Lycamobile, the international telecoms provider, has announced a new channel partnership with PayPoint, the UK’s leading cash and internet payments network, enabling leading retailers including Somerfield, Co-op, Spar and Superdrug to offer top ups for Lycamobile’s Pay As You Go SIM cards via PayPoint’s extensive terminal network.

Ivan Donn, Director, New Channels at PayPoint, said: “The international calling market continues to grow and by partnering with MVNOs such as Lycamobile, PayPoint is enabling its retailers to participate in the growth of this exciting market as well as take advantage of the rapid growth of consumer demand for the Lycamobile product in the UK.”

Lycamobile enables customers to make high quality, low cost international and extremely competitive national calls directly from their mobile without entering access codes or PIN numbers. Retailers will be able to offer the top up in denominations ranging from £5 to £50. The service is available immediately and is supported by strong consumer promotions, such as free credit on top ups, and a £10 million advertising campaign featuring ‘Globeman’, a culturally aware icon representing ‘Call the world for less’.
Lycamobile is on track to acquire over one million subscribers within 12 months in the UK and, working with PayPoint, will help accelerate this goal by extending the retail reach for Lycamobile to over 115,000 retailers throughout the UK
 
Milind Kangle, CEO, Lycamobile, said: “We are delighted to work with PayPoint and with the addition of its 21,000 retail terminal network, Lycamobile’s total retail reach will now exceed 106,000 points of sale in the UK. Our customers will now have even greater access to convenient places where they can top up their credit and take advantage of great consumer promotions such as our current free credit on top up.”

Lycamobile international calls cost from as little as 4p per minute, with national calls from 8p per minute. With introductory deals including 0p per minute Lycamobile to Lycamobile UK calls* and additional credit on top ups, the Lycamobile Pay As You Go SIM gives UK consumers the ability to make both international and national calls of the highest quality at the lowest rates ever. 

Lycamobile Promotional Rates:

• *On-net Lycamobile to Lycamobile 0p per minute (one off connection charge of 10p, 30 minute talk time per call, thereafter a rate of 9p applies).  Subject to fair usage policy of 3000 minutes per month. 
• Free credit available on top-up - £1 free on £5 top-up, £2.50 free on £10 and £10, free on £20, £15 Free on £30, £20 Free on £40 and £25 free on £50.

ENDS…
 
Notes to editors:

PayPoint
PayPoint is the leading cash and internet payments company in the UK and Ireland.  It handles in excess of £8 billion from over 515 million transactions annually for 6,000 clients and merchants. The company operates with several payment networks:

• The PayPoint retail network numbers over 20,750 terminals located in local shops (including Co-op, Spar, Costcutter, Sainsburys Local, One Stop, Londis, Somerfield and thousands of independents) in all parts of the UK and Ireland.  Terminals handle gas and electricity meter prepayments, cash bill payments, mobile phone top-ups, transport tickets, BBC TV licences and a wide variety of other payment types for all of the leading utilities, telecommunications suppliers and many consumer service companies. This network is used by consumers, free of charge, over 9 million times a week. The network has 98.9% population cover on a 1 mile urban or 5 miles rural measure; 
• Additional multiple retailer connections via retailers’ electronic till systems in the UK, including BP and Superdrug, for mobile top-ups and selected payments from the PayPoint range;
• The PayPoint ATM network has 2,150 ‘LINK’ branded machines across the UK, also typically in convenience stores; 
• PayPoint.net provides secure credit and debit card payments for over 5,100 web merchants linking into all the major UK acquiring banks; and
• PayPoint International, which operates bill payment and top-up services in Ireland and Romania. PayStore in Romania now has 4,700 terminal outlets including 1,200 PayPoint branded sites for the new bill payment service.

PayPoint plc (PAY:LSE) floated on the London Stock Exchange in September 2004. PayPoint is widely recognised for its leadership in prepayment systems, smart technology and consumer service.

For more information, please visit: www.paypoint.com

About Lycamobile
Lycamobile (www.lycamobile.co.uk) is a prepaid SIM card product which provides low-cost, high-quality international calls direct from mobile phones. Lycamobile is already distributed through a UK network of more than 85,000 retail outlets. The brand was initially introduced in The Netherlands in 2006 and is already Europe’s largest pre-pay MVNO, with over 2.5 million customers across Europe. Present in seven markets, Lycamobile continues to grow rapidly, with further market launches planned in early 2009. Lycamobile is part of Lycatel, the global market leader in international calling cards.