The retailer launched Coop Mobile in Guernsey and Jersey yesterday with a promise to ‘shake up’ the local mobile market.
Chief marketing and membership officer David McGrath said that entering the telecommunications sector made perfect sense for the society.
‘It lends itself to who we are,’ he said. ‘We are the largest grocery retailer across the Channel Islands. We’ve got over 40 stores, and access to 130,000 members.
'Every day, members have told us they want a mobile network which is easier and simpler, and it will operate within our stores, so we’re not on the high street paying big rents for new units.
‘So for us, it’s not a big gamble. It’s an opportunity to bring more value and be more relevant to our current demographic and younger demographics.’
Allowing a new operator into the market was part of an agreement between the States and Sure to ensure competition when the telecommunications company acquired its former rival Airtel-Vodafone in October 2024.
As part of the deal, Sure signed up to allow the Coop to use its masts and infrastructure, however Mr McGrath said it was offering a completely different service from its partner-turned-competitor.
‘We are what you call an MVNO – a mobile virtual network operator – whereas Sure, are an MNO, a mobile network operator.
'The difference here is that we have built our own pricing plans, our own product, our own customer relationship management system, our own app, our own website, and we then use Sure’s network to broadcast our signal.’
And if anything goes wrong Mr McGrath said customers would be dealing with the Coop, not Sure.
‘We have our own call centre, and live chat, and all the traditional ways that consumers can reach out to us at our stores,’ he said. ‘If a mast blows down that would be for Sure to fix, but we have contracts and agreements with them to rectify such matters.’
Unlike the other players in the Channel Islands telecommunications market, the Coop will not offering any home phone or broadband packages.
However Mr McGrath saw this as a positive.
‘Ours is a subscription-based plan. You come in store, you pick up a Sim pack, and you get online. And for a lot of younger people, especially, they want to be online. They don’t want to be tied to bundles. If you look at the UK now, the latest statistics show that old model of bundling people into handsets and long contracts, broadband and various other plans has been eaten away and now 50% are Sim-only customers.
‘I think consumers are becoming very savvy, and if they want broadband, of course, they can get it somewhere else, but they may not want to be tied to a long contract which inhibits them from having the freedom of a flexible plan, that we offer.’
Unlike a lot of their rivals, roaming – using the phone outside the Channel Islands – is also not included in its packages, instead available through add-on ‘boosters’, something again that Mr McGrath said that customers had asked for.
‘It’s a very conscious choice,’ he said.
‘If you look at statistics, islanders leave on average three times a year. But you’ve got consumers who are signing up for roaming packages that they pay for every single month. So we thought wouldn’t it be nice if you just paid for what you use?’
The society will also offer benefits to members who link their Coop accounts to their phone contract and is offering refurbished handsets in ‘like-new condition’ as well as new phones.
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