iDmobile in breach of new EU roaming rules

d123

Money_Grabber13579 wrote: »

IMO, that seems like quite a bizarre rule to have brought in, at least, in its current form!

I live in Northern Ireland and say for the sake of argument, I lived in a region close to the border with the Republic of Ireland, such that I could pick up both a U.K. and RoI signal.

Under the new rules, if I wanted to call a number in France, it would be much more beneficial for me to switch to the RoI network, in which case it would be "free" otherwise it would be billed as an international call from the UK.

This doesn't seem to comply with the fundamental EU freedoms, one of which is for a country to treat all citizens of the EU in the same manner, irrespective of whether they are citizens of that country or not. With this rule, citizens of other countries are now treated more beneficially, albeit at the cost of their own mobile provider...

The EU doesn't have the power to regulate home markets, which is why the issue happened.

I presume the EU would have liked to have regulated it as a proper single market including at home, but unfortunately they couldn't.

That's why it's exclusively roaming that is included.

boatman

Money_Grabber13579 wrote: »

Under the new rules, if I wanted to call a number in France, it would be much more beneficial for me to switch to the RoI network, in which case it would be "free" otherwise it would be billed as an international call from the UK.

Best grab a house near the border quick while they are still cheap, prices will rocket when people hear about that little perk!! So when you see people hanging round car parks in the middle of the night you'll know what they are doing, calling France

Ian011

The regulations fix the specific issue of excessive bills while roaming. Competition had failed to do so.

Within individual home country markets, competition sees a wide variety of services with an even wider range of prices. In fact, it might be argued there is too much choice and poor understanding of how to compare competing offers.

The changes have introduced one element of simplicity - a bad deal for UK calls, texts and data usage has become a bad deal for use throughout Europe.

redux

Money_Grabber13579 wrote: »

IMO, that seems like quite a bizarre rule to have brought in, at least, in its current form!

I live in Northern Ireland and say for the sake of argument, I lived in a region close to the border with the Republic of Ireland, such that I could pick up both a U.K. and RoI signal.

Under the new rules, if I wanted to call a number in France, it would be much more beneficial for me to switch to the RoI network, in which case it would be "free" otherwise it would be billed as an international call from the UK.

This doesn't seem to comply with the fundamental EU freedoms, one of which is for a country to treat all citizens of the EU in the same manner, irrespective of whether they are citizens of that country or not. With this rule, citizens of other countries are now treated more beneficially, albeit at the cost of their own mobile provider...

But surely the merits of this also depend on how much you want to call France and other Europe?

If 200 minutes a month, then there might be some worthwhile deals to explore, but if 5 minutes every other month then leave aside hypothetical arguments and just find the cheapest way to do that.

idmobile

Hi Boatman,

We are sorry to hear that you feel we are in breach of the EU Roaming policy, however, when you roam you are able to use your services as you would at home. This means that making calls to other countries is always chargeable, as you can see on our call charges page here:

https://www.idmobile.co.uk/help-and-advice/call-charges

Here is a rundown of what is included when you're in one of the 50 destinations covered by your plan.

- Calling or texting the UK (standard landline and mobile numbers) with remaining inclusive minutes and texts.
- Calling or texting the same destination you're in with remaining inclusive minutes and texts.
- Using your remaining inclusive data to connect with the internet.
- Using add-ons.
- Receiving incoming calls and SMS from any country.
- Receiving voicemails.
- Calling our customer services on 7777 – it's always free from your iD mobile, wherever you are.

Here is what is not included:

- Calling or texting other international numbers.

This means if you travel to a country in the EU, you can text or call someone in the same country free of charge. If you call someone in another country, this is chargeable.

For more information please have a look at the following links:

- https://www.idmobile.co.uk/help-and-advice/eu-roaming
- https://www.idmobile.co.uk/help-and-advice/eu-roaming/fair-usage-policy

If you would like to discuss this further, please do not hesitate to contact our Social Media Team over on Facebook or Twitter.

iD Mobile.
facebook.com/idmobileuk/
twitter.com/id_mobile_uk

redux

idmobile wrote: »

Here is what is not included:

- Calling or texting other international numbers.

This means if you travel to a country in the EU, you can text or call someone in the same country free of charge. If you call someone in another country, this is chargeable.

[...]

If you would like to discuss this further, please do not hesitate to contact our Social Media Team over on Facebook or Twitter.

Your company's interpretation seems to differ from that of other networks and statements on regulator pages.

