T-Mobile appears to have announced a new set of charges today. The prices, which will take effect on July 28th, are detailed here. It appears that T-Mobile have chosen to completely ignore an Ofcom ruling which states..
"Ofcom will require mobile and fixed-line providers (including payphones) to charge the same or less for 0870 calls as they do for national-rate calls to geographic numbers (starting 01 or 02)."
However, there is a minor problem with the Ofcom regulation.. it's not compulsory. The ruling also states...
"If providers wish to charge more for 0870 calls they will have to make a free-to-caller price pre-announcement at the start of the call."
So networks are in fact free to completely ignore Ofcom (again) and do what the hell they like. From now on T-Mobile customers will see calls to 0870, 0871, 0844 and 0845 numbers double in price, with some plans seeing an extra 20p per minute charge.
Perhaps the worst thing about this is that T-Mobile have detailed the price changes on this page by saying...
"To make things clearer for our customers, we have aligned our 08 number charges with local and national calls to follow the latest Ofcom guidelines."
Now, this is a tad confusing and makes it "seem" as if Ofcom are responsible for the increases. T-Mobile have instead chosen to match the costs of calling "08" numbers with the costs of calling normal numbers... but.. they're not part of your inclusive price plan.
Links - T-Mobile New Prices - Ofcom regulation
Credit - Jonathan Prior
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