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Asda Mobile aims to stand out through a range of affordable tariffs, which can be changed every 30 days. However, the network doesn’t currently offer any contract phones, so on paper it might sound quite limited.
On the awards front, Asda Mobile was awarded Best Network for Customer Service at the Uswitch Mobile Awards 2021.
There’s plenty more to Asda Mobile though, and as a Vodafone MVNO it offers strong coverage, so read on below for a full review and overview of the network, including where it excels and where it falters.
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Pros |
Cons |
|---|---|
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Short-term plans |
No inclusive roaming beyond Europe |
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Competitive prices |
No Pay Monthly handsets |
Our Verdict
| Table of Contents |
Asda Mobile offers a range of SIM Only deals along with a Pay As You Go service. In either case you’ll get 4G at no extra cost, as well as 5G on many plans, and can use any or all of your data allowance to tether.
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Plans Available |
✔ |
|---|---|
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Max Data |
Unlimited |
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Contract length |
30 days |
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Deals |
Asda Mobile doesn’t currently offer any Pay Monthly plans with a handset – though you can buy phones outright from the network, or spread the cost using PayPal Credit.
However, Asda Mobile does offer a handful of SIM Only bundles, each of which lasts 30 days. These come with a maximum of unlimited data, and these bundles can be set to automatically recur every 30 days.
Note that if you opt for an unlimited data plan you also have to choose whether you want speeds to top out at 2Mbps, 10Mbps or 150Mbps. The higher the speed the higher the price, and only the top one of those can be considered 5G speeds, even though they’re all labelled as 5G plans.
Asda Mobile also offers a Pay As You Go service with rates of 15p per minute, 10p per text and 10p per megabyte of data.
With all that in mind the highlights of Asda Mobile’s plans include their low prices and their flexibility, however the lack of Pay Monthly is a major omission – if you want a new phone on contract you’ll have to look elsewhere.
Asda Mobile’s cheapest SIM Only plans are among the very cheapest you’ll find on any network, and you get a reasonable amount of data for the money too.
However, its prices become slightly less competitive for the more expensive plans, such as those with unlimited data. It’s still good value for those, but not the very best.
Still, the fact that its plans are only 30 days long helps on the value front, since you don’t have to commit to a long contract – or risk mid-contract price rises.
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10 GB data Unlimited mins Unlimited texts 0 Month Contract |
£4.00 a month |
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3 GB data UNLIMITED mins UNLIMITED texts 0 Month Contract |
£5.00 a month |
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5 GB data UNLIMITED mins UNLIMITED texts 0 Month Contract |
£7.00 a month |
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25 GB data UNLIMITED mins UNLIMITED texts 0 Month Contract |
£7.50 a month |
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15 GB data UNLIMITED mins UNLIMITED texts 0 Month Contract |
£10.00 a month |
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| View All ASDA Mobile Sim Only Deals | |||||||||||
As you can see in the table below, there’s more to Asda Mobile than just the allowances in your plan. We’ve detailed these other aspects in full under the table, but highlights include Wi-Fi Calling and VoLTE.
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✔ |
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✔ |
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✔ |
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✔ |
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✔ |
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✖ |
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✔ |
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✔ |
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✖ |
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✖ |
Asda Mobile offers 5G on most of its plans, however 5G doesn’t come as standard at the time of writing, so make sure you pick a plan that mentions 5G if it’s something that you want.
Asda Mobile lets you use your bundle allowances at no extra cost in much of Europe (for a total of 46 international destinations), so you can roam without racking up big bills.
You can even access 5G speeds in many roaming locations across Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, Romania, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Cyprus, and Portugal, which isn’t something all networks offer. However, there's no free roaming offered outside Europe, and there’s a 5GB fair use limit when roaming, which is quite low.
Asda Mobile allows you to use some or all of your monthly data allowance to tether (getting other devices online).
Wi-Fi Calling means making and receiving calls over Wi-Fi using your normal number and dialler. It’s handy if you have no signal but do have access to a Wi-Fi network, and it’s typically seamless. This service is offered by Asda Mobile, which is notable as not all MVNOs offer it.
VoLTE stands for Voice over LTE and is sometimes called 4G Calling. It’s a similar concept to Wi-Fi Calling, but allows you to call over 4G, where typically you can only call using a 2G or 3G network. With VoLTE you can stay in touch in more places, as there are areas that have a 4G signal but no other kind. VoLTE is available on Asda Mobile, so that’s one extra perk of the network.
There’s no data rollover on Asda Mobile, meaning that you just have one month to use up all of your data before your allowance resets and you lose any you had left over. While this is a shame, it’s also fairly standard, with networks offering data rollover being the exception rather than the norm.
Asda Mobile offers a spending cap, meaning that you can set a limit on how much you’re able to spend each month outside of your allowances – such as on premium rate numbers. This is a standard feature across most mobile networks, but it’s a very useful one.
Asda Mobile offers 30-day SIM Only bundles with up to unlimited data, but note that these do include speed caps. There’s a slow 2Mbps option, a middling 10Mbps option, and a fast 150Mbps option, with prices rising as you move up through them. Of course, the fastest of those is the only one that you’ll get 5G speeds on.
