At the time of writing Tesco Mobile offers two different types of pay monthly price plans. You can either sign up for a SIM only contract with the network, or get a pay monthly handset plan.

There are also two different Tesco Mobile PAYG options you can choose from. The one-month bundles are called Rocket Packs and the second option is their ‘Triple Credit SIMs’. Another alternative is using the network’s traditional pay as you go service, but we don’t recommend it unless you’re a light mobile data user. You can always read our ‘How much data do you need?’ guide to find out what type of mobile data user you are.

SIM Only Deals

If you’re already happy with your current handset, Tesco Mobile offers both 4G and 5G deals. The network’s pay monthly SIM only plans will lock you in for either 12 months or 18 months. Unfortunately, they don’t offer short-term contracts. You can check the table below to see what each SIM contract proposes.

Tesco Mobile’s unlimited data plans are available on both 5G and 4G SIM deals. If you don’t want to sign up for an unlimited data plan, you can get double data on all Tesco Mobile pay monthly plans by getting a Tesco Mobile Clubcard Plus membership. If you’re a Clubcard Plus member, you can benefit from special discounts and even pay your mobile bills with Clubcard points for half the price! Tesco Mobile’s family mobile plans are also a great option to consider as they offer a choice of monthly discounts.

The network also lets you set a safety buffer so that you won’t go over your monthly allowances.

If you want O2 coverage, but Tesco Mobile’s deals don’t meet your criteria, you can have a look at giffgaff’s no credit check SIM only plans or Sky Mobile’s high value SIM contracts. Both MVNOs are using coverage from O2, plus they also offer 5G download speeds. You can read our giffgaff Review 2021 and Sky Mobile Review 2021 to find out all you need to know about them.

Tesco Mobile is using the network O2 as its carrier, so it’s pretty reliable. Since Tesco and O2 share the same infrastructure, they offer identical 4G network coverage and 4G data speeds. According to Opensignal’s April 2021 speed test results Tesco Mobile’s average download speeds are around 17.3Mbps and upload speeds were around 6.7Mbps. Keep in mind that the exact 4G download and upload speeds you get are dependent on the time of day, your location and many other factors.

Tesco Mobile’s 4G network covers 99% of the UK’s population and their geographical coverage is above 90% at the time of writing. Plus the network can fall back to 2G for voice calls and texting if necessary. If your device and plan supports VoLTE, you’ll be using 4G to make and receive calls. If you want the best that 4G can offer, EE is unrivalled in the UK. The network offers the fastest 4G data speeds and the best 4G network coverage by a long shot. You can read our O2 vs EE Review and discover how these two networks compare.

5G Coverage

5G is significantly faster than 4G, plus your connection is more stable and it offers much better latency. The network uses O2’s underlying infrastructure to provide 5G coverage in 193 cities and towns. Their 5G download speeds are around 124Mbps, making them the second-fastest 5G network in the UK, per Opensignal. You can read our detailed Tesco Mobile: 5G Review and learn everything you need to know about the network’s 5G service.

At the moment, Three offers 5G in 194 cities and towns, plus their average 5G download speeds are around 116Mpbs, meaning they’re one of the fastest 5G operators in the UK. On top of that, 5G is available to all Three customers, even if they’re only using the network’s traditional PAYG service. Read our extensive Three Review and find out more or have a look at our O2 vs Three comparison and see which network is more suitable for you.

Voice Call Quality

Independent testing bodies such as umlaut, Open Signal and OOKLA say that O2 improved their voice call quality considerably in 2020. Open Signal’s and umlaut’s latest network tests still rank O2 as the third best mobile network with a score of ‘satisfactory’ but at least they’re catching up. They were previously ranked fourth, but they overtook Three towards the end of 2020.

Test results indicate that the call setup times of Tesco Mobile (O2) are a little longer than EE and Vodafone.

Wi-Fi Calling & 4G Calling

4G Calling is also known as VoLTE. It eliminates blackspots where you can’t normally stay connected or get bad reception due to the limitations of 3G and 2G. You can also continue getting 4G data speeds whilst you’re on a call. Calls made over 4G are much clearer and higher in quality.

Wi-Fi Calling uses an available Wi-Fi network to keep your handset connected, even if there’s no phone signal in the area.

4G Calling and Wi-Fi Calling are not offered by Tesco Mobile, at least not yet. If Tesco Mobile offers 4G Calling (VoLTE) and Wi-Fi Calling we’ll update our articles.

Free Wi-Fi Hotspots

Even though Tesco Mobile’s parent network O2 offers over 16,000 free Wi-Fi hotspots, the mobile virtual network operator doesn’t provide any exclusive free Wi-Fi hotspots to its customers. Free Wi-Fi can help you save your mobile data, and keep you connected in more locations. However, you can still use O2 WiFi and Sky Mobile’s The Cloud services for free, just sign up and you’re good to go. Just know that these two services are available to all UK mobile customers, it’s not a Tesco benefit.

Also, to clear any confusion we’d like to underline that O2 Wi-Fi Extra and O2 Wi-Fi are two different services. The latter is a free service available to all, meanwhile Wi-Fi Extra comes with (as the name suggests) extra benefits exclusive to O2 customers.

Tethering

Tethering refers to turning your mobile phone into a personal hotspot, a mobile router. It lets you share your mobile data allowance with other devices such as laptops, tablets, other smartphones etc.

When you’re tethering your data will get eaten up at a much faster rate though, simply because more devices will be actively using the internet. You should always be extra careful and watch your data allowance when tethering, especially if you’re using a light data plan. You can tether when you’re using Tesco Mobile’s traditional PAYG service at the network’s standard rates, but we don’t really recommend tethering if you’re a pay as you go customer unless you really have to.

We always recommend signing up for an unlimited data plan if you plan to tether regularly. If you’re looking for a cheap SIM deal with limitless data, SMARTY might be the best network for you. Make sure to read our SMARTY Review or check our SMARTY Unlimited Data Review before you make your final decision though.

International Roaming

Tesco Mobile’s international roaming scheme is pretty standard, there’s nothing special about it. Tesco Mobile calls their roaming feature ‘Home From Home’ and it lets you take your UK calls, texts and data with you to 48 destinations in Europe. Tesco Mobile’s fair usage limit is 15GB of data in the Republic of Ireland and up to 7GB while roaming in the EU.

If you’re travelling outside the EU zone we strongly recommend you check Three’s Go Roam or Vodafone’s Global Roaming Plus. The latter roaming scheme is the best in the UK, but it’s only available to Vodafone Unlimited Max customers. This deal also allows free roaming in Turkey, which isn’t possible on any other network anymore.

This is a great feature, especially if you shop at Tesco regularly. Tesco lets you collect 1 Clubcard point for every £1 you spend on your Tesco Mobile bill. You also get double the value of your Clubcard vouchers, if you spend them at Tesco Mobile. Just convert your Clubcard vouchers into Tesco Mobile partner vouchers in the Clubcard app or on the Clubcard website. You can read our Tesco Clubcard Plus Review to find out more about what other benefits await you.

Tesco Mobile is a decent MVNO, but they have a few shortcomings. Our main concern isn their plans don’t offering 4G Calling and Wi-Fi Calling, as O2’s 4G coverage is not the best. Also some of their SIM only deals are a bit on the expensive side compared to most other MVNOs.

However, if you’re a regular Tesco customer picking up a Tesco Mobile SIM can save you a considerable amount of money. Plus, all the extras, perks and benefits add great value to their SIM only plans.