UK mobile group Vodafone is to follow in the footsteps of rival operator Orange, and begin offering a pre-pay mobile ‘top up’ service at ATMs. Vodafone’s service will be offered in conjunction with Link Interchange Network, a UK company that processes transactions for the Link cash machine network. Link claims to currently have 40,000 cash machines deployed and over 86m Link-enabled cards in issue. In comparison, Orange’s service is available to Abbey National’s customers who have an Orange Pay As You Go phone at 3,000 cash machines across the UK.

Insight

Vodafone is taking prudent action to reduce the costs associated with the pre-paid customer base it amassed during the great subscriber grabs of the late 90s and early 00s. Pre-paid need not be a a millstone around operators’ necks, especially if efforts are made to extend the same data services to both pre-pay and contract subscribers, but operators should be looking to streamline administration costs and ensure handset subsidies remain within sensible limits.