It’s a shame to see these speed limits at all when many networks offer unlimited data with no restrictions, but at least there is a fast option.
Beyond the speed restrictions there’s no fair usage limits for unlimited data in the UK, but when roaming you’re capped at 5GB per month.
Asda Mobile doesn’t offer any discounts for having multiple SIMs on your account, or really any tools for managing them, as you can only manage one SIM from your online account – though you can register multiple SIM cards to the same email address. Proper family plans would be handy, but at least Asda Mobile is a fairly cheap network, so multi-SIM discounts are less essential.
Asda Mobile won’t credit check you whether you choose a 30-day SIM Only bundle or just Pay As You Go, so it’s an ideal choice for anyone who has a poor credit rating. You will however be credit checked if you’re paying for a phone in instalments from the company.
Asda Mobile uses Vodafone’s network, which means its coverage is identical, whether you’re using 5G, 4G or 3G. This also means that anytime Vodafone’s network improves, Asda Mobile’s will do as well.
Asda Mobile through Vodafone has extensive 4G and 3G coverage, as you can see in the chart below. Like all UK networks its 5G coverage isn’t so extensive yet, but it’s improving at a rapid rate.
Note that Vodafone – and therefore Asda Mobile – will be switching off its 3G service in January, so 3G availability will now be dropping and will soon be gone completely, but this frees up spectrum and infrastructure for the network to use with 4G and 5G.
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Network Type |
Coverage by population |
|---|---|
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5G |
Now available in at least 318 locations |
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4G |
>99% |
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3G |
99% (switching off in January 2024) |
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2G |
99% |
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Network |
Download/upload speeds |
4G latency (ms) |
|---|---|---|
|
EE |
40.0/9.3Mbps |
36.0ms |
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Three |
34.5/6.3Mbps |
48.3ms |
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Asda Mobile (Vodafone) |
27.9/8.0Mbps |
39.0ms |
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O2 |
20.9/5.0Mbps |
38.1ms |
We don’t have much data on Asda Mobile’s speeds, but they’re likely to be similar to Vodafone’s. In an Opensignal report from September 2023, then, Vodafone was found to have average download speeds of 27.9Mbps, and average upload speeds of 8.0Mbps, which are the third and second highest on test, respectively. Those results factor in a combination of 5G, 4G and 3G.
4G latency (the time it takes for a network to respond to a request) is slightly less good though. Lower is better here, and Vodafone has the second highest latency of the four main networks in tests carried out in April 2020, with an older test being used because latency isn’t included in recent reports.
On 5G, Asda Mobile’s average download speeds could be around 114.3Mbps, based on Opensignal tests of Vodafone from September 2023, while its median 5G download speed might be around 131.5Mbps, going by RootMetrics data covering Vodafone in the first half of 2023.
Asda Mobile doesn’t publish its traffic management policies, but chances are that they’re similar to most networks, in that emergency calls will always be prioritised and in general you won’t notice traffic management in play, unless there’s a fault on the network or your use is classed as excessive.
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Frequency |
Frequency Band |
Network |
|---|---|---|
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800MHz |
Band 20 | 4G |
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900MHz |
Band 8 | 2G & 3G |
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1400MHz SDL |
Band 32 | 4G |
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1800MHz |
Band 3 |
2G & 4G |
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2100MHz |
Band 1 |
3G & 4G |
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2600MHz |
Band 7 |
4G |
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3400MHz |
n78 | 5G |
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3600MHz |
n77 | 5G |
Being a Vodafone MVNO, Asda Mobile uses Vodafone’s spectrum bands, which means it presumably has access to all of the bands above.
That leaves the network able to deliver consistent 4G services both in urban and rural locations, indoors and out.
For 5G, it should have access to the 3400MHz and 3600MHz bands, which Vodafone currently uses for this.
You can find in depth details of those bands in our 4G and 5G frequencies guide.
Customer service can be hard to judge, but on Trustpilot, Asda Mobile has a rating of just 3.0/5 at the time of writing, which is considered ‘average’. That’s based on 3,071 ratings at the time of writing.
Asda Mobile also won a Uswitch award for its customer service in 2021.
Asda Mobile has low prices and short-term plans that last just 30 days, giving you more flexibility than some networks.
With Wi-Fi Calling and 4G Calling allowed too and Vodafone’s robust infrastructure it’s a solid choice, but free roaming is limited to parts of Europe (which many networks offer), so Asda Mobile isn’t ideal if you travel a lot.
It's also a write-off if you want a new phone on contract since it doesn't offer any Pay Monthly handset plans (though phones can be bought using PayPal Credit).
Overall it’s a fairly average network, but it will suit some users – especially those who want the cheapest plan possible and don’t need loads of data (as its pricier plans aren’t quite as cheap as the likes of Smarty).
Vodafone is one possible alternative to Asda Mobile, since it offers the same coverage. Vodafone has the advantage of a far wider range of plans, including smartphones that you can get on contract. It also includes more perks and extras, like the VeryMe Rewards service and optional entertainment subscriptions. But its plans are typically more expensive too.
Other networks with the same coverage include VOXI, Lebara, and Talkmobile, all of which are fairly affordable like Asda Mobile.
If Vodafone’s coverage isn’t a factor for you though then check out all our network reviews for other options.
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