The Phone Co-op

The Phone Co-op

“The Phone Co-op” logo used until 2018.
Company type	Consumer co-operative
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	1998; 26 years ago (1998)
Defunct	2018 (2018)
Fate	Merged with Midcounties Co-operative, rebranded to Your Co-op
Headquarters	Chipping Norton and Manchester
Area served	United Kingdom
Products	Fixed line telephony, broadband, fibre broadband, mobile telephony, telephone systems, Voice over IP (VoIP), leased line, domain names, web hosting, telephone conferencing
Revenue	£12.54 million (2016) 1
Operating income	£182,826 (2016) £164,614 (2015)
Net income	£326,546 (2016) 2 £280,334 (2015)
Members	11,734 (2016)
Number of employees	74 (2016 average)
Parent	Midcounties Co-operative
Website	broadband.yourcoop.coop
Footnotes / references 1. Figures rounded from 2015-2016 Annual Report 2. UK cooperative taxation means that after tax surplus is also after distributions

The Phone Co-op was an independent consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom. It provided landline, mobile telephone and Internet services, including web hosting and broadband. In April 2018, the Phone Co-op board agreed for its operations to be transferred to the Midcounties Co-operative, with the Phone Co-op legal entity ceasing to exist.^[1] The brand continued to be operated until 1 June 2018, when it was rebranded to Your Co-op following the completion of the transfer.^[2]

The co-op was a social enterprise and was awarded the title of UK customer-facing social enterprise of the year 2015.^[3] The business was a living wage employer and was accredited to hold the Fair Tax Mark.

As of 2015^[update], the business had over 30,000 customers,^[4] spanning individuals, businesses, charities, local authorities and other co-operatives including: Amnesty International, The Big Issue, Christian Aid, Central England Co-operative Society, the Centre for Alternative Technology, Chelmsford Star Co-operative Society, The Co-operative Group, The Council of the Isles of Scilly, Manchester City Council, The Midcounties Co-operative, Triodos Bank and UNISON. Alongside organic growth, The Phone Co-op acquired other telecommunications businesses, most notably the telecoms business of Saga Group in 2010 and the broadband business of Namesco in 2014. The business provided its fixed-line services through the network run by Openreach using Local Loop Unbundling, and it provided mobile services as a virtual operator on the EE network.