The Phone Co-op

The Phone Co-op is a consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom, which provides landline, mobile telephone and Internet services, including web hosting and broadband. Now part of the Midcounties Co-operative, the largest independent co-operative in the UK, it is owned by its customer-members who democratically control the business and who share in its profits. This makes The Phone Co-op the only telephone co-operative in the UK.
The co-op is a social enterprise and was awarded the title of UK customer-facing social enterprise of the year 2015. The business is a living wage employer and is accredited to hold the "Fair Tax Mark".
, the business had over 30,000 customers, 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 has acquired other telecommunications businesses, most notably the telecoms business of Saga Group in 2010 and the broadband business of Namesco in 2014. The business provides its fixed-line services through the network run by Openreach using Local Loop Unbundling, and it provides mobile services as a virtual operator on the EE network.
On 1 June 2018, The Phone Co-op became a part of The Midcounties Co-operative.
Differentiators.
The Phone Co-op follows the widely recognised Rochdale Principles of co-operation, including the payment of a dividend to its members based on how much they spend with the co-operative during the year. The dividend is paid out of profits generated by the co-operative and for year ending 31 August 2016 was 1.5% of each member's spend. In common with many other co-operatives, The Phone Co-op seeks to operate to high ethical and environmental standards, publishing extensive non-financial data in its annual report.
It operates an affinity marketing scheme, where like-minded partners receive a revenue share in return for introducing its supporters to The Phone Co-op's services. Participating organisations include New Internationalist, Positive News, The Soil Association and World Development Movement. For the three years ending 31 August 2016, just over £180,000 was paid out to the affinity partners.
The business operates a "Co-operative & Social Economy Development Fund" which is financed through retained earnings to support the development of new social enterprises and co-operatives in the UK by investing in their share capital. Over £300,000 has been invested in this way, with beneficiaries including Torrs Hydro, Go-op, Westmill Wind Farm Co-operative and the Birmingham Student Housing Co-operative.
Strategy.
At the Annual General Meeting of 3 February 2018, the board presented a plan to boost sales to businesses by investing the co-operative's reserves and part of the members' share capital in updating systems and raising pay. Members voiced their concern about the risks involved and urged the board to be more transparent in its communication. At a Special General Meeting on 28 April 2018 members voted 136:50 for a motion supporting the strategy. However this was only after voting 202:17 to transfer the co-op's engagements to (i.e. merge with) Midcounties Co-operative Society, which has greater resources and the potential to cross-sell to its Co-operative Energy customers. Since both votes were open to all circa 11,700 members, the vote turnout was less than 2%. A confirmatory vote on the transfer of engagements was held on 12 May 2018 in Droitwich where it was passed by 75 votes out of 76. The transfer took place on 1 June 2018.