Mobile by Sainsbury is to close on January 15 after Vodafone, the company that provides the service’s infrastructure, and the supermarket giant could not reach an agreement. The service attracted just 150,000 subscribers which did not meet Vodafone’s expectations. Sainsbury’s rival Tesco Mobile has about four million subscribers.
However, Sainsbury still aims to provide mobile service to shoppers and is said to be exploring all its options. It said that customers can move their numbers to a new network if they wish and that it would still sell mobile phones in more than 300 of its stores.