Revolut and Other FinTechs Making Push Into Telecom Sector

Companies in the FinTech sector are making inroads into the telecom world.

That’s according to a report Sunday (May 4) by the Financial Times (FT), pegged to the recent announcement from neobank Revolut that it was launching a mobile service.

As covered here last week, this program will offer users unlimited calls, texts and data at home and a 20GB roaming allowance across Europe and the U.S., launching first in the U.K. and Germany.

“Mobile Plans is the latest move by Revolut as it expands into full mobile connectivity and drives further competition against traditional network providers as U.K. consumers suffer from hefty European roaming charges,” the company said in a news release.

“In 2024, Revolut became one of the first U.K. financial institutions to offer global eSIMs for its customers to stay connected when travelling abroad.”

The company says the eSIM program has seen customers create millions of data plans used in more than 100 locations around the world since its launch, making it Revolut’s leading non-banking product in terms of usage.

According to the FT, Revolut isn’t the first FinTech moving into the mobile market, as Nubank introduced a telecom service dubbed “Nucel” last year in Brazil. And a source told the FT that another British FinTech, Monzo, has not ruled out a similar offering.

These efforts are happening at a time when — as PYMNTS wrote in late March — the mobile phones’ penetration into global market is blurring the boundary between telecom and financial services.

It’s led to a situation, that report added, “where digital banks, and especially neobanks, are moving into communications and mobile payments, and telcos, in turn, are branching more fully into finance.”

At the end of 2022, PYMNTS Intelligence examined a trend wherein partnerships with FinTechs or financial institutions and telecoms were transforming and promoting financial inclusion in emerging and industrial economies alike.

“The smartphone has been the gateway to access all manner of activities, and PYMNTS surveys showed that more than a quarter of individuals were interested in using banking offerings provided by telecom firms,” PYMNTS wrote.

More recently, the PYMNTS Intelligence report “How the World Does Digital: A Global Benchmark of Consumer Digital Transformation,” found that the infrastructure for digital banking and telecom is pervasive, with most populations surveyed having access to and use mobile phones.