The safe SIM for your child's first phone.
Pop it into any basic phone for calls and texts — no internet, no apps, no endless scrolling. You use a web browser to set who can reach them, and when.
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It's a SIM card. It makes a basic phone safe.
Your child uses it to call and text, exactly like any phone, on the UK's best network. The difference is everything you don't get on a normal cheap SIM — the safety lives in the network itself, and you manage it from your phone.
Only people you approve get through. Everyone else is blocked, or goes to a parent you nominate.
You build your child's phonebook from a secure web page — the people they're allowed to call and be called by. It's enforced in the network, so there's no app to switch off or get around. Here's what happens on an incoming call.
The call rings straight through
Approved family and friends reach your child exactly like any normal phone — no delay, no extra steps.
You choose: block it, or send it to a nominated parent (Plus)
You decide what happens to numbers you haven't approved — block them outright, or on Plus have them ring a parent or carer you nominate, with a short whisper, instead of your child. If you take a call and trust it, add them to the list in a tap. Either way, your child never takes a stranger's call.
Emergency calls to 999 and 112, the home numbers you nominate, and helplines like Childline can never be screened or blocked by the controls you set.
What parents told us
“I'd been dreading the whole smartphone conversation. This let me put it off for another few years without her feeling left out.”
“The bit that sold me was that only people I've approved can ring her. She's ten. She doesn't need to be reachable by strangers.”
A basic phone keeps the internet out of their pocket. Wowtel keeps them safe.
Stepping back from a smartphone is a good thing — but a bare basic phone loses the controls that quietly kept them safe. Wowtel puts those back.
- ✕No control over who can reach them
- ✕No way to keep the internet out later
- ✕Nothing to reach you in a hurry
- ✕No protection from surprise spend
- ✓Approved-only contacts
- ✓No internet, no apps, no scrolling
- ✓One-tap call home
- ✓Spend-proof by design
- ✓Managed from your web browser
Everything is managed in your web browser.
There's no app to download — not for you, not for your child. You sign in to a simple, secure web page from your phone, tablet or laptop, and set the rules. Because it's in the network, there's nothing on the handset to switch off, get around, or delete.
More freedom and privacy, at a pace you choose.
Start with just calling home. As your child grows and earns your trust, you step back — more contacts, then a little data, then more privacy — right up to the day their number moves into a smartphone. The network grows with them; you set the pace.
An alert, with the call. Not a feed of everything.
Off unless you turn it on. Calls made to your child, never the ones they make. The caller hears a message first. A computer checks the call for signs of harm. If nothing's flagged, it's deleted from your Wowtel account at 48 hours and no one hears it. If something is, you get an alert and 48 hours to decide whether to keep the call. Keep it, and you can listen.
A call to Sam from this contact has been checked and may be worth your attention. You have until 4:28pm on Thursday to keep it. If you don't, it's deleted from your account.
How it works
Up and running in three simple steps.
Schools are going phone-free — and asking for a no-data SIM.
Most schools now ask for an approved basic phone used with a SIM that has no mobile data. Wowtel's Start plan is exactly that — and it adds the safety a bare SIM can't.
Join the waitlistA trusted UK network, keeping people connected since 1999.
Wowtel is powered by Planet Telecom — a British telecoms provider that has kept families and businesses connected for over 25 years. The same reliable network you can count on, now made safe for your child's first phone.
Common questions
Is it a phone or a SIM?+
It's a SIM card. You put it into any basic phone — one you already have or a cheap one from around £20 — and it works for calls and texts straight away.
Do I need to install an app?+
No — never. You manage everything from a secure web page in your browser, on any device. There's nothing on your child's phone to install, switch off or delete.
Can they still call and text normally?+
Yes. It's a real mobile network on the UK's best coverage. Your child calls and texts just like on any phone — within the contacts you approve.
Does it meet our school's rules?+
Most schools ask for an approved basic phone with a SIM that has no mobile data. The Start plan has no data at all, so it fits. Plus and Open add data for older children and time outside school.
Are calls to Childline or other helplines ever recorded?+
No — never. Calls to Childline, Samaritans, Shout, Papyrus and other recognised helplines always connect, and they are never recorded, summarised, logged or shown in your call history — even on the Ultimate plan with call recording switched on.
If your child ever needs to reach one of these services, that conversation stays completely private and untraceable. It's a promise we will never compromise on.
Does Wowtel have location tracking?+
Not yet — and it's a fair question. Reliable location tracking needs a smartphone with mobile data and an app running constantly in the background, which is exactly what we leave off a safe first phone. Without those, any 'find my phone' feature would be patchy at best, and we'd rather not promise something that doesn't work properly.
It's on our radar for the future. For now, if you'd like to keep an eye on a bag or belongings, a small Bluetooth tracker like a Tile or Apple AirTag tucked inside works nicely — they're made for finding belongings, not people. And your child can always call or text home in seconds.