Tariff rip-offs

[Cunobelin]

My annual contract is due to expire

Looking around I discover that if I use Tesco Mobile or Giffgaff then I still retain the O2 coverage and signal (required for work) and the same calls data is less than half the price. Both "Piggyback" O2 so the coverage is the same

Talk to O2 who then offer a cheaper tariff.

Ask why I  was not offered the cheaper tariff as opposed to rising my present one when I asked about renewal..... apparently they do not need to

Asked for PAC code

Then asked why I was leaving O2 and could not understand why their attempt to rip me off was a valid reason

The only "incentive" was the information that O2 "throttle" Giffgaff, Tesco Mobile (and other piggybacked providers) so they have lower data speeds and slower calls than O2. Did I really want to compromise my ability to receive calls and data?


Now on Tesco Mobile, ten times the data, three times the calls and £4 cheaper than O2


It should be an offence not to offer the cheapest option, and surely throttling the piggybacked services is unfair competition?

[Polar Bear]

I'm not the biggest fan of O2 and their business ethics but I am still with them.  I got a back door deal through carphone warehouse which is insanely cheap for what I get.   

For years I just rode with them but every time renewal approaches now I look around.   I even had my PAC this year before I found the current deal.

[Wowbagger]

Now that mobile phones have become commonplace, it's time to nationalise the whole bloody lot and get rid of the stupid competition which prevents proper national coverage.

[ian]

Yes, just like the fab old days of British Telecom.

[Greenbank]

Going full circle as O2 was, of course, once part of BT.

The only "incentive" was the information that O2 "throttle" Giffgaff, Tesco Mobile (and other piggybacked providers) so they have lower data speeds and slower calls than O2. Did I really want to compromise my ability to receive calls and data?

Curious to know what "slower calls" are though.

[Polar Bear]

As I recall, British Telecom was a pretty effective business and ripe for tory profiteering.   

Privatisation was I recall due to the fact that the tories wanted somebody else to pay for the impending predicted infrastructure upgrades.  An alternative to PFI perhaps but inevitably putting the asset into the hands of the rich. 

[Quisling]

Giffgaff is certainly throttled in my experience - very heavily.  Locally I was getting 14 MB/s on O2 and about 1MB/s on Giffgaff.

Some folk will accept the lower speed in return for much cheapness and the same geographic coverage.  As long as the term are clear up front.  Unfortunately with Giffgaff they weren't, and they don't have any conventional customer service so I switched to Vodafone and paid the extra.  Sometimes you gets what you pays for.

[Kim]

It should be an offence not to offer the cheapest option, and surely throttling the piggybacked services is unfair competition?

They're not obliged to offer a wholesale service to resellers at all, so they can do what they like.  You can hardy blame them for doing what makes business sense.

[Kim]

Now that mobile phones have become commonplace, it's time to nationalise the whole bloody lot and get rid of the stupid competition which prevents proper national coverage.

Or just force them to allow roaming, as per the EU agreement.

(If you really want full national coverage you can get a SIM from elsewhere in the EU that can roam to all UK networks.)

[fuaran]

The way the networks are merging and sharing infrastructure, there's effectively only 2 real networks left.

[Cunobelin]

Going full circle as O2 was, of course, once part of BT.

The only "incentive" was the information that O2 "throttle" Giffgaff, Tesco Mobile (and other piggybacked providers) so they have lower data speeds and slower calls than O2. Did I really want to compromise my ability to receive calls and data?

Curious to know what "slower calls" are though.

Apparently they have lower priority so are slower to connect, and if you are on a call, the delay between speaking an the other person listening can be longer.

[Morat]

Now that mobile phones have become commonplace, it's time to nationalise the whole bloody lot and get rid of the stupid competition which prevents proper national coverage.

Or just force them to allow roaming, as per the EU agreement.

(If you really want full national coverage you can get a SIM from elsewhere in the EU that can roam to all UK networks.)

Genius!

[Tim Hall]

If you're required to have O2 coverage for work, why not get work to stump up for it?

[ian]

It's at this point I feel obligated to celebrate the wonderful service of T-Mobile. I'm about five years into my completely free and entirely unlimited mobile data allowance. I presume they 'lost' me when they became EE. It's quite frankly the best service ever.

Sometimes I feel bad about this. And sometimes I tell big porkies.

[Cunobelin]

If you're required to have O2 coverage for work, why not get work to stump up for it?

We have O2 transmitters at work so O2 is required so I can be contacted at work.

We could have work phones, but they are out of date and locked down to an extent that they are useless.

My answer is to have a minimal contract on O2 and a far better quality main contract for my main phone

[pcolbeck]

Now that mobile phones have become commonplace, it's time to nationalise the whole bloody lot and get rid of the stupid competition which prevents proper national coverage.

Nope. Mobile phones are a great example of where competition has actually worked. BT as a monopoly would have built a service that had 100% national coverage but it would have delivered 0.5Mbs and would have been ready in 2060.