Roaming

[Arboleas]

Why did O2 feel it necessary to increase their charges so much on 15 June 2017?

Calls from O2 Classic PAYG, whilst roaming in Europe, were 4p/minute and texts 1p to any European Country up to and including 14 June 2017. Unfortunately, from 15 June, these charges were increased dramatically! Calls whilst roaming in Europe are now 5p back to the UK but £1.50/minute to any other European Country, including the one you're roaming in! And texts whilst roaming in Europe are now 5p back to the UK and 35p to any other European Country.

It seems O2 tricked customers with a generous interim roaming arrangement up to 15 June: many may now have a nasty shock! O2 are now one of the most expensive mobile operators!

[MI5]

Yes it's been reported already on here. Very sneaky of them and if you travel a lot that may not be the best tariff for you now.

[Cleoriff]

I think this change gets more confusing every day. How are people going to know what tariff is the best for them when abroad? Apologies if I have misunderstood but it appears  that O2 are 'recovering' the cost of 'free roaming' via other routes. People obviously aren't aware of this...

[madasaf1sh]

Im confused as it says on the Travel Abroad Page:
Going on holiday? Good news. We cover roaming in our Europe Zone as part of our tariffs. So if you buy one of our Big Bundles, your minutes, texts and data can be used in the UK and in our Europe Zone. And for our Classic Pay As You Go tariffs, you’ll be charged in our Europe Zone in the same way as you would be at home.

And when you select say germay to france it say it will cost the same as home rates..

Some countries are included until later this year, and as such normal roaming charges apply..

And o2 arent alone in upping the cost, Three and EE have done the same, only Vodafone is the exception.

[MI5]

They are now the same as a call or text from home.
Previously they were cheaper when abroad, bizarrely!

[jonsie]

It certainly looks like O2 are clawing the money back. Confusion reigns and customers are being purposely confused or,  at the very least, not being made fully  aware of the costs.

From what I can see, unless you have one of the bundles, payandgo customers are going to be much more on O2 standard rates than they were on European standard rates. 

There are going to be many many complaints.... 

[Arboleas]

"And when you select say germay to france it say it will cost the same as home rates.."

Yes, that is correct: the charge for calling France from Germany is the same as calling France from the UK: ie £1.50/minute! And it is the same for calling even a landline in Germany, when roaming in Germany: ie £1.50/minute!

(Up until 14 June it cost just 4p/minute to call landlines and mobiles in Germany, or in France, from Germany! So the removal of roaming charges has resulted in an enormous price hike! So much for the wonderful efforts of the EU!)

[Arboleas]

O2 no longer offer any reasonable PAYG tariff!

[darrengf]

Just to make you aware.  All the EU networks are doing the same.

the EU directive was the allow customers to use the phone abroad using their Home allowance, for us that's the U.K. Call allowance and costs.

thats what all the EU networks have done.  O2 and the other are not clawing in the money,  they are following the rules laid by EU

if you have free mins, SMS and data, you can use that.  If you don't then you take your home tariff with you,  nothing different to what you have in the U.K.

if you have a Bolton in the U.K., then this follows you to EU.

networks are making less revenue now from roaming than they ever had, as most people have bundles which the networks now have to cover.

but regardless if your in the EU or U.K.  The tariff follows you.

[Arboleas]

Thank goodness for VOIP with call charges as low as $0.002/minute to ring landlines, and $0.012 to ring mobiles, in Europe from anywhere in the World.

A VOIP call to a mobile uses the mobile network for part of its transmission, so I wouldn't expect mobile charges to be much more than 200% of the VOIP costs.

I appreciate that mobile operators have more overheads, but does that really justify charges up to 16,000% greater than VOIP's for ringing other mobiles? And 80,000% greater for ringing landlines!