being charged for a handset that they have already paid for,” director of Sky Mobile Aideen Chambers said. “In fact, our research tells us that over 300,000 customers in the market are significantly overpaying on their mobile bill.
With Sky Mobile, this won’t happen. Once your handset has been paid for, your bill will automatically reduce, and you will only pay for your airtime.” Join the Irish Independent WhatsApp channel Stay up to date with all the latest news.
