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- Cheap no-frills packages
- High customer satisfaction
- Free EU roaming
- Inclusive international calls
- Average customer service scores
- No perks or bonus features
Deal of the week
Lebara is serving up 40GB of data for u00a315/mth on a 30-day rolling plan at the moment u2013 as well as 500 international minutes to over 50 countries, including India, the US, Australia and Canada. What's more, you'll be able to use your data in the EU for free.
Over the last few years Lebara has become one of the leading budget networks, selling low-cost, no or low commitment monthly plans that manage to undercut the likes of Giffgaff and Smarty. At the same time, it has its own international twist that can make it a great way to save money if you need to make a lot of calls to friends or family abroad. It’s always done well for value in our Mobile Network Awards survey, winning the award in the category in 2022, and grabbing second place last year. This year it’s done even better, winning awards in three categories and taking second place overall.
Its levels of customer satisfaction speak volumes. Over two thirds (67%) of Lebara customers surveyed said they would recommend the network to others. Even though 10% would discourage others from using it, that still leaves a net promoter score of 57%, 7% clear of the next most recommended network, Giffgaff. As a result, Lebara wins in our Most Recommended category.
Lebara review: What do you get?
Lebara doesn’t sell any smartphones and keeps things simple with just six SIM-only plans, available on a choice of 30-day or 12-month plans, which come with a 10% discount. The deals start with 5GB for £5/mth with 1,000 UK minutes and texts and 100 minutes for international calls. You then move through £9/30GB and £13.50/50GB plans until you reach the £18/£100GB option and a duo of Unlimited plans. The first gives you unlimited data, calls and texts for £22.50, plus 100 international minutes. The second gives you all the above, but now with unlimited international minutes for £27/mth. You also get unlimited international minutes with the 100GB plan.
Lebara promises no mid-term price rises, and sells bolt-ons to give you extra GB or minutes should you run out halfway through the month.
The thoroughly affordable pricing helps Lebara net another award in the Best Value category. 66% of the customers we surveyed told us they were very satisfied with the value they were getting from the service, and a further 31% were satisfied. There was no significant dissatisfaction whatsoever. Even our second placed network, Sky Mobile, was 5% behind.
Lebara review: Customer service
Lebara doesn’t get a podium position in the Customer Service category. In fact, it’s one of the few areas where it lags. Just 20% of users who had experienced and reported problems said they were very satisfied with the way their complaints were dealt with, while 55% were satisfied. 5% were actively very dissatisfied. O2, Three and iD Mobile all did worse, but no-frills rivals Smarty and Giffgaff did significantly better.
The news isn’t so bad in Ofcom’s most recent customer service and satisfaction report. There Lebara had above average levels of customer satisfaction, while 68% of users said they were happy with the way complaints were handled, against an industry average of 61%. Lebara also had the lowest average call waiting times of any network – just 15 seconds – and a call abandonment rate of only 2%.
Lebara review: Coverage, reliability and speed
Lebara is a virtual network operator, using Vodafone’s core network to run its services, and Lebara gets strikingly similar speed scores to its host. With both networks, 90% of users told us that they were happy with their connection speed, while 81% of Lebara customers and 82% of Vodafone customers said they felt confident or very confident of getting a fast enough connection for demanding downloading or streaming tasks, even in a busy urban area. Neither gets top tier results, but they’re not bad results either.
Lebara didn’t reach the respondent numbers to be covered in the Most Reliable category, though it’s worth noting that Ofcom’s research showed above average levels of customer satisfaction with reception or signal strength.
Vodafone’s 4G network covers over 99% of the UK population. It also has the second fastest UK-wide median download speed, according to the latest independent speed tests from Rootmetrics. It comes third for 5G download speeds behind EE and Three, but still has a median 5G download speed of 163.8Mbits/sec, with its fastest connections reaching speeds of over 500Mbits/sec. What’s more, coverage, speeds and reliability should also have been boosted by its merger with Three, with customers of either network now able to connect through the other. This should give Lebara a further speed and coverage boost.
Lebara review: Roaming
Lebara still includes free EU roaming with every plan, subject to a 30GB fair use data cap, plus the even less common benefit of free roaming within India. Customers can also use their international minutes while roaming within the EU, though this isn’t supported in India. What’s more, roaming add-ons make things affordable in other territories.
In the US, Thailand or Australia, for example, you can have an 8-day roaming add-on with 3GB of data for 8 days for just £5, or 6GB over 15 days for £10. You can have calls and texts on a PAYG basis for 49p per minute or 49p per text, though you might want to avoid using data like this, as it’ll cost you an eye-watering £93 per GB.
A smaller sample size kept Lebara out of the running in our Best for Roaming category, but with free EU roaming and low-cost add-ons, it’s definitely one for frequent travellers to shortlist.
Lebara review: Other features, services and spending caps
Beyond the international calls Lebara is a barebones network and doesn’t offer any extra benefits, rollover features or multi-user perks. There are no spending caps, but customers going over their monthly allowance need to buy data add-ons or UK and international minutes to keep going, so there’s little danger of going overboard and getting bill-shock.
Lebara review: Verdict
This year’s awards survey confirms Lebara as one of the best no-frills networks. Sure, being cheap will bag a network customers, but keeping those customers satisfied isn’t so easy – and Lebara seems to be managing it. There’s room for improvement on customer support, while anyone expecting cutting-edge performance or perks should be looking elsewhere. But if you’re looking for a decent service at a low price, Lebara is a good option. That goes double if you make a lot of international calls.
