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MSE News: Holidaymaker sailing Greek islands charged £8,000 after her mobile used...
Comments
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(I don't want anyone to mistake this for a political comment.)
Anyone who looks at a map of the area for the first time might be surprised that several Greek islands with names they've heard of are geographically much closer to Turkey than the Greek mainland, i.e. less than 10 km from Turkey and about 200 km from Greece.
I was about to say the same, cruising around some Greek Islands could put the boat in Turkish waters.====0 -
I used to be able to connect to French networks in Sussex and vice versa.0
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Utility_Warehouse wrote:You don’t need to be far from shore to be out of range of the land mobile masts, so from then on, any coverage is through satellites.
Mobile phones can connect to satellites...?
So... what's the point of the huge aerials they have on satellite phones? What's the point of satellite phones at all if you can use a normal mobile?0 -
Mobile phones can connect to satellites...?
Not directly. Ordinary mobiles connect to the land based transmitter initially0 -
A lot of the larger cruise ships now offer mobile coverage via their Inmarsat/Telnor connection.
However, the rates are extortionate, typically £2 a minute (EE) to make or receive calls.
If you happened to be passing one of these ships in your boat, your mobile could well connect to it.0 -
ballyblack wrote: »Mobile phones can connect to satellites...?
Not directly. Ordinary mobiles connect to the land based transmitter initially
On board a ship they will connect to the on board transmitter which then connects to the satellite.0 -
A lot of the larger cruise ships now offer mobile coverage via their Inmarsat/Telnor connection.
However, the rates are extortionate, typically £2 a minute (EE) to make or receive calls.
If you happened to be passing one of these ships in your boat, your mobile could well connect to it.
As I've already pointed out, the rate charged is Utility Warehouse's published data rate for roaming in Turkey.
It may be coincidentally the same rate for marine and airborne via satellite connection, but this isn't easy to find. They do mention £7.80 a minute and upwards for calls in a downloadable guide.0 -
On board a ship they will connect to the on board transmitter which then connects to the satellite.
Ahhh, right.
It can't be beyond the wit of mobile phone manufacturers to build-in controls and alerts relating to roaming.ballyblack wrote: »she deliberately removed all caps on her phone usage,:eek: so tough!!
The mobile network only gave her a single cap of £50, which was insufficient for her use. It should have offered her another cap, to limit roaming charges to a further £50 or £100. It didn't.
There needs to be more regulation of roaming charges, including negotiable caps, warnings when changing networks, and automatic text messages indicating the charges for calls, texts and data when the network changes.
It should all be pretty easy to implement.
This isn't the first person to be hit with an unexpected exorbitant roaming bill. It isn't the fault of the customer if they are confused by the way the technology works.
In software design, a user-interface should be intuitive, without requiring the user to learn how it works. The same applies for mobile technology. The user-interface (phone handset/network settings) should be foolproof and not lead to unexpected charges.
The only reason this hasn't happened is because mobile networks can profiteer from the ignorance of a minority of users to heavily subsidise everyone else.
Utility Warehouse should suck it up. They could have prevented this from happening.0 -
The mobile network only gave her a single cap of £50,
The £50 cap is set as a result of a ruling by the EU. There are warnings on your screen when changing networks. She was streaming music, so I presume ignored them. (or didn't know Turkey is outside the EU, which is where many others fall foul of this)
There needs to be more regulation of roaming charges, including negotiable caps, warnings when changing networks, and automatic text messages indicating the charges for calls, texts and data when the network changes
At what point does a customer take responsibility for their own actions? I believe we live in enough of a nanny state, thank you very much!
From the news item I can't see that she did any research at all, just used the data willy-nilly. Where's the responsibility in that?
BTW I'm not excusing UW's exorbitant charges - I'd not be one of their customers if you paid me.0 -
Ahhh, right.
It can't be beyond the wit of mobile phone manufacturers to build-in controls and alerts relating to roaming.
The mobile network only gave her a single cap of £50, which was insufficient for her use. It should have offered her another cap, to limit roaming charges to a further £50 or £100. It didn't.
There needs to be more regulation of roaming charges, including negotiable caps, warnings when changing networks, and automatic text messages indicating the charges for calls, texts and data when the network changes.
It should all be pretty easy to implement.
This isn't the first person to be hit with an unexpected exorbitant roaming bill. It isn't the fault of the customer if they are confused by the way the technology works.
In software design, a user-interface should be intuitive, without requiring the user to learn how it works. The same applies for mobile technology. The user-interface (phone handset/network settings) should be foolproof and not lead to unexpected charges.
The only reason this hasn't happened is because mobile networks can profiteer from the ignorance of a minority of users to heavily subsidise everyone else.
Utility Warehouse should suck it up. They could have prevented this from happening.
Instead of indulging in some moralising based on guesses and assumptions, let's stick with some actual facts.
Most of your suggestions already exist. There have been several stages in tightening up roaming regulations, including a data cap maximum even for use outside the EU, and this is only overridden by a conscious act by the customer.
You suggest an option for variable limits set by the customer. It's true this facility doesn't exist, but someone with enough skill to do that if it was can certainly instead manage to monitor the amount used, either on phone or in account.
Your proposal for automatic text messages giving notice of charges was introduced many years ago. Welcome to (country), charges here are (...)
And a smartphone can be set to switch off mobile data, either while roaming or completely, and can be set to manual network selection.
None of these measures will be effective against someone who voluntarily disregards them.
Personally, I'm surprised there wasn't a further credit limit for usage, but I'm also surprised that someone wants to spend half an hour watching video on a phone while sat on a boat on the Aegean.0
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