A potentially game-changing new deal for smartphone owners has been launched in the UK, with Tesco Mobile users able to reduce the price of their mobile phone contracts if they agree to view ads on their devices every once in a while.
Opting in to the deal shaves £3 a month off of your existing monthly bill, with it also also granting you an extra 200 MB of data in order to cover what Tesco states will be approximately 120 MB of data required to display its ads. The ads will be displayed on your smartphone’s lock screen, with users able to easily ignore them by pressing the cross displayed in the top right-hand corner of the screen.
The ads are displayed using the third-party service Unlockd, with users able to access the deal by downloading the Xtras app, available exclusively on Android’s Google Play Store to Tesco Mobile users. An iOS equivalent has yet to be made available.
Speaking about the Xtras deal, Tesco Mobile CEO Anthony Vollmer said: “Tesco Mobile Xtras, powered by Unlockd’s unique mobile platform, provides our customers with the chance to make savings that really add up.
“This innovative new service is a UK exclusive and we’re excited that our customers get to benefit first from this new technology.”
Though many will not see the appeal in the service due to the already mounting disdain for online ads, with users able to completely bypass these ads by pressing the cross icon (or save them to view at a later date), they aren’t as intrusive as you may think. A similar feature has previously been seen on Amazon’s Kindle devices, with users able to purchase cheaper versions of the device that display ads on the screen for Amazon products, so this move isn’t unprecedented for the tech industry even if it is the first time a mobile provider in the UK has jumped on the bandwagon.