Perhaps someone at your employer should check this, including the EU document quoted by d123 in post 10 above.

I can't see why anyone would waste any more time talking to your social media team about this, when they may have already made a formal complaint.

The matter should be addressed by your complaints team, and the regulatory issues reviewed by some sort of internal compliance unit, or by Ofcom and an Ombudsman body if you still refuse.

Frozen_up_north

idmobile wrote: »

This means if you travel to a country in the EU, you can text or call someone in the same country free of charge. If you call someone in another country, this is chargeable.

As per the other replies, iD Mobile appear to ignore EU and OFCOM regulations, a good reason to take your business to another network.

d123

idmobile wrote: »

Hi Boatman,

We are sorry to hear that you feel we are in breach of the EU Roaming policy, however, when you roam you are able to use your services as you would at home. This means that making calls to other countries is always chargeable, as you can see on our call charges page here:

https://www.idmobile.co.uk/help-and-advice/call-charges


iD Mobile.
facebook.com/idmobileuk/
twitter.com/id_mobile_uk

You are aware you can't make up your own definitions of what the law entails? You can't change the bits you don't like.

The EU is pretty specific and you are in breach of those regulations.

Let's repeat what the EU has said, and even simplify it for those at iD that haven't managed to comprehend what it all means yet.

When you are roaming in the EU, all calls to mobile and fixed numbers in the EU will be counted against your national volume of minutes (or will be unlimited if you have unlimited calls at home), exactly as if you were calling within your home country. If you have distinct so-called ‘on-net’ and ‘off-net’ volumes in your national bundle, all the roaming minutes may be all deducted from the on-net volume, and also when you call another subscriber of the same domestic operator while roaming.

For example: If you have a UK card and you travel to France and call either a hotel in France, back home to UK, or to any other country in the EU and the EEA, you are roaming, and you will pay UK internal domestic prices.

On the other hand, if for example, a UK SIM card holder calls from UK to Spain, she/he will pay the international tariff. Calls from home to another EU country are not roaming and are not regulated.

http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/document.cfm?doc_id=45382

I've even changed "Belgium" to "UK" for ease of understanding...

ballyblack

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5695818

d123

idmobile wrote: »

Hi Boatman,

We are sorry to hear that you feel we are in breach of the EU Roaming policy, however, when you roam you are able to use your services as you would at home. This means that making calls to other countries is always chargeable, as you can see on our call charges page here:

https://www.idmobile.co.uk/help-and-advice/call-charges

Here is a rundown of what is included when you're in one of the 50 destinations covered by your plan.

- Calling or texting the UK (standard landline and mobile numbers) with remaining inclusive minutes and texts.
- Calling or texting the same destination you're in with remaining inclusive minutes and texts.
- Using your remaining inclusive data to connect with the internet.
- Using add-ons.
- Receiving incoming calls and SMS from any country.
- Receiving voicemails.
- Calling our customer services on 7777 – it's always free from your iD mobile, wherever you are.

Here is what is not included:

- Calling or texting other international numbers.

This means if you travel to a country in the EU, you can text or call someone in the same country free of charge. If you call someone in another country, this is chargeable.

For more information please have a look at the following links:

- https://www.idmobile.co.uk/help-and-advice/eu-roaming
- https://www.idmobile.co.uk/help-and-advice/eu-roaming/fair-usage-policy

If you would like to discuss this further, please do not hesitate to contact our Social Media Team over on Facebook or Twitter.

iD Mobile.
facebook.com/idmobileuk/
twitter.com/id_mobile_uk

Gee, who'd have guessed you would have been proven wrong so quickly?

Mobile network iD Mobile has been wrongly charging customers for using their phones abroad since the introduction of free roaming calls in the EU, MoneySavingExpert.com can reveal.

The firm, which is owned by Carphone Warehouse, has been charging a roaming fee if customers overseas in the EU call another EU country (which isn't the UK) – despite new rules coming into force earlier this summer to stop this.

Under the rules brought in on 15 June, while roaming in the EU you can call most landlines and mobiles within the EU (except premium numbers), paying just what you'd pay in the UK.

So if you're in Italy and call a number in France or Spain, the minutes will be deducted from your monthly allowance and you won't pay anything extra – as if you were in the UK calling a UK number.

iD Mobile, which reported having half a million contract customers earlier this year, has now apologised for the error and said any customers wrongly charged will be refunded.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5695818