Mobile users line up for better deal TELECOMS: CHARGING CHANGES

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, May 14, 2006 | by Nic Cicutti

TENS of thousands of Scottish holidaymakers using their mobile phones abroad this summer look set to see the price of their "roaming" charges the cost of making or receiving calls drop sharply thanks to pressure from the EU.

T-Mobile last week announced that it was slashing the cost of using a mobile phone abroad, with the launch of a flatrate roaming service across Europe and North America. The company claimed this would halve calling charges.

Vodafone and Orange are also cutting rates, while O2 is set to announce a new pricing structure in the coming fortnight.

The decision follows a campaign by EU information and media commissioner Viviane Reding against charges that she has described as "excessive".

Earlier this year, she announced an investigation into roaming charges, saying: "It is high time that the EU's internal market delivered substantially lower charges for consumers and business people travelling abroad." However, a T-Mobile spokesman denied the company's decision on charges was in reaction to the EU campaign: "We've said roaming rates are too high for a long time. We have not needed regulation to encourage us to cut roaming costs." The new T- Mobile tariffs, due to come into force next month, will apply a charge of 55p a minute to call the UK from 29 European countries, plus the US and Canada. The deal applies to both contract and pre- pay phones.

Previously, a T-Mobile call to the UK from Spain would have been pounds-1.10 a minute, and 89p from France. The company says pre-pay call charges will fall by about 45-per cent in Europe and 54-per cent in North America.

Vodafone last week announced that from April 2007 it will cut its roaming charges by 40-per cent for UK customers, who currently pay more than any of its other overseas subsidiaries for their mobile calls from overseas.

At present, UK customers who join Vodafone's Passport scheme pay a 75p connection fee, then all calls are priced at internal UK rates. The company's plans would supposedly see the "average" four- minute cost of a call fall from 61p a minute to less than 37.7p.

Meanwhile, Orange announced plans to cut international call prices by selling "bundles" of 50 pre-paid minutes for pounds-25. Orange claims these bundles, which apply equally to incoming and outgoing calls, could cut costs by at least 25-per cent. But the only way to really benefit is for consumers to use their full bundle when abroad.

Charges levied by O2 and 3 depend on how a customer pays and which country they visit. An O2 customer calling Britain from France is currently charged 85p a minute if they pay by contract or 99p to pounds-1.50 on pre-pay, depending on which French operator they use. The same call with 3 costs 80p for contract customers and pounds-1 on prepay.

O2, which was recently bought by the Spanish firm Telefonica, is set to announce its own revised new charging plan in two to three weeks' time. A spokesman denied this was caused by EU pressure: "We started work prior to Viviane Reding making her announcement last month.

"At the beginning of the year we said one of the immediate benefits that our customers would see was an improvement in roaming prices now we're part of a wider global company." Virgin Mobile also varies its prices, depending on how customers pay and which countries they visit. A pre-pay call from France to the UK costs 95p a minute, while the same call costs 60p to a contract customer.