Sky Mobile’s data rollover plans are now available for Samsung tablets with iPad offers “coming soon”

Evan Gower November 29, 2016

A little over a year since it launched in the UK, Sky Mobile is bringing its data rollover options to tablets on pay-monthly plans, making it the first UK mobile network operator to do so.

Sky Mobile's data rollover plans are now available for Samsung tablets with iPad offers

From 10 April, Samsung tablets are available on Sky Mobile’s Swap plans and Apple tablets will be available on Sky Mobile “soon”. These plans include Sky Mobile’s Roll, Mix and Swap options.

Roll – With Sky Mobile Roll, customers can automatically roll over any unused data into their Sky Piggybank each month, to use for up to three years
Mix – On Mix, customers can change their data allowance, up or down, each month to match how much data they use, without changing contracts. Prices start at £5 per month for 500MB, and 1GB, 5GB or 10GB available for £10, £15 and £20 respectively.
Swap – Sky Mobile Swap is for people who want to upgrade their tablet frequently, Swap24 allows customers to upgrade their tablet every two years without changing their contract. Or customers can opt for the new Swap36

At launch, Sky Mobile’s tablet plans are available on the Samsung Galaxy Tab A series and Samsung Galaxy Tab S2. Details of Apple iPad availability and pricing on Sky Mobile will be announced in due course.

Example pricing for Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1:

Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1
	Swap36	Swap24
Upfront costs	£0	£0
Monthly cost for your tablet and data plan	£13 (£8 for tablet + £5 data plan)	£17 (£12 for table + £5 data plan)
What you get	500MB data	500MB data
Swap after	36 months	24 months
Delivery charges	Free	Free

What is Sky Mobile?

Sky entered the UK mobile market at the start of 2017 promising a new network that “solves one of mobile phone contracts biggest problems”. It lets users save unused data and roll it over to the next month, instead of losing it, and customers can save their data for up to three years, share it around up to five family members and change tariff at the drop of a hat.

The service, a “virtual network” that sits on top of O2 Telefonica’s infrastructure, went on sale in the UK in January 2017, and initially launched with three separate 12-month minimum term tariffs:

£5 per month for 500MB of data
£10 per month for 1GB of data
£15 per month for 3GB of data
£20 per month for 5GB of data

Unlimited calls and texts are free for Sky TV customers, and cost £10 for anyone else, and customers can also associate up to five Sky Mobile SIM cards with any one account and share unused data between them.

In September last year, nine months into its life, Sky Mobile reshuffled its pricing – giving those on the top two tiers a bit more bang for their buck. Since this reshuffle, the top two tiers offer more, with £15 per month giving you 5GB and £20 permitting you 10GB. The £10 tier still gets you 1GB, though – presumably to ensure that those on the expensive tiers don’t all suddenly drop to £10 per month.

sky_mobile_roll_user_interface_horizontal

Your flexible friend

What’s really interesting about Sky Mobile, though, is that the new service doesn’t lock you into a particular tariff once you’ve committed to a 12-month deal. You could start on the 5GB tariff, build up a bank of unused data, then switch mid-month back to the £10-per-month deal at any time.

Users will be able to make changes to contracts online or via the Sky Mobile app, although downgrades will only be reflected the month following your change. Upgrades, on the other hand, will be reflected on your account immediately.

Finally, owners of Sky+ systems will also be able to create “personal playlists” of recorded or favourite shows that are synced from their Sky box at home, and then watched on their phones wherever they are. Oddly, the facility won’t be available to Sky Q owners at first, but it will arrive for the company’s premium TV service later on in 2017.