High international roaming charges anger mobile customers

MOBILES: More than half of the Republic's mobile phone users are unhappy with the high cost of international roaming charges, which can cost up to €1.90 per minute for calls made in Britain, a new survey has found. It has also found that moving from a pre-paid to a post-paid contract can result in substantial savings for users.

The study, which was compiled by the Irish and British telecoms regulators, found users were particularly unhappy at being charged for receiving calls while abroad.

Just 15 per cent of consumers said they were satisfied with the overall value for money of making calls while abroad and 43 per cent of users did not know how much it cost to use a mobile phone abroad.

The study found pre-paid users were charged the most expensive rates for using their phones abroad and it published a detailed breakdown of charges for each operator.

This shows Vodafone and Digifone pre-paid customers are charged the highest rates for roaming calls. Meteor has relatively attractive rates for its pre-paid mobile users.

A call made by a Vodafone or Digifone customer to another British phone would cost €1.90 per minute whereas a Meteor customer would pay just €0.29 to €0.66 per minute, depending on which British network the customer was roaming on.

The cost of sending text messages while travelling abroad also varies between each operator.

Digifone charges 44 cents for each roaming message and Meteor charges 9 cents. Vodafone customers cannot send text messages. (See table for all prices.)

The charges for pre-paid users are particularly important because seven out of every 10 mobile customers here own a pre-paid phone and would pay these fees while travelling to Britain. Customers who have contracts would pay cheaper rates, said the study.

Due to the vast number of different contract packages offered by the three Irish companies it is difficult to make a comparison. But Vodafone's contract charges vary from 20 cents to €1.22, Digifone's from 17 cents to €1.29 and Meteor's from 18 cents to €1.42, according to the study.

The report also found that Irish consumers tend to use their mobile phones more abroad than their counterparts in Britain or Northern Ireland.

Some 38 per cent of consumers here use their mobiles while travelling compared to 23 per cent in Northern Ireland and 19 per cent in Britain.

The joint report by both regulators also offered advice to consumers on how to reduce the cost of calls while travelling abroad. It advises consumers to: change from a pre-paid service to a post-paid contract; manually select the cheapest network in the country; use text messages instead of voice calls; bar or divert incoming calls while roaming; call off-peak; or swap to the foreign country's sim card while travelling abroad.