1p Mobile Review: Pay As You Go SIM With 1p/min, 1p/text & 1p/MB Rates

1p Mobile offers flexible Pay As You Go plans from 1p/minute, 1p/text and 1p/MB. Customers get 4G & 5G coverage from EE.

In the UK, 1p Mobile currently offers the lowest Pay As You Go rates of any mobile network for calling, texting and browsing. With an eye-catching plan that costs just 1p/minute, 1p/text and 1p/megabyte, you’ll only pay for what you actually use on 1p Mobile. You’ll get 99% population coverage from EE.

For customers joining 1p Mobile after January 2021, there are no regular monthly payments or commitments to use the service every month. To keep your SIM card active, you’ll just need to top it up with at least £10 of credit every 120 days.

As a special offer for customers ordering through this link and using the VAKTT4GB voucher code at checkout, you’ll get a 4GB Data Boost for free when you activate a 1pMobile SIM card. It’s free to get a 1pMobile SIM card when you top-up it up with at least £10 of credit.

1p Mobile is offered by Telecommunications Management Limited, the sister company of Utility Warehouse and part of the FTSE 250-listed Telecom Plus PLC group. They offer 4G and 5G coverage from EE.

Order 1pMobile SIM card (Free with £10 top-up) →
(enter the VAKTT4GB voucher code at checkout for 4GB of free data)

Pricing & Tariffs

Pay As You Go

1p Mobile’s namesake is their Pay As You Go plan, where you’ll pay just 1p/minute, 1p/text and 1p/MB. You can use it without any regular monthly charges.

These low Pay As You Go rates make 1p Mobile significantly cheaper than other Pay As You Go networks in the UK.

The following table shows 1p Mobile’s Pay As You Go rates in the UK:

The prices stated in this table are for UK usage. If you’re travelling abroad outside Europe or making international phone calls, higher charges will typically apply. Source for pricing information: 1pmobile.com.

For new customers joining 1p Mobile, there are no regular monthly fees (unless you choose to buy a Boost monthly bundle). You will, however, need to top-up your SIM card with at least £10 of credit every 120 days. For convenience, 1pMobile has an optional auto top-up feature which can add credit to your account every time your balance drops below £2 or when 120 days have passed since your last top-up.

If you signed up to 1p Mobile before the 1st January 2021, a minimum spend of £2.50 per month may apply on your SIM card. This minimum spend requirement does not apply to new customers joining 1pMobile on or after the 1st January 2021.

You can check your Pay As You Go balance at any time by calling 150 from your 1pMobile handset. It’s free to do this.

Monthly Bundles

If you use your mobile phone fairly often, it can be better value to buy a one-month bundle, known as 1p Mobile Boosts. You’ll need to pay a monthly fee for the bundle, but you’ll get an inclusive allowance of minutes, texts and mobile data.

To give an example, you can buy a bundle with unlimited minutes & unlimited texts for £3 per month. This also includes 250MB data per month when you pre-pay for one year.

Alternatively, you can get an all-inclusive bundle from £5 per month with unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and an allowance of 4G/5G data. The following table shows a list of 1pMobile’s monthly bundles:

Network	Minutes	Texts	Data	Monthly Cost
	Unlimited	Unlimited	No data	£3.00
	Unlimited	Unlimited	1GB	£5.00
	Unlimited	Unlimited	4GB	£7.50
	Unlimited	Unlimited	10GB	£10.00
	Unlimited	Unlimited	25GB	£12.50
	Unlimited	Unlimited	50GB	£15.00
	Unlimited	Unlimited	200GB	£20.00

If you don’t need any inclusive minutes or texts, there are also two data-only boosts available on 1pMobile (1GB data for £3 and 4GB data for £6). You can combine both of these plans with the regular 1p/minute and 1p/text rate for calling and texting.

Given there are very few other Pay As You Go networks using coverage from EE, 1p Mobile can be one of the better value options if you’re looking for a contract-free plan with EE coverage.

Exclusive Offers & Voucher Codes

As a special offer for readers of this website, you can get 4GB data for free when you order a new 1pMobile SIM card through this link. You’ll need to enter VAKTT4GB as your voucher code at the checkout to take advantage of the deal.

Get 4GB Free Data using VAKTT4GB →

This exclusive offer is only available to new 1pMobile customers and requires you to make a minimum initial top-up of £10 on your SIM card. Your 4GB data boost is valid for 30 days. When it expires or once you’ve used it all up, you’ll pay 1p/MB for further mobile data usage.

