Pricing proposal [Tiered data with unlimited calls & texts]

nick · December 3, 2019, 4:28pm

Hello,

Thank you for all your feedback with our recent pricing kerfuffle; we hope you like our below proposal better. This isn’t live, and nothing is set in stone – let us know what you think.

Calls & Texts

There’ll be 2 types of SIM to choose from: one for £2/month with the current PAYG calls & texts, or one for £5/month with unlimited calls & texts (this will include EU roaming, but not international calls/messages).

This is to get rid of the current top-up requirement, which is iffy to say the least. Other operators tackle this with expiring credit and no refunds, but we want to stay refund-friendly with credit that lasts forever.

Data

We’re going to tier data — the more you use, the cheaper it gets: £5 for the first GB, £2 for the second and £1 per GB thereafter. This will be per-SIM and we’ll make the breakdown clear in-app; we wanted to tier the total data usage across multiple SIMs, but with our wholesale pricing we can’t make it work at the moment.

For example, 5GB will cost £15, or 10GB will cost £20, both with unlimited calls & texts (better than our current pricing).

Multi-SIMs

As above, there’ll be 2 types of SIM: £2/month with PAYG everything, and one with unlimited calls & texts for £5/month.

When?

Depending on feedback, we want to go live with this by the end of next week (December 13th).

Do I have to switch?

No; we won’t force anyone to change — you’ll be welcome to stay on the current plan.

In hindsight, this is the step we should have taken in July, but that’s easy to say now. Our initial pricing included a £5/month subscription, but nothing came with it. Although it might seem like a step backwards and that we’re causing problems for ourselves, it’ll still be the best-value PAYG in the country, and we hope the go-to place for managing multiple SIMs.

Let us know your thoughts,

Nick

robholmes · December 2, 2019, 10:54pm

Hey Nick, this sounds really interesting to me. I’ve been holding off joining as I think the pricing has always held me back. But this is massive and would reduce my current Three bill, plus better signal hopefully.

So my fingers are crossed I get a SIM or two for Xmas

Recchan · December 3, 2019, 2:26am

Glad to see you’ll be grandfathering us it’s very much appreciated

Rjevski · December 3, 2019, 3:35am

Why the SIM distinction between data only and “normal”? Is it enforced by the MVNE or Zevvle? if the latter then could we have an in-app toggle to convert SIMs back and forth? I’m not a fan of artificial restrictions like this, even less so when the legacy infrastructure still assigns a mobile number to so-called data SIMs.

nanos · December 3, 2019, 6:38am

So, am I understanding this correctly that the cheapest normal sim will be £10 pcm and get 1GB?

Apache · December 3, 2019, 8:18am

I can see this being very attractive to the multi SIM user. Because of my redundancy requirements I require either mine or Wife’s SIM with a different network so I’ll need to work out who is going to use Zevvle. If it wasn’t for that it would be a no brainer for us

smsm1 · December 3, 2019, 8:38am

Low usage is more expensive under the above pricing, but higher data usage is cheaper, with the tipping point depending on how much calls and texts you do, being around 8GB (not fully checked yet).

Nick has previously said that there would need to be a price increase for some users.

Chalky · December 3, 2019, 8:57am

Well it’d be £5 a month and then a part of the other £5 if you use less than 1GB

nanos · December 3, 2019, 9:01am

Oh, I fully get that. Sadly for Zevvle I’m very price sensitive, so it may not be for me. But if I’m losing them money, that’s just the way it is, I guess.

It was ultimately a genuine question though, as I really simply wasn’t sure if I understood it correctly. I find it quite complicated.

nick · December 3, 2019, 10:49am

Thank you, Rob, and thank you for joining the forum!

This is our decision, and we’ll make it easy to switch between the 2. We started out thinking £5/SIM with calls & texts, but not everyone needs those so the data SIM is a better option for tablets, WiFi routers, etc.

We understand, and you’re welcome to stay on the current setup. Whatever you decide, thank you for being with us.

When we show it in-app or on our website it should be easier to understand; writing it out in sentences, especially with multi-SIM considerations, does get messy…

smsm1 · December 3, 2019, 10:56am

If my maths is right looking at data only and no call/text usage, the proposed pricing works out cheaper compared at 7GB for data only and 10GB for with calls and texts.

