Operators send mixed messages to mobile users

Despite O2 and Vodafone abolishing these charges, many of their contract customers still have to pay extra to make calls in Britain and Northern Ireland, writes John Downes.

Despite recent announcements regarding the abolition of "roaming" charges for Irish mobile phone customers in Britain and Northern Ireland, hundreds of thousands of "pay monthly" customers continue to face extra charges to make phone calls when travelling in these areas.

Of the approximately 3.6 million customers with the State's two largest mobile phone operators, Vodafone and O2, about 25-30 per cent are contract (personal or business) customers who choose to pay their mobile phone bills in this way.

Many avail of "bundled" minutes as a good way of making domestic calls, while also helping to control the size of their monthly bill.

"Bundled" minutes typically amount to 200, 400 and 600 minutes per month. Once these have run out, customers are usually then charged at a per-minute rate according to their particular price plan or tariff. Recently Vodafone - the largest mobile phone operator here, with some two million customers - announced that it had abolished "roaming" charges for customers travelling in Northern Ireland and Britain.

Customers must have registered for its "passport" service, and be using the Vodafone UK network.

The second largest operator, O2, was the first operator to announce that it had abolished the charges for personal contract customers travelling in Northern Ireland.

O2's business customers also pay no roaming charges in Britain.

However, The Irish Times has established that hundreds of thousands of contract customers with Vodafone continue to face extra charges to make phone calls when travelling in Northern Ireland and Britain. Personal contract customers of O2 are also facing extra call charges when travelling in Northern Ireland.

At a time when the EU Commission has warned that it intends to force operators to abolish roaming charges within the EU, both companies have confirmed that they do not allow all "pay monthly" customers to use their "bundled" minutes when calling from the UK.

Instead, these customers are charged at a per minute rate (usually billed on a per-second basis), according to whatever price plan they have subscribed to, and regardless of what existing "bundled" minutes they may have remaining.

Pre-paid or "pay as you go" customers are not directly affected, as they do not generally receive "bundled" minutes. Under the announcement, they have seen a significant reduction in the amount which they pay on a per minute basis.

If roaming charges were fully abolished, it follows that customers should be entitled to expect to be able to use these minutes when in the UK. Is the failure to allow individuals to use these minutes not simply another "roaming" charge of sorts? Not so, according to a spokeswoman for Vodafone.

"The roaming charge was the cost charged to Vodafone by other operators for handling each customers' call on their network. In this new offering, we are no longer passing this charge on to the customer, therefore there is no roaming charge," she believes. "Customers pay the same rate as they do at home with no additional roaming charges."

For its part, O2 points out that "bundled" minutes are subject to terms and conditions, one of which is that they are for use to make calls within the Republic of Ireland.

"These charges are not roaming charges as they are the standard national rates that customers pay outside of their bundle," a spokeswoman says.

Interestingly, however, unlike Vodafone, O2 does allow its business customers to use their "bundled" minutes when in Northern Ireland and Britain, but not its personal customers.

The third mobile operator, Meteor, has yet to abolish roaming charges in the UK, although it hopes to make an announcement on the matter soon.

Only 3 Ireland, the newest entrant to the market, allows all of its customers to use their "bundled" minutes. But even here, customers are charged at 30 cent per minute once they have used up more than half their allocated "bundled" minutes.

Change may be on the way, however.

Recently, EU commissioner Viviane Reding unveiled plans to abolish roaming fees, stating that it was "unacceptable that consumers are punished in their phone bill just for crossing a border in the EU".

For their part, both companies acknowledge they are examining the issue of roaming, with O2 saying it hopes to address roaming and the use of "bundled" minutes for customers travelling in Britain in the near future.

In the meantime, however,, Fine Gael communications spokesman Bernard Durkan believes "pay monthly" customers may be "unwittingly" running up significant phone bills when travelling in the UK.

"The presumption made by people when roaming was abolished was that anybody could travel to the areas in question without incurring an extra charge," he says. "That obviously has not happened yet."