AO has launched its own mobile phones business, AO Mobile, which it says will be a “gamechanger” for customers.
The new company is built on the foundations of Mobile Phones Direct, which AO bought at the end of last year. AO says that customers are turning online to buy their mobile phones, and its service is intended to cut through confusion that it believes customers can experience in the process, while promising lower prices than multichannel retailers who have the costs of operating on the high street.
AO founder and chief executive John Roberts said: “This is a game changer for customers because we’ve built AO Mobile for today’s world. Customers tell us they find buying mobile and connectivity complicated. We’re making it easy to choose what’s best for them with easy-to-understand pricing and fantastic service.
“We can make it cheaper because AO Mobile customers don’t have to pay for hundreds of high street stores with thousands of sales staff.”
Roberts also argues that mobile phone customers will benefit from AO’s customer service levels, as reflected in more than 100,000 Trustpilot reviews rating AO as excellent.
Roberts said: “When it comes to telecoms, buying a mobile is a minefield of confusion and pretty average service. Customers deserve better and that’s where AO Mobile comes in.”
AO bought Mobile Phones Direct (MPD) last year in a £32.5m deal and says that by then it was already the UK’s largest online mobile phone retailer. At the time it had a customer case of 1.25m customers and around 13.6m visits to its two websites, as well as contractual relationships with the four UK mobile network operators as well as handset distributors. MPD started trading 27 years ago and its team is now running AO Mobile.
Image courtesy of AO World
