Are small MVNO companies too high risk? (eg Lyca, Vectone etc)

Stuart_W

Vectone and Lyca both seem to have caused headaches for their customers recently.

Given how important a mobile number can be - not just to be contactable but for 2FA etc - should using a super cheap SIM be a potential concern, given the headache that the loss of a phone number can be? 

I had over a decade of great service from The Phone Co-op (a very small MVNO in the whole scheme of things) but jumped ship to RWG recently. Absolutely no fault in their service whatsoever either, but should I be concerned? They have a lot of customers pay very little (or nothing) each month. Is this just a blip, or is the plethora of MVNOs which seems to have grown massively recently, about to fall back to a smaller number?

Neil_Jones

Stuart_W said:

Vectone and Lyca both seem to have caused headaches for their customers recently.

Given how important a mobile number can be - not just to be contactable but for 2FA etc - should using a super cheap SIM be a potential concern, given the headache that the loss of a phone number can be? 

I had over a decade of great service from The Phone Co-op (a very small MVNO in the whole scheme of things) but jumped ship to RWG recently. Absolutely no fault in their service whatsoever either, but should I be concerned? They have a lot of customers pay very little (or nothing) each month. Is this just a blip, or is the plethora of MVNOs which seems to have grown massively recently, about to fall back to a smaller number?

Any private business is liable to fail no matter what their size.  We've seen the likes of Wilko, Woolworths BHS etc all fail for one reason or another so if it can happen to them it can happen to any company of any size

But if you don't go with somebody because they "might" collapse then you'd never go with anybody.

Anyway as this story shows from 2019 you should be able to migrate away with the PAC system as TPO pushed out PAC codes automatically:

https://www.yourmoney.com/household-bills/the-peoples-operator-goes-bust-what-you-need-to-know/

Though of course you can now request PAC codes yourself, as that started six months or so after the above company went under.  Worse case scenario may just be if you're PAYG you lose that credit but otherwise...

eDicky

Neil_Jones said:

Stuart_W said:

Vectone and Lyca both seem to have caused headaches for their customers recently.

Given how important a mobile number can be - not just to be contactable but for 2FA etc - should using a super cheap SIM be a potential concern, given the headache that the loss of a phone number can be? 

I had over a decade of great service from The Phone Co-op (a very small MVNO in the whole scheme of things) but jumped ship to RWG recently. Absolutely no fault in their service whatsoever either, but should I be concerned? They have a lot of customers pay very little (or nothing) each month. Is this just a blip, or is the plethora of MVNOs which seems to have grown massively recently, about to fall back to a smaller number?

Though of course you can now request PAC codes yourself, as that started six months or so after the above company went under.

The sistema of requesting a PAC by text message began then, but previously a subscriber could make the request by other means of contacting the network.

TPO seem to have been proactive in providing their customers with a PAC, I presume OP had no trouble porting.

Judging by situations with Lyca and Vectone reported here, their customers may not be treated so ethically if/when the end game arrives for the company. As well as provision of the PAC, the network needs to take part actively in the porting process, if I'm not mistaken.

PHK

This is the problem. There are many reports of Lyca involved ports taking a long time (26 days for me!)

Stuart_W

eDicky said:

TPO seem to have been proactive in providing their customers with a PAC, I presume OP had no trouble porting.

Yes, in my case both of the MVNOs I have used, The Phone Co-op and RWG have been absolutely faultless in their service provision and handling of the number porting. I don't have any issues with either company.

I suppose a company going bust isn't an issue if it results in a blanket issuing of PAC codes and there's time to move to someone else, its more if the service stops working or the company become unreachable or a number is "stuck" for weeks on end like some folk are experiencing. It's not worth saving a few quid if that likelihood becomes greater. 

I suppose the market may mature over time and the number of MVNOs reduce over time. Some of the current cheapest deals seem unsustainable. RWG's free bundles are still going for everyone that joined for the one-off £5/£10/£15 SIM card in 2021 or 2022, don't know how much longer that will be. 

I understood the era 15-20 odd years ago where cashback redemption deals worked based on the huge commissions networks gave retailers for contracts, meaning you could have a free phone and free usage, but with such low cost/no cost SIM only deals now, it's a wafer thin business model that can easily fold at any time.  

ProDave

Cheap energy suppliers went through the same phase with many impossibly cheap suppliers failing.  After that fiasco I settled on Octopus for my energy who seem cheap enough but not stupidly cheap and have good customer service.  I think that model of good but not stupidly cheap should mean they don't fail.

So back to phones, I worry that RWG with many people, me included, that have a pay once use "forever" deal.  How can that be sustainable?  I would not trust my important number to them.  My main phone is now with 1P Mobile.  Cheap enough but no silly free for life offerings so they should always have a constant income from all customers.  And their website and customer service are good.  I see 1P as the Octopus of MVNO's and hope I have backed one that will last.

Forums like this tell other users when they have bad service so it is only right to also tell other users when they have good service.  I guess it is the process of customers migrating to the good companies that sees the bad ones fail?

d123

1P Mobile is a subsidiary of Telecom Plus and the company turned over £2½ billion this year so is unlikely to be in trouble anytime soon, it’s probably also the reason EE recently signed a 5 year MVNO deal with them and why they get almost all the network features.

RWG is different in that it’s really just a reseller of Now Telecom, so even in the event of RWG getting into difficulties the subscribers would likely just transfer directly to Now.