Minimum Top-Up Requirement

Before you join 1p Mobile, it’s important to be aware of their minimum top-up requirement. 1pMobile requires you to top-up your phone with at least £10 of credit for every 120 days of usage. If you don’t do this, your account will be closed and your phone number will be lost.

If you top up your 1p Mobile account by more than £10, this is taken into account when calculating the deadline for your next top-up. For instance, a £20 top-up will extend your next “top-up due date” by 240 days. For this reason, many customers decide to order a 1-year SIM card with £30 of credit for additional convenience. This is because you won’t need to top-up again for another year.

Beyond the minimum top-up requirement, there are no further requirements to actually spend your credit every month (this is unless you joined 1pMobile before the 1st January 2021). However, any credit that you add to your account is non-refundable so will eventually need to be spent at some point (it isn’t possible to transfer your credit to other networks).

If you’re only planning to use the SIM card in a spare or emergency handset, the requirement to top-up £10 for every 120 days of usage can actually make 1p Mobile a fairly expensive option. This is because most other mobile networks do not have a minimum top-up requirement: they simply require you to use your phone at least once every 180 days (this includes the use of Pay As You Go credit that’s already on your account).

Customers who joined 1pMobile before the 1st January 2021

If you joined 1pMobile before the 1st January 2021, there’s a minimum spend of £2.50 per month on your plan. This is instead of the £10 every 120 days minimum top-up requirement that applies to customers who’ve joined 1pMobile since the 1st January 2021.

Gold Numbers

For customers wanting the ability to choose their own phone number, 1pMobile offers a choice of paid-for memorable numbers. It costs £20 to buy a memorable gold number, or you can choose a regular phone number for £2.

You can search the list of memorable numbers on the 1pMobile website.

If you join 1pMobile without paying for a memorable phone number, you’ll automatically be assigned a new phone number for free. Alternatively, you can transfer your existing phone number to 1p Mobile at no additional cost.

Comparison to Alternatives

Pay As You Go Rates

At present, 1p Mobile has the lowest per-minute, per-text and per-megabyte rates of any Pay As You Go network in the UK.

On other mobile networks, you’ll typically pay a lot more than you would on 1p Mobile (e.g. 15p/minute, 10p/text and 10p/MB on ASDA Mobile). However, you may still be better off elsewhere as there isn’t the requirement to top-up by £10 every 120 days.

For more information, see our guide to the best Pay As You Go SIM cards for light users.

£10 Per Month Bundles

On 1p Mobile, you can buy a £10 bundle which gives you unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 10GB data.

The following table shows a side-by-side comparison of what you can get for £10 per month on other Pay As You Go networks:

Network	Minutes	Texts	Data	Monthly Cost
	Unlimited	Unlimited	30GB	£10.00
	Unlimited	Unlimited	20GB	£10.00
	Unlimited	Unlimited	12GB	£10.00
	Unlimited	Unlimited	10GB	£10.00
	Unlimited	Unlimited	10GB	£10.00
	500	Unlimited	8GB	£10.00
	Unlimited	Unlimited	7GB	£10.00

£15 Per Month Bundles

1pMobile’s £15 bundle comes with unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 50GB of data.

In general, this compares fairly strongly to the £15 plans on other Pay As You Go mobile networks:

Network	Minutes	Texts	Data	Monthly Cost
	Unlimited	Unlimited	90GB	£15.00
	Unlimited	Unlimited	50GB	£15.00
	Unlimited	Unlimited	35GB	£15.00
	Unlimited	Unlimited	30GB	£15.00
	Unlimited	Unlimited	25GB	£15.00
	Unlimited	Unlimited	25GB	£15.00
	Unlimited	Unlimited	20GB	£15.00

For more information, see our guide to the UK’s best value Pay As You Go bundles.

Network & Coverage

2G, 3G & 4G Coverage from EE

1pMobile is a virtual network operator (MVNO), making use of EE as their network coverage provider. This means 1pMobile customers will receive the same coverage as customers on EE.

At the time of writing, customers can access 99% population coverage on EE’s 2G, 3G and 4G network.

Before signing up to 1pMobile, we strongly recommend checking the coverage in your area. You can do this by entering your postcode on the 1pMobile website:

Check 1pMobile Coverage (1pmobile.com) →

You’ll also get access to Wi-Fi Calling and 4G Calling on 1pMobile if you have a compatible mobile phone.

