Tesco plans telecom offer
Supermarket giant considers phone and internet services
July 4 2002
Tesco is planning to launch a telecommunications offer, according to a report in the Financial Times.
The UK’s biggest retailer will offer domestic customers mobile and landline telephone services, as well as internet access.
The supermarket operator is in talks with a number of companies as potential partners, and is keen to enter the market after positive feedback from customer reserach.
Along with a tie-up with a fixed line operator, the report says Tesco is talking to Orange about sellling own-brand handsets using the Orange network.
Tesco has already had success with prepay mobile phones, but the industry sees the biggest future profit development coming through contract sales and added value services such as data transmission, which are more complex to sell. Specialist retailers such as Carphone Warehouse place great emphasis on staff training and point-of-sale expertise, which is harder to offer in a supermarket setting.
