Lycamobile review 2024: Is it any good?
Dan Howdle • October 23rd, 2024
Lycamobile specialises in offering international calling plans for anyone who regularly needs to contact friends and family or businesses abroad, who also wants allowances of data, texts and minutes to use in the UK.
Established in 2006, Lycamobile is an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) which runs on the O2 network. It now operates in over 60 countries around the world, offering affordable calling plans to over 80 destinations worldwide.
Tariffs & plans
Lycamobile offers a large number of what it calls its 'National Plans' and 'UK Plans', aimed at UK customers that occasionally want to call abroad. Data allowances range from 5GB to Unlimited. All plans come with free European roaming and a minimum of 100 international minutes, ideal if you want to stay in touch with family and friends abroad.
Lycamobile also offers three dedicated 'International Plans' – and there are dozens of them, all with unlimited UK minutes and texts and variations on free minuted to individual locations around the world. You can choose whether you want international minutes to any destination or fewer minutes to a fixed destination, such as India, Morocco, the Philippines, or Afghanistan for example.
Lycamobile offers a single, fully unlimited data plan (the UK Unlimited Plan), which also comes with unlimited UK minutes and texts, as well as 100 unlimited international minutes and free EU roaming, offering a huge amount of freedom.
Aimed at anyone who wants to keep in regular touch with family abroad, Lycamobile is one of just a few specialist mobile providers that offers affordable international calls bundled up with its UK SIM-only deals. Its international per-minute calls, beyond any fre minutes, are considerably cheaper than the standard rate. The per-minute rate to India costs just 1p for example, compared to BT’s cheapest international landline rate of 15.71p per minute.
All Lycamobile’s National and International plans come on 30-day rolling contracts, meaning you can cancel or just change your plan from month to month. The provider also offers Long Term Plans, which require upfront payment for the contract length of your choice – three months, six months or 12 months, and are slightly cheaper versus a rolling contract SIM.
Customers finding they are short of data can add data bolt-ons to their plan, valid for a month.
Phone & device range
Lycamobile no longer offers pay monthly handset deals.
Customer service
Lycamobile customers can get in touch with customer services by calling 322 from a Lycamobile number or on 0207 132 0322 from any number. Lines are open from 9am to 6pm Monday to Saturday and there are multilingual staff on hand to help those whose first language isn’t English. Alternatively you can send an email to cs@lycamobile.co.uk, or fill out the online web form to send a message.
The provider is also present on a number of social media sites, including Twitter/X and Facebook @LycamobileUK, where you can post a question or get in touch via direct message.
Lycamobile is too small to feature in Ofcom’s regular reports into customer service satisfaction, but there currently over 19,000 reviews of Lycamobile on the Trustpilot website. The average score is 3.0 out of 5 stars, which is okay for a mobile provider (people often only turn to Trustpilot when they have a reason to complain) when compared to the likes of O2 (with 1.2), and EE (with 1.6).
Lycamobile customers can keep track of their account on the My Lycamobile app, on which you can make payments, top-up your plan, keep an eye on data usage and benefit from special offers and discounts.
Value for money
Lycamobile’s plans sit roughly mid-range when it comes to price. For example, its UK Plan Unlimited comes with unlimited data, unlimited texts, unlimited UK minutes and 100 international minutes, and is considerably cheaper than a comparable unlimited Vodafone plan, but more expensive than a SMARTY plan. However, those plans do not come with the bonus of international minutes, so we’d argue that Lycamobile does offer excellent value for money, if you need to regularly make international calls. If you rarely make international calls, then there are cheaper plans out there with other providers.
Network coverage
Lycamobile runs on the O2 network, which offers 5G in over 3,200 towns and cities, and 4G to over 99 percent of the population. According to Ofcom’s latest report, 85 percent of O2’s customers said they were satisfied with the network overall, which is roughly the same as the average across the industry.
O2 is continuing to roll out its 5G network, but if you are in a rural area, you may have to be content with 4G (or 3G) for the time being. However, all Lycamobile’s plans come with 5G as standard so subject to having a 5G-capable phone, you can benefit from 5G as soon as it becomes available where you live.
You can check what coverage is like in your area by visiting the Lycamobile coverage checker on the provider’s website.
Conclusion
Lycamobile runs on the O2 network, comes with inclusive international calls and free EU roaming. It offers a good choice of SIM-only plans, with flexible data allowances to suit every budget, as well as a handful of phones available to buy outright or over a repayment period. It comes with 5G as standard (subject to availability in your area) and with all its SIM-only plans on one-month contracts, customers are free to cancel or switch plan as often as they like.
If you want a provider that will allow you to make cheap calls abroad as well as plenty of calls, texts and data to use in this country for an affordable monthly price, then Lycamobile is a good bet.