For more information, see our guide to EE’s network and coverage or find out how mobile phone coverage works in the UK.

5G Coverage

If you have a 5G-ready phone, you’ll also be able to access EE’s 5G network on 1p Mobile.

1p Mobile’s 5G service can give you much faster download speeds (around five to ten times faster than 4G). You’ll also benefit from more network capacity and a lower amount of latency.

You can check the 5G coverage in your area by entering your postcode on 1pMobile’s online coverage map:

Check 1pMobile 5G Coverage →

According to 1p Mobile, there are no speed restrictions on their 5G service.

APN Internet Settings

Before you’re able to access the internet on your smartphone, it may be necessary to input the Access Point Name (APN) settings for your 1p Mobile SIM card.

On an iPhone, you can do this through Settings > Mobile Data > Mobile Data Options > Mobile Data Network. Meanwhile, on Android, you can do this through Settings > Wireless & networks > More > Mobile networks > Access point names.

You’ll need to input the following settings to access the internet on 1pMobile:

• Name: 1pMobile
• APN: data.uk
• User: user
• Password: one2one
• Type: CHAP

For more information, see the help documentation on the 1pMobile website. Alternatively, if you’re using a 1p Mobile SIM card in a handset that’s locked to EE, you may need to use alternative APN settings that are detailed on the 1pMobile website.

Tethering & Personal Hotspot

Tethering or personal hotspot refers to the process of sharing your smartphone’s internet connection with another device (e.g. with your laptop or tablet). It provides you with a mobile broadband connection for use on other devices.

On 1p Mobile, the use of tethering and personal hotspot is permitted. You’ll just pay the normal rates for any data that’s consumed through this feature (that’s 1p/MB if you’re on Pay As You Go, or you can use your Boost allowance if you have one).

As normal, we’d recommend switching off data-intensive features such as background app updates when tethering to your laptop. This is because it can very quickly consume lots of data, resulting in your Pay As You Go account balance depleting very quickly.

For more information, see our in-depth guide to tethering on UK mobile networks.

International Roaming

On 1pMobile, you can use your mobile phone abroad through international roaming. To do this, you’ll need to enable both the “international calling” and “international roaming” features within your 1pMobile account. This can be done by logging in to the 1pMobile website and enabling both of these options in the “Network settings” section.

If you’re travelling within Europe, you’ll benefit from roam-like-at-home (European roaming at no extra charge). This means you’ll continue to pay your normal UK rates whilst travelling in Europe. You can also use your Data Boost allowance when you’re travelling in Europe (up to a maximum of 14GB per month).

If you’re travelling outside Europe, additional roaming fees will apply to your service. These fees can be substantially higher than your normal UK rates. For instance, in the USA, you’ll pay £2/minute, 5p/text and 2p/MB.

Keeping Your Phone Number

If you’re moving from another mobile network to 1p Mobile, it’s a straightforward process to keep your existing phone number.

To do so, start by asking your current mobile network to provide you with a PAC Code. You can get one from your mobile network’s website or app, or by texting PAC to 65075.

Once you’ve gotten a PAC Code from your old network, order your new SIM card from the 1pMobile website.

After your new SIM card arrives, you can log in to your online account to submit your PAC Code to 1pMobile. Once you’ve done this, your phone number transfer should normally be processed on the next working day. You should try to use up any remaining Pay As You Go credit on your old mobile network as it can’t be transferred to 1pMobile.

For a step-by-step guide on moving your phone number to 1p Mobile, please select your current mobile network from the drop-down menu below:

About 1p Mobile

1p Mobile has been available in the UK since September 2016. It’s offered by a company called Telecommunications Management Limited (TML), which has operated in the UK since 1998. TML is part of the FTSE 250-listed Telecom Plus PLC and is also the sister company of Utility Warehouse.

According to the Telecom Plus PLC group financial report (April 2022), the group has 364,000 mobile network customers. However, it isn’t clear how these customers are split up across the 1p Mobile and Utility Warehouse brands.

In our opinion, it’s good news that 1pMobile is backed by one of the UK’s largest public companies. The network is now also firmly established having been around for more than six years. Saying that, we’d still recommend doing your own research when choosing a new mobile provider.

Frequently Asked Questions

More Information

For more information about 1pMobile, please see their official website.