More than 300,000 people are paying too much for their phone bills, according to Sky as it launches new mobile phone service in Ireland

The TV and telecoms operator says its research shows hundreds of thousands of us are still paying exorbitant mobile phone bills after our two-year subsidy contracts end. Sky says people may not be aware of the gap in their bill because they think they are part of an upgrade scheme.

Under consumer law, service providers, such as mobile operators, are required to inform their customers when their contract ends. However, these emails can end up in spam folders, meaning customers often never see them.

The company spoke of excessive payments in the market when launching its new offer from Sky Mobile, Ireland’s 11th mobile operator.

The service includes a low-cost bill payment plan priced at €15 per month “for life” for unlimited calls, texts and data, and a €10 per month service for unlimited calls, texts and 10GB of data. Both services are bill payment options using a credit or debit card, with no pay-as-you-go top-up option available. The €15 service requires a 12-month contract.

The operator, which competes with similarly priced discounters such as GoMo, 48 and Tesco, says that when a phone purchased as part of a plan is refunded, the cost will be automatically removed from the following month’s bill with no action required.

However, while the company says it hopes this will be seen as part of a ‘quad play’ deal with its TV, broadband and home phone services, there will be no integrated billing with other Sky services.

Sky Mobile will operate using Vodafone’s 4G and 5G mobile network.

The company said there would be no “fair use” limits attached to its core offering and that it would not engage in “speed throttling.”

However, Sky’s terms and conditions on its UK mobile site, which Sky Mobile Ireland is integrated with, warn customers of usage restrictions based on “breach” of fair usage limits. Sky’s fibre broadband in Ireland is capped at 2TB per month.

Sky Mobile hopes to encourage families to use the service by transferring data between accounts. A €15 account automatically gets an extra 5GB to allocate to a €10 (10GB) account each month, giving secondary accounts 15GB. Unused data on lower data accounts can also be stored and used the following month for up to three years.

The top tier Sky Mobile package at €15 also offers the option to purchase a phone with a 24 or 36 month repayment plan.

However, despite advertising this service as a ‘0pc’ refund option, Sky charges significantly more for the cost of the phone over the refund period than the actual retail price of the phone.

For example, Sky charges €972 for a Samsung Galaxy S24 over 24 or 36 months while the actual retail price varies between €819 and €919 in most outlets. This margin is not declared by Sky.

By comparison, a Samsung S24 purchased from Sky Mobile UK costs £672 (€796), which is significantly cheaper than the general UK retail price of £799 (€946).

Although these hidden prices leave Sky’s Irish customers worse off than its UK customers when buying a phone, the overall cost of Sky’s SIM-only service is significantly cheaper in Ireland than in the UK.

Sky Mobile UK charges £14 (€16.57) for 45GB of data or £35 (€41.44) for ‘unlimited’ data compared to €15 for ‘unlimited’ data in Ireland.

The carrier says those who choose to buy a phone can exchange it for a newer model one year before the end of the 24- or 36-month phone purchase contract, although they may have to pay a higher price for the new model.

The company says customers will be able to sign up online, over the phone or at Sky stores, but not at other outlets that sell Sky services.

Accounts will have an automatically applied adult content filter, which can be removed upon request from the company.

“Our research has shown us that when customers come to the end of their contract with some other operators in the Irish market, they are still paying more than they need to because they are still paying for a device they have already paid for,” said Aideen Chambers, director of Sky Mobile.

“In fact, our research tells us that over 300,000 customers in the market are paying way too much for their mobile phone bill. With Sky Mobile, that won’t happen. Once your phone is paid for, your bill will automatically go down and you’ll only pay for your airtime.”