Mobile Network Comparison

T-Mobile has been accused of “failing its customers” after it recently emerged that it has been charging extra for calling LycaMobile. The details get even worse – T-Mobile silently and sneakily removed all LycaMobile numbers from its inclusive bundles leaving several customers with huge surprise bills.

LycaMobile claim that the issue has been ongoing for some time and they have complained to Ofcom and Trading Standards about the issue. A spokesman claimed that T-Mobile should be upfront about these hidden costs and said that, “In short, what they appear to have done is reach their own commercial decision as to what to include as either ‘in‘ or ‘out‘ of its bundles, and now confuse the position with references to jargon. T-Mobile is clearly failing its customers”.

T-Mobile responded by claiming that LycaMobile had excessively ramped up its Mobile Termination Rates (MTRs) which are charges between networks for terminating calls into different networks. A representative said “While Ofcom have introduced some recent changes to mobile termination rates, responsibility for call-bundle policy, including which numbers are classed as inside and outside of bundle, sits with all the major network operators”. T-Mobile claim that LycaMobile’s MTRs are much higher than other mobile networks‘ and so their numbers were removed from inclusive bundles.

However, it’s worth bearing in mind that LycaMobile’s MTRs are actually regulated by and in line with Ofcom. We think that T-Mobile’s behaviour is especially despicable as there’s no reasonable way for customers to know in advance whether an 07- mobile number belongs to a LycaMobile customer or not and therefore, no way to know your costs in advance. In light of this, we can only suggest that existing T-Mobile customers look out for a cheaper mobile network and consider porting their number over especially if they frequently call LycaMobile customers.

Looking at the other mobile networks in the UK, it turns out that Vodafone also charges extra to certain networks although it would not admit which these were. They also claimed to have informed their customers about these additional charges. 3 have not responded to a request for comment while O₂ and Orange come out of this looking much better as they both have confirmed that they charge a flat rate to all networks and include all mobile numbers in their call bundles.

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Giffgaff are considering stepping up the pressure on their rivals by not only offering the best PAYG tariff in the UK but also by being the most ethical mobile phone company around. One of their “core values” (subtly cribbed from John Stuart Mill) is to increase the collective good and they aim to have strong environmental and social values. Recently, they’ve been trying to come up with ways to put all this talk into action.

This all means that they want to launch a new scheme re-homing battery chickens. Apparently, their users had made a comparison between poor mobile phone users locked into usurious phone contracts or with locked handsets and battery hens stuck in their cages. Giffgaff wanted to show people that it was possible to break free of the carrier lock on mobile phone handsets and they wrote, “We want to free more people from contracts and let people know that unlocking a phone isn’t illegal.”

And so Giffgaff will be helping the animal charity Wood Green every time someone unlocks their phone to join them. For each person that unlocks their phone and joins Giffgaff through this campaign, a battery hen will be re-homed.

What a great idea, eh? And while they’re at it, let us take this opportunity to remind you to please only buy free range eggs 🙂

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Giffgaff have unveiled a surprise this week – long-awaited data roaming! The announcement only came out yesterday that it activation would begin today, Thursday 28 July, ready for going live on Friday 29 July. Finally Giffgaff users can use internet data on their smartphones whilst abroad.

But not so fast, data-fiends. First, be sure to check out the pricing rates:

• Data roaming in any EU country (also including Andorra, Croatia, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Iceland, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, San Marino, Serbia, Switzerland, Vatican City) will cost you £1.50 per MB.
• Data roaming in any other country (including United States, Australia, India and China) is prices at £5.00 per MB.

All data charging is done to the nearest penny which means that you will pay 1p for roughly 7 KB inside Europe and roughly 2 KB everywhere else.

To prevent your phone using data unintentionally, it’s a good idea to switch off data roaming when you’re not using it. To do that on Android, simply hit Menu on a Home Screen and navigate to Settings > Wireless & networks > Mobile networks and uncheck Data roaming. On iOS go to Settings > General > Network and slide Data Roaming off. It’s also worth saving money by trying to minimise use of data-intensive apps like YouTube, Spotify or other streaming services and app stores. Also, use mobile versions of website and don’t leave data apps running in the background accidentally.

If you’re abroad and on Giffgaff, please make a note of these rates to avoid running up a massive phone bill when this is activated at 00:00 BST on Friday morning.

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