If you use less than £3 per month of calls and texts, having the option of unlimited calls and texts or PAYG calls and texts would be a nice change to the proposed tariff. I’d even be happy with a capped calls and text pricing at say £5 or 6 per month, or pay up front for £3 per month for unlimited calls and texts, both on top of the £2 monthly fee. (Most months my calls and texts come in under £3 so far, data usage typically is around 3-10 GB).

If you have unlimited calls and texts currently, I think you are cheaper on the new tariff except around 1-3.5GB.

Compared to competitor PAYG and 30 day contacts, the new pricing is fairly competitive, sometimes cheaper, sometimes more expensive, but with the advantage of not needing to plan ahead as to which bundle or be locked in to a long contact. Some year plus contacts can be more expensive than the above proposed tariff.

jpc · December 3, 2019, 11:05am

I would also echo the sentiment that £5 for unlimited calls and texts is a lot when I never text and use only a handful of minutes a month. I would prefer to have a £2/month sim fee, with either PAYG calls and texts on top (I assume you would increase call and text PAYG prices, which I would be fine with) or some kind of lower usage bundle for less - 50 minutes and texts for £1 extra a month maybe.

However, more bundles complicates the offering. I think the option of full PAYG with a line rental would be cleaner

jpc · December 3, 2019, 11:13am

Another thing to bear in mind is that it seems a significant portion of the users you have attracted to Zevvle so far are low data (somewhat price sensitive) users - myself included.

It may be the case that these users are not worth very much, and therefore not worth building an offering around their needs. It’s possible there is a better value proposition to be had for users in the mid tier or upper end of usage.

On the other hand, I would be interested to know if low data users ever move into a different category over time. If there is a good level of mobility, it could be a reasonable acquisition strategy to offer a ‘loss leader’ for low data users, who you then know on average tend to increase their usage over time.

A further thing to think about is whether it matters to try and be the cheapest in the market. Are there other ways you can differentiate from other companies, even if users may not be saving money on average with you?

nanos · December 3, 2019, 11:13am

This I think is the main problem with this pricing model, that if I want to have the option to make even just one phone call, or send a single text message in any given month it’d effectively cost me £3. That’s not very attractive.

nick · December 3, 2019, 11:36am

Agreed it probably would be cleaner; the problem we ran into before was a line rental you got nothing for. It’s not a done thing in mobile, and the “dead money” was a red flag for a lot of people. Maybe we do both, but it gets more complicated… we’ll look into it.

That we don’t have the data to say… Also, pushing a loss-leader wouldn’t be wise for us at this stage.

Multiple SIMs, we think!

smsm1 · December 3, 2019, 11:50am

Also:

A clear view of your usage and how the costs were attributed. Very few providers provide this, especially not to within an hour or so.

Having competitive data pricing with fluctuating data usage and not having to plan ahead for data bundles. This is a key one for me.

Customer service, however the hard part is getting that to scale as you get larger.

Chalky · December 3, 2019, 12:14pm

This model will work very well for my use case. I’m enjoying sticking SIM cards in every possible slot (no childish giggles ).

I’ve been fortunate with Data recently as work has issued me an eSIM so I’m mooching the data from that but I’m moving the fiancé over to Zevvle this month so her iFacebook machine (it’s unfair to call it an iPhone because the Phone part never gets used) so she’ll be slurping quite a bit of data.

Overall the two big things for me are the Multi-SIM and the app which can’t be matched elsewhere. The only other plan I’ve had that came close was the EE Sharer Plan which they’ve now binned!

jpc · December 3, 2019, 1:57pm

Isn’t the £2/month for data only sim a line rental anyway?

Kumnaa · December 3, 2019, 3:01pm

I’ve currently got three sims for the family and I just want to make sure I understand the new structure.

At the moment I pay nothing for the first SIM and then £2 each for the extra sims. So comparing ‘standing charges’:

Old: £4 New: £15 ?

As a group we only made £5 with of texts/calls so we’ll be £6 worse off before data?

Only two of the sims are really active in terms of data using 2.5 and 4.5 GB of data. The data currently costs us £14 but it looks like that will now cost £17?

It looks like we’ll be roughly £10 worse off? Have I got all the maths right?

If you get the ‘data-only’ sims are the calls still PAYG or are calls / texts blocked on that plan?

Rosie · December 3, 2019, 3:59pm

This is looking much better … With the aim cost could there be a nothing included mobile option for a lower price? I send < 5 texts a month and usually never call!
I do really agree with the teired system, it looks promising!