[Ben]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/02/nfriends102.xml


The wife of a city executive cost her husband £11,000 after she downloaded four episodes of the sitcom Friends through his mobile phone while abroad.

The woman used the broadband package on his Vodafone mobile phone to order the programmes, which would have been free had the download taken place in Britain.

However, her husband flew to Germany on business while the download was still in progress and it resumed after he touched down, incurring the massive fees.

The pair, who have not been named, discovered the unwelcome bill after the executive arrived back in the UK and Vodafone called his firm to alert him.

Ed Richards, the chief executive of industry regulator Ofcom, said it would investigate the huge fee.

He said: "We will be looking to take action."

The news came as European Commission officials prepare to take action against mobile phone providers who make "unjustified" charges.

Viviane Reding, the European Union commissioner for information, society and media, has given phone companies until July 1 to cut their fees for downloading data and texting while abroad.

She said: "Sending a text message or downloading data in another country should not be substantially more expensive than at home.

"Higher retail charges abroad must be justified or they will have to disappear."

This is not the first time Vodafone downloads abroad have cost the unsuspecting user thousands of pounds. Company director Ray Elmitt, 63, got a bill for £1,150 after using his phone's broadband internet connection in Spain to connect to his company's website for an hour.

Mr Elmitt, of Hampton Wick, in Surrey, said: "It really annoyed me because I think most people would treat mobile broadband as they would their home or work-based broadband and not worry about download limits."

The debate on the cost of data transfer on mobile phones abroad has become more heated as new technology makes internet access faster and more reliable.

A spokesman for Vodafone said the firm informed customers of the charges and alerted people who exceeded their quota in Britain. However, he acknowledged it took longer to alert customers overseas.
Ouch :D Network operators can't expect customers to know exactly what's happening in the background on their laptop or, increasingly, mobile phone. Everything's becoming data-centric, and we want to take that capability abroad with us.

Yet another sign of creaking systems and infrastructure unable to cope with the data revolution.

[Hands0n]

Ooooooh look, its Vodafone again :mad:

I think it is time that there was a legal requirement for a financial health warning if these companies are not going to play fair. "Warning, using this companies product outside of the UK will damage your wealth". Yes, that should do nicely.

£11,000 indeed. What do V think they're playing at?

[miffed]

Only £11,000 eh ? Must be a 'Gold' customer to qualify for such low rates from Vodafone :D

Seriously , Surely someone is going to make these baffoons impose some kind of 'cut off' limit to prevent this ? You'd think Vodafone would want to do this themselves , after all , the bad press they get from this is surely going to cost more than they reap from the occasional sleazy £73,000 here and £11,000 there that they screw out of their existing customers ?

The whole thing stinks IMO , I know I have gone over my 1GB FUP on T-mobile and have never even been warned (let alone billed !)

[Ben]

There are, of course, issues when using data abroad that don't apply when in the UK.

The current infrastructure for accounting for roaming transactions is ridiculous. It hasn't kept pace with changing technology. Why on earth is there not real-time trading in usage data and billing? I mean, dear God, the roaming network has to send a fax to the home network?! Are you kidding me?!

Mobile phone credit facilities should:
a) Have a hard credit limit that is printed on every bill.
b) Offer real time balance checking and usage details over a variety of interfaces, available at home and abroad.

Oo scary word, Vodafone... INVESTMENT! :D And in mature markets, to boot :D If you don't do it now, the competition from upstarts will be intense.

[3g-g]

I think the longer the networks stick their heads in the sand over this issue the quicker the regulators will turn up and just say "fine, you're now a service provider for 3rd parties" who in turn will undercut the operator itself. It happened when BT's IP stream was made available to everyone who wanted to be a broadband operator, and look how long it took for BT to get their head together and back amongst the others.

£11k makes headlines, but think of the hundreds of people who're probably running up a £500 bill, that all adds up, and I bet your bottom dollar the mob-ops are loving it, easy money for them until they're told otherwise. They can just quote their T&Cs everytime and the punter loses out.

[3GScottishUser]

Cor.... what a silly situation.

Just think what this poor chap might have been charged on Orange!!!

[Hands0n]

You cannot compare Vodfone and Orange.

They can both be incredibly stupid. But I really don't think that Vodafone can be quite as daft as Orange ......

[miffed]

Is there any evidence to suggest that Orange also operate a "no warning , just billing" policy then ?

I was under the impression this was a strictly Vodafone trait ?

[Ben]

There have been reports of mega Orange bills, but not for some time I must admit.