News
O2 cuts charges for calls from abroad
19 October 2006
UK mobile phone operator O2 has announced a scheme to cut the charges customers pay to receive calls when travelling in Europe.
The scheme, which will charge a monthly £5 fee to cover incoming calls, will be piloted in Spain and extended across Europe over 2007.
O2 is responding to customer comments that they 'left their phones switched off when travelling in order to avoid the cost of receiving a call,' said chairman and chief executive Peter Erskine.
Outgoing overseas calls on O2 will cost just 25p a minute, a 70% cut, under the new 'high roamer' service.
The EU is investigating fees charged by telecoms operators when mobile phones are used abroad, concerned that roaming charges, which bring in 10-15% of profit, are disproportionate.
The trade body for mobile phone operators, the GSM Association, has protested members are introducing price cuts of about 40% to calls within the EU.
But in June, the European telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding, condemned many country-to-country call prices as 'fantasy costs'.
Ms Reding's proposals, which centre on capping the 'wholesale charges' networks pay one another for processing roaming calls, are currently being debated in the European Parliament.
© Adfero Ltd
The scheme, which will charge a monthly £5 fee to cover incoming calls, will be piloted in Spain and extended across Europe over 2007.
O2 is responding to customer comments that they 'left their phones switched off when travelling in order to avoid the cost of receiving a call,' said chairman and chief executive Peter Erskine.
Outgoing overseas calls on O2 will cost just 25p a minute, a 70% cut, under the new 'high roamer' service.
The EU is investigating fees charged by telecoms operators when mobile phones are used abroad, concerned that roaming charges, which bring in 10-15% of profit, are disproportionate.
The trade body for mobile phone operators, the GSM Association, has protested members are introducing price cuts of about 40% to calls within the EU.
But in June, the European telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding, condemned many country-to-country call prices as 'fantasy costs'.
Ms Reding's proposals, which centre on capping the 'wholesale charges' networks pay one another for processing roaming calls, are currently being debated in the European Parliament.
© Adfero Ltd
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