PrePaidGSM.net Forum (Archived) - View Single Post - T Mobile UK Announces New Rip Off of its Customers

andy · 09-09-2009, 21:02

They aren't the first. In 2003, Orange raised roaming rates in non-EU parts of Europe from 51p to £1.10 a minute, affecting Norway and Switzerland of course, but also the new entrant countries that were about to join the EU a few months later. Welcome. And that was already a vast increase; in 1999, their rates had been 25 to 30p in France and Belgium, then up in 2003 from 60 to 70p.

A year later, just before a visit to Lithuania, which by now was in the EU, someone in Orange CS told me that Orange was the cheapest for roaming. That may have been true 2 or 3 years ago, I replied, but now it was easily the most expensive, and it's £1.10 was almost double the 59p O2 would charge me then

T-mobile's excuse this time is almost pure mendacity. Yes of course the charges they receive from the visited network are slightly more, but that's a wholesale price up by perhaps equivalent to 3 to 5 pence; the only real cause of an increase from 55p to £1 is pure greed. As pointed out above, against the dollar the pound has slipped by about 20%, not 80%

And this is not the first increase in T-mobile's roaming rates this year; they've already increased rates in the EU to marginally above the Eurotariff. This isn't illegal; the regulation is that an average rate must be achieved over the 11 or 12 month period up till whatever the next date is. But if the exchange rate swings back the other way a bit, they might even have to reduce rates to below where they started, so keep an eye on them next spring ...

Vodafone and O2 still seem to be able to offer cheap roaming in of Europe, neither of them restricted to only EU countries. T-mobile's merger has come about because of its steady loss of market share, while Vodafone picked up a lot this summer ...

	(#3)
andy (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Prophet Posts: 2,128 Join Date: 10 Dec 2004 Country:	09-09-2009, 21:02 They aren't the first. In 2003, Orange raised roaming rates in non-EU parts of Europe from 51p to £1.10 a minute, affecting Norway and Switzerland of course, but also the new entrant countries that were about to join the EU a few months later. Welcome. And that was already a vast increase; in 1999, their rates had been 25 to 30p in France and Belgium, then up in 2003 from 60 to 70p. A year later, just before a visit to Lithuania, which by now was in the EU, someone in Orange CS told me that Orange was the cheapest for roaming. That may have been true 2 or 3 years ago, I replied, but now it was easily the most expensive, and it's £1.10 was almost double the 59p O2 would charge me then T-mobile's excuse this time is almost pure mendacity. Yes of course the charges they receive from the visited network are slightly more, but that's a wholesale price up by perhaps equivalent to 3 to 5 pence; the only real cause of an increase from 55p to £1 is pure greed. As pointed out above, against the dollar the pound has slipped by about 20%, not 80% And this is not the first increase in T-mobile's roaming rates this year; they've already increased rates in the EU to marginally above the Eurotariff. This isn't illegal; the regulation is that an average rate must be achieved over the 11 or 12 month period up till whatever the next date is. But if the exchange rate swings back the other way a bit, they might even have to reduce rates to below where they started, so keep an eye on them next spring ... Vodafone and O2 still seem to be able to offer cheap roaming in of Europe, neither of them restricted to only EU countries. T-mobile's merger has come about because of its steady loss of market share, while Vodafone picked up a lot this summer ...