FMS-Blog : The Wildly Whimsical, Mostly Musical WebLog
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Telephony Transparency
Is it just me or is the way we're charged for phone services, and particularly mobile phone services, getting increasingly complicated to the degree that your average bloke on the street doesn't even know whether he's being ripped off by his provider or not?!
At the moment I'm a Vodafone customer and I've got to say that each monthly bill I get baffles me more than the last. There is a line rental charge that includes calls to any phone network at any time of day (except that this isn't strictly true), extras packages giving discounts on texts but never giving any clue as to how much I would have paid without it, a report of how many calls I've had carried over and how many I have left for the month before the one I'm in now, none of which seem to tally with one another or any of last month's figures... and so it goes on!!
Basically, it seems to me that there is a lack of transparency about the way we're charged for using our telephone products that leaves customers in the dark about how big their bills are going to be until they get stung with it at the end of the month. For example, did you know that when you text someone who is abroad your mobile company charges you according which network the recipient of that text happens to be connected to at the time that the text is sent? If they happen to be connected at that moment to a UK based network, such as Vodafone, then standard charges will apply. However, if their roaming handset connects them to a foreign network (such as Sprint in the USA) then you are charged at an international rate for texting them at that time. My question is 'how is the consumer supposed to know whether the text they're sending is going to be charged at a standard or inflated rate, or for that matter whether it will be included in their rental package?'! At least when you're abroad yourself you KNOW that the mobile phone company is going to charge you shockingly large sums to send texts, and to make and receive calls (often to the tune of £2 per minute or more).
These days complications with billing occur when both yourself and the person you want to contact are in the UK aswell. When I first got a mobile in 1997, calls were no cheaper but you could generally tell what network someone was on by the first few digits of their mobile number, and therefore you'd have a fair idea as to whether you'd be charged a higher rate for calling a network other than your own. But in the last couple of years, with increasing competition between the networks, it has gotten a lot easier to transfer a number from one to another, leaving the consumer in the dark as to what the charges are likely to be when calling a given mobile number. There is no directory or other source of information that gives the customer details as to which network another person is connected to, even when they are in their home country.
And then there is the issue of calling non-standard UK networks, such as 08 numbers : these are charged at full wack by most mobile companies, even if the number you are dialling is a UK landline - Vodafone even charges the full standard rate (around 35p per minute) for 0800 freefone numbers, which somewhat defeats the point of other corporations providing them! Also, something I didn't know until recently is that all 07 numbers are not necessarily mobiles - these can also be charged at non-standard rates without the consumers knowledge : I got stung for over £5 for a two minute call to a number that I believed to be a UK mobile when actually it was a foreign network routed through a standard 07 number!
It does seem that the telecom companies are doing nothing to assist their own customers with these kinds of billing issues - no system whatsoever is in place to guide a user of mobile telephony devices as to what they are spending when they dial or text a number, let alone MMS, Wi-Fi and international roaming services. Instead, the industry seems intent on trying to sell yet more gimmicks from built in cameras to the 'real' sound of Mozart's 40th Symphony as a ringtone. I believe it's time for this issue to be addressed so that the customer is given the opportunity to make informed decisions about the services they wish to use based on weighing up their need / desire to make a call with a clear, fair system of charges. Until this is put in place the advice I would give is to think carefully before calling or texting numbers that you're not 100% sure of or contacting people who are outside of the UK.
At the moment I'm a Vodafone customer and I've got to say that each monthly bill I get baffles me more than the last. There is a line rental charge that includes calls to any phone network at any time of day (except that this isn't strictly true), extras packages giving discounts on texts but never giving any clue as to how much I would have paid without it, a report of how many calls I've had carried over and how many I have left for the month before the one I'm in now, none of which seem to tally with one another or any of last month's figures... and so it goes on!!
Basically, it seems to me that there is a lack of transparency about the way we're charged for using our telephone products that leaves customers in the dark about how big their bills are going to be until they get stung with it at the end of the month. For example, did you know that when you text someone who is abroad your mobile company charges you according which network the recipient of that text happens to be connected to at the time that the text is sent? If they happen to be connected at that moment to a UK based network, such as Vodafone, then standard charges will apply. However, if their roaming handset connects them to a foreign network (such as Sprint in the USA) then you are charged at an international rate for texting them at that time. My question is 'how is the consumer supposed to know whether the text they're sending is going to be charged at a standard or inflated rate, or for that matter whether it will be included in their rental package?'! At least when you're abroad yourself you KNOW that the mobile phone company is going to charge you shockingly large sums to send texts, and to make and receive calls (often to the tune of £2 per minute or more).
These days complications with billing occur when both yourself and the person you want to contact are in the UK aswell. When I first got a mobile in 1997, calls were no cheaper but you could generally tell what network someone was on by the first few digits of their mobile number, and therefore you'd have a fair idea as to whether you'd be charged a higher rate for calling a network other than your own. But in the last couple of years, with increasing competition between the networks, it has gotten a lot easier to transfer a number from one to another, leaving the consumer in the dark as to what the charges are likely to be when calling a given mobile number. There is no directory or other source of information that gives the customer details as to which network another person is connected to, even when they are in their home country.
And then there is the issue of calling non-standard UK networks, such as 08 numbers : these are charged at full wack by most mobile companies, even if the number you are dialling is a UK landline - Vodafone even charges the full standard rate (around 35p per minute) for 0800 freefone numbers, which somewhat defeats the point of other corporations providing them! Also, something I didn't know until recently is that all 07 numbers are not necessarily mobiles - these can also be charged at non-standard rates without the consumers knowledge : I got stung for over £5 for a two minute call to a number that I believed to be a UK mobile when actually it was a foreign network routed through a standard 07 number!
It does seem that the telecom companies are doing nothing to assist their own customers with these kinds of billing issues - no system whatsoever is in place to guide a user of mobile telephony devices as to what they are spending when they dial or text a number, let alone MMS, Wi-Fi and international roaming services. Instead, the industry seems intent on trying to sell yet more gimmicks from built in cameras to the 'real' sound of Mozart's 40th Symphony as a ringtone. I believe it's time for this issue to be addressed so that the customer is given the opportunity to make informed decisions about the services they wish to use based on weighing up their need / desire to make a call with a clear, fair system of charges. Until this is put in place the advice I would give is to think carefully before calling or texting numbers that you're not 100% sure of or contacting people who are outside of the UK.
