Budget brands information
iD Mobile, VOXI, Lebara and 1pMobile — who rents whose masts, and how the tenants compare with each other.
Photo from a free stock library — illustration only.The four owners
Only EE, O2, Three and Vodafone own mobile infrastructure in the United Kingdom.
- EE — hosts 1pMobile
- O2 — hosts Tesco, giffgaff, Sky Mobile
- Three — hosts SMARTY, iD Mobile
- Vodafone — hosts VOXI, Lebara
The eight tenants
Every other brand buys capacity wholesale and resells identical radio waves under its own name.
- Same signal as the landlord
- Lower prices
- Leaner support
- Later features
Coverage comes from the landlord; price and service come from the brand. Identify the landlord first, run its coverage checkers, then buy from whoever prices those masts best for your household.
1pMobile
Per-unit billing on EE's masts — charged for what is actually consumed.
- Cheapest route to the broadest coverage
- No commitment at all
- Ideal assessment SIM
- Minimal extras
Allowance-based brands
Monthly bundles from giffgaff, SMARTY, VOXI and the rest, priced per allowance rather than per unit.
- Better value once use is regular
- Predictable monthly cost
- Fuller feature sets
1pMobile below a genuinely low threshold; an allowance brand above it. Do the arithmetic on a typical month — per-unit rates accumulate quickly for anyone with a regular data habit.
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iD Mobile — on Three's masts
A retailer's brand competing principally on allowance pricing, frequently the lowest per-gigabyte cost on Three's signal, with rollover on certain tiers and free spend caps.
Satisfaction results have trailed market leaders in some years, and Three's indoor weaknesses are inherited in full. Compare directly against SMARTY on the identical masts, and keep any complaint correspondence in writing.
VOXI — on Vodafone's masts
Vodafone's in-house youth brand, built around allowance exemptions: selected social and video applications sit outside the data allowance, which can effectively double usable data for heavy social users.
The exempt list evolves, so confirm the applications you actually use are on the current schedule. Vodafone is a separate estate — run its coverage check independently of the other three networks.
Lebara — on Vodafone's masts
An international-calling specialist on inexpensive rolling plans. For households calling abroad regularly, bundled overseas minutes are materially cheaper than add-on packs at the mast owners.
Introductory rates step up after an initial period, and the country schedule matters far more than the number of destinations advertised. Check the specific countries you call, and diarise the change date.
1pMobile — on EE's masts
Per-unit billing on the country's broadest network, with no commitment of any kind. Excellent for genuinely light users and as an assessment SIM before any premium EE commitment; expensive quickly for regular data users, with a deliberately sparse feature set.