New Lyca Mobile Boss Ditches O2 for BT

Since 2015, Lyca Mobile’s wholesale provider has been O2. While there never seemed to be any issues on either end because of this, something has triggered Lyca Mobile to switch to BT. 

Richard Schäfer, the current CEO of Lyca but only promoted recently, decided it was time for a change. The company announced it was making the change to BT last week after the changes had already come into effect, causing some controversy from surprised or frustrated customers. 

”The partnership with BT Wholesale is a critical milestone in Lyca Mobile’s strategy to target a broader section of UK mobile users with compelling offers designed to give consumers the what they want from their mobile provider- which is quite simply cost-effective and high-quality services.”

Richard Schäfer, Lyca Mobile CEO

As well as this, Schäfer touches on how network performance has become a huge factor and concern for mobile users. Through EE, Schäfer believes that customers can receive better quality for the low costs. 

To make it maybe a little less upsetting for O2, Schäfer adds that he ”wants to thank O2 for our many years of partnership.” Ouch.

While O2 is no doubt grateful for the gratitude shown, the public have inferred it may have been dropped due to its network performance not quite measuring up to others. To add onto this, Lyca have stated that the commitment it made earlier in the year to not raise any prices will be unaffected by the new deal. 

”The deal will see Lyca’s entire customer base move across to EE in what is set to be record time, with BT Wholesale team showing industry-leading capabilities in ensuring a smooth transition of an MVNO between networks.”

We now look forward to working closely with Lyca Mobile as part of this new long-term partnership and aim to provide the best mobile experience for customers.”

Alex Tempest, MD, BT Wholesale

While customers absolutely should have been the first to find out about a change like this, if performance is quite as improved as it’s claimed to be, and the switch doesn’t see too many issues, it’s no doubt that the miscommunication will be forgotten. Nonetheless, it does seem like an unusual lapse in customer communications on Lyca’s behalf.