Moblox

At a glance

Sector: telecoms, with the payment and billing mechanics of a fintech product, delivered entirely self-service.

Client: Moblox, the UK’s first branch-free mobile phone network, run off the UK’s number one network for small businesses.

Platforms: native iOS and Android.

What we did: design and build of the customer-facing app covering sign-up, airtime contract purchase, SIM activation, number transfer, data management and multiple accounts, integrated into the vendor’s backend, with Stripe payments and an integrated chat function.

Timeline: ten months of development.

The challenge

A branch-free network changes what an app has to be. With no high street store, the app is the shop, the sign-up desk, the billing counter and the support queue at once. Every job a member of staff would absorb has to be designed for explicitly:

• Onboarding and SIM activation without a human. A new customer has to get from downloading the app to a working number alone, including activating the physical SIM.
• Plan selection and switching. Choosing an airtime contract is a decision people find hard, with nobody at a counter to talk it through.
• Usage and billing transparency. Allowance, what has been used, what it costs and what happens when it runs out must be legible at a glance.
• Topping up. The moment a customer runs low on data is the moment friction costs the most.
• Porting a number. Bringing an existing number across is the step most switchers are nervous about.
• Resolving problems with no branch to walk into. Support has to live inside the product itself.
• Trust with no physical presence. A network without shops earns credibility through the interface alone.

Underneath it sat a complex existing backend architecture. The app had to integrate cleanly with the vendor’s systems rather than assume a clean slate.

What we designed

We built the app around the sequence a customer moves through, not the shape of the backend.

Sign-up and purchase. The core flow takes a new customer from opening the app to holding an airtime contract in under a minute. We reduced the plan chooser to the decisions that change the outcome, allowance and price, and deferred everything else, so the moment of choice stays small.

SIM activation. Activating the SIM happens in the app, in the same session as sign-up, so there is no gap between buying a plan and having service.

Number transfer. Transferring an existing number is a guided in-app step rather than a phone call or a paper form, removing the usual reason people put off switching.

Data allowance and usage. The app answers the question customers open it to ask: how much data have I got left. Remaining allowance is the primary object on screen, and buying more sits beside it.

Buying more data. Top-ups run through a Stripe integration, so a repeat purchase is a short, familiar transaction rather than a re-entry of card details.

Multiple accounts. Customers running more than one line, common in the small business market this network serves, can switch between accounts in one app.

Support. An integrated chat function sits within the product, so the answer to “who do I ask” never requires leaving it.

Results

The app shipped on iOS and Android after ten months of development.

Customers can purchase an airtime contract faster than with any of the major UK providers, in less than a minute, through an experience designed to optimise the key decisions rather than mirror an internal process. Sign-up, SIM activation and number transfer all complete in the app. Support is raised through the integrated chat function, and further purchases run through Stripe. The app holds a 5-star overall app store rating.

Frequently asked

How do you design an app that replaces a physical shop?

List every job the shop does, then give each one a home in the product. For Moblox that meant selling, activating, explaining the bill, taking payment, porting numbers and answering questions. The failure mode is designing the buying journey beautifully and leaving the awkward jobs, activation, porting, complaints, to a phone number. A job with no screen becomes a support cost.

What makes self-service onboarding work without support staff?

Cutting the number of decisions, and finishing the job in one sitting. We pared plan selection back to allowance and price so nothing needs explaining, and kept SIM activation in the same session as sign-up so nobody is left with a half-finished account. Every step says what happens next, which is what a staff member would otherwise do.

How do you present usage and billing so customers trust it?

Lead with the number people came to check. Remaining allowance is the most prominent thing in the app, not something buried in an account section, and the action it prompts, buying more, sits next to it. Costs appear before payment, not after. Transparency is largely a matter of ordering: the answer first, the detail underneath.