Bad news, Sainsbury’s mobile customers – the service will soon be shuttered for good.
The UK grocery giant has confirmed that its mobile network service will close down permanently as of January 15, 2016.
According to Engadget, the company began removing marketing materials from its stores yesterday, and is currently contacting customers regarding the move.
Sainsbury’s first launched its service over two years ago as part of a partnership with UK carrier Vodafone.
The grocery chain acted as an MVNO, effectively piggybacking on Vodafone’s infrastructure to provide service for its customers.
Vodafone has now released the following statement:
“We regret that Mobile by Sainsbury’s – a joint venture between Sainsbury’s and Vodafone UK – offering a mobile phone service to Sainsbury’s customers is ending and the service will no longer be available from 15 January 2015.”
It continued: “Mobile by Sainsbury’s priority now is to help its customers and make sure they are inconvenienced as little as possible.”
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Sainsbury’s also responded, stating: “We will continue to sell mobile phones and accessories in our 38 in-store phone shops and to sell handset in over 300 of our stores.”
Sainsbury’s will continue to support your plan for the next 90 days, so you’ve got some time to switch to a new network.
Are you affected by this closure? Let us know in the comments.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
