Tell us your story
by Tom Hall ~ June 11th, 2009. Filed under: Uncategorized.Have you changed your phone use?
Mobile Termination Rates hit landline customers hard, accounting for up to 80% of the cost of a call to a mobile. These calls are not included in your bundles, either.
To help with our campaign to persuade Ofcom to cut these charges, we want to hear your stories about the costs of phoning mobiles.
For example, have you stopped calling mobiles from your landline, or are people reluctant to call you on your mobile? Have you ever had a massive bill for calling mobiles (in the UK)? Or have you ever been forced to rush or skip a call to a mobile for fear of how much it will cost?
Tell us your stories here and help us to Terminate the Rate.
3 are very good ad making it look like they are trying to champion the consumer but here are the facts.
Highest Termination rate of ANY UK mobile network. Why have 3 not cut this you ask? Well its simple they are playing the unfairly treated child card one that has been bullied so they are being stubborn.
Removal of 3 Like home service, by stealth at the same time as launching this campaign. One wonders if they have done that to pay for this.
Some of the HIGHEST ROAMING rates of any UK provider. They championed some of the cheapest EU roaming rates last year and again put these up by stealth to just below the EU cap.
Other providers like O2 have bolt on’s you can buy when aboard to give you the ability it receive unlimited calls. Vodafone have passport and the current Summer promotion in the EU.
3 may argue they are offering consistent cheap rates. The fact is when it comes to roaming they are probably the most expensive.
Until 3 stop offering on one hand and taking away on the other they will never truly be a consumer champion.
Hi there,
Many thanks for your comment. We have discussed your points about MTRs in previous posts, see below:
“3’s MTR is measured as an average and capped as such by Ofcom (currently that cap is set at around 5.8p per minute). Under the current system, 3 is allowed to charge around a penny a minute more than the four incumbent operators due to the differences in its network and size. This differential has been overseen by both Ofcom and the Competition Commission. {http://www.terminatetherateblog.org/2009/05/but-some-operators-like-high-mtrs}”
“If mobile termination rates were the true driver of investment, then 3 wouldn’t have the UK’s most extensive 3G network. {http://www.terminatetherateblog.org/2009/05/but-some-operators-like-high-mtrs/}”
Tom Hall
Going to university is expensive for both student and family. Trying to keep in contact is almost impossible without a mobile phone as it’s an easy way to control what you are paying for rather than having a shared landline. The result is the need for family at home to have both landline and mobile to keep in contact with me as ringing a mobile from a landline is a no-go.
We are now in 2009 age of increasingly fast static and mobile broadband and lots of technical innovations. Mobile phone useage is widespread and the UK is one of the biggest mobile markets in the world. However mobile phone operators are still behind the times in charging MTRs and have their own deluded reasons why it makes sense.
As consumers for once it would be nice to see common sense in reducing or getting rid of MTRs to improve the service and value offered rather than focusing on money. OFCOM should step in and force those unwilling to comply and act in our interests.