Just £10/month (Price rises by £3 in Apr'26, then by £3 in Apr'27, then by £3 in Apr'28....)

You had to wonder. You really do.

Who in their right mind thought that this kind of nonsense was the best way of positioning your mobile contract offering?

It really shows that we're all using dumb pipes and that the mobile operators are, generally speaking, completely devoid of any service innovation, whatsoever.

The confidence is so low - so extremely low - in being able to find any way of encouraging you to spend more with them, that most have been forced to bake generic price rises into the offering BEFORE they've even sold you the price plan.

It's particularly ridiculous when you think of how things were in the BA ("Before Apple") years.

A total inability to see anything beyond metered text messages, minutes (and data) meant that the mobile operators outsourced innovation to just about everybody else.

Here's an example of what I mean from Three - but they're not the only one doing this. How confusing is this for customers?

It screams RETAIL PRICE INDEX and WE DONT HAVE ANY OTHER IDEAS.

24 months Unlimited Data for just £13.50 a month.

Oh... no, wait that's the half-price deal.

Ok, so it's actually £27.00.

Oh and that's increasing, is it?

Every year for the next 3 years?

You only have to look at the likes of Apple's subscription plan, Apple One (see below for UK prices) to get an idea of how much money was left on the table by the mobile operator's inability to react beyond minutes, texts and data bundles. Look at this...

£19 a month is more than many will be paying for their price plans!

Certainly, the 'Premier' £37 offering is almost exactly the same average price plan cost of Three in the UK (according to USwitch research released last month) - O2 and Vodafone are just a tiny bit more.

How many customers are paying £37 a month for Three and then spending hundreds more a month via/on their phone, without the mobile operator getting a look in? Yeah. Dumb pipe.

I remember the days when mobile operators were the "King-makers", choosing which app(s) and services to preload. Those were the days, eh?

I do have to nod at the team at EE in the UK who, at least, have been pushing the envelope a little with their entrance into the subscription economy. You can, for example, buy a PlayStation 5 Slim from EE for £459 or spread it across 12 months at 0% APR for £34 a month. That's good thinking, I reckon, when you've already got the billing relationship and some degree of credit risk data from existing customer lifetime spend data.

Beyond this, I'm just not impressed.

And neither are you, right?

When was the last time you were excited to engage with a mobile operator?

I should note a few honourable mentions. Basically, whenever I've seen a bit of news that I was impressed with, I've noted it down here on Mobile Industry Review. You can see I've gone months (and I mean MONTHS on end) without getting any inspiration from the marketplace at all. So well done EE Safer Sims, for example (another EE first!) and well done Vodafone for extending their branch utility with their onsite phone repair Fix & Go offerings.

If you do spot anything that you consider to be interesting, stimulating or innovative from the mobile operators, please do drop me a note: As always, I'm ewan@mobileindustryreview.com.