Sainsbury's steals march on Tesco with launch of new phone service. (News)

Marketing Week, June, 2003

Sainsbury's became the first UK supermarket to launch a fixed-line phone service today (June 18), beating rival Tesco, which is expected to launch its service later this year.

It was announced in April that Sainsbury's was teaming up with The Carphone Warehouse, which will run its new Homephone service and its mobile phone operation. Sainsbury's marketing manager Russell Morris will oversee marketing of the telephone business.

The move by the supermarkets and The Carphone Warehouse into fixed-line services puts added pressure on the market dominance of BT, which supplies 73 per cent of UK households. BT's position is already under threat from cable operators NTL and Telewest Broadband.

Sainsbury's claims that it can save customers up to 50 per cent...