BT and O2 at Loggerheads Over Terminate the Rate

About time too

What BT and 3 are saying makes eminent sense. O2 are trying to support their inflated costs.

Comment posted by Anonymous on 12/08/2009 04:13:34

Greedy b******s.

Comment posted by Anonymous on 14/08/2009 06:30:33

Appalling attitude by O2

Get your act together and come to an agreement with BT as isn't customer loyalty more important? This is where you get your income from and that seems to me a very relevant point.

Comment posted by Anonymous on 14/08/2009 07:18:31

Copy the USA!

I have both UK and US mobile phones.

In the USA my minutes are for both made and received calls which means that anyone calling me over there is paying the same cost as if calling me on a landline. The numbers are area-based so local free call plans on landlines mean that it costs nothing to call a locally-based mobile.

Comment posted by Anonymous on 14/08/2009 07:53:55

Great British daylight robbery

Great Britain rob their citizens something blind. Well done BT for trying to bring costs down for calling mobiles. Ofcom should be helping to bring all costs down. What is wrong with this tiny little pathetic island we live on today? Full of greed!!!

Comment posted by Anonymous on 14/08/2009 09:05:18

O2 or BT

I suggest those who have O2 as their service provider, cancel their account and take it elsewhere!

Comment posted by Anonymous on 14/08/2009 09:19:39

Terminate the rate

I agree 100%.

Comment posted by Anonymous on 15/08/2009 01:41:04

Laughable

I just got an email from BT to support their drive to petition against high mobile phone charges. I find this laughable coming from a company that over-inflated its prices for decades until the Government had to intervene to stop its monopoly on the telecoms market. I will never forget the daylight robbery BT inflicted on its customers during the monopoly years. I would be more supportive of a petition for the UK to stop paying line rental on landlines to the likes of BT.

I have absolutely no affiliation with any of these mobile companies, this is a personal view of a BT customer who has had to fork out a fortune to a company who is now trying to score brownie points when they should be looking closer to home.

Comment posted by Anonymous on 15/08/2009 04:06:27

The hypocrisy of BT

Whilst I support the 3 & BT joint venture TTR campaign to reduce these mobile charges, what about also including the excessive BT standing charge monopoly on domestic broadband access for other telephone & internet service providers?

Comment posted by Anonymous on 15/08/2009 06:24:26

Why should I pay so much more for calls to mobiles?

I think it is wrong to charge landline companies so much to call mobiles. There is now enough competition to scrap those charges.

Comment posted by David Zirker on 15/08/2009 07:55:12

Mobile phones are a rip off

Maintaining a network of a zillion miles of wires & poles has to be more expensive than running a mobile network. No excuse for inflated mobile charges - they should be cheaper than landlines!

Comment posted by Anonymous on 15/08/2009 09:33:19

Inter-operator charges

It is quite ridiculous to have inter-operator charges.
These should be terminated now.

Comment posted by Anonymous on 15/08/2009 09:56:20

I support the BT & 3 action

This is a very sensible step in the right direction to bring costs down to a realistic level. It is all Ofcom's fault for not managing the telecoms industry properly. If I remember correctly, they obliged BT to reduce their apparent monopoly status and selling O2 was one of the results.

Comment posted by Anonymous on 15/08/2009 10:02:54

Money talks!

I use my mobile (or rather my wife does) only rarely. A £20 top-up lasts up to 6 months. My BT bill, however, always includes charges to mobiles usually 3-4 times the cost of our landline to landline calls. Regrettably the mobile culture has created this "money tree", changes to which will be fought tooth and nail with the massive resources available to the mobile operators. Until we have politicians who put the will of the masses before that of the chosen few, little will change. After all, what success has there been in getting the substantial reductions in energy and fuel prices despite a massive reduction in crude oil costs? Now they need the higher charges for renewals and exploration, etc, etc! Money talks too loudly!!

Comment posted by Anonymous on 15/08/2009 10:22:07

Shame on O2

What a cheek O2 have by keeping super inflated charge costs, I guess to keep their board members, etc, on superbly high bonuses, etc. Anything that reduces call charges is good for the consumer and WILL provide more choice for them as well. We're fed up of the bonus culture - get it into your thick heads that we need lower costs. This campaign makes logical sense.

Comment posted by Anonymous on 15/08/2009 11:13:49

Anti-competitive

I live in an area with very poor mobile reception. All my children communicate on mobiles so if I want to ring them I have to do so from the landline. Seems unfair.

Comment posted by Anonymous on 15/08/2009 12:03:27

O2

O2 are typical of many of the big businesses of modern times. Feed the paying public enough confusing statistics and they will accept any rubbish that they feed us. Get up to date O2. There has been a credit crunch and we are in the middle of a recession. The public at large is not as gullible as you would like to think. You are only interested in big profits and fat bonuses, nothing at all to do with what we as the customer wants. Get rid of the MTRs and give everyone a fair deal. The over-pricing on mobiles has gone on for too long.

Comment posted by John on 15/08/2009 12:13:37

BT is absolutely right and I agree with it all the way

BT is absolutely right and I agree with it all the way.

Comment posted by Anonymous on 16/08/2009 06:14:51

Someone has to pay

My concern is that without these termination rates, mobile operators will introduce charges to receive calls on mobiles, like happens in US for example (and I mean for US cellphone users). There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Comment posted by Paul on 16/08/2009 09:48:41

About time

O2 has no justification for not listening to BT and 3. They are making sense.

Comment posted by Anonymous on 16/08/2009 12:24:01

Unsubstantiated charges

Can O2 or any of the other networks charging these high extra cost justify them? I suspect not. It is not just in UK that calls to mobiles are ridiculously high, look at calls to Continental countries! It seems all European governments are allowing this extortion! They should all prohibit this unfair charge!

Comment posted by Anonymous on 17/08/2009 01:14:31

Terminate the Rate

Totally agree with you BT. We are being ripped off by mobile phone companies. This is just the start. We need to reduce the rip off monthly contract costs for mobile phones also. I have gone back to Pay as You Go - sick of overpriced mobile phone contracts. I now have a brilliant deal with BT with my phone, so I try to use that more instead of my mobile. Well done BT, keep up the good work. The monthly rental is a bit steep but, on the other hand, calls to BT are free and they do answer the phone when you call or they call you back. A good service.

Comment posted by Anonymous on 17/08/2009 07:21:33

Cut hidden costs

Cut them and rationalise/clarify all potential hidden charges.

Comment posted by Anonymous on 17/08/2009 09:36:54

Call charges too high

Ofcom should look into this as the mobile call charges are considerably high, especially for the low/pre-paid users who they claim to be protecting.

Comment posted by Anonymous on 17/08/2009 09:51:41

Money, money, bills, bills

Due to personal circumstances I am on pay as you go and the charges are ridiculous. Top up doesn't go anywhere.

BT has always been very expensive with its high charges, so makes me laugh they are now asking for this. Probably looks good for their image, I personally think.

I am renting so don't have a landline as I would have to pay for a connection fee and then have line rental and VAT, blah, blah... so only have a mobile but I feel bad for people who then have to ring me on that.

Total rip off. Britain gets us on everything, get penalised on everything for us working people is what makes the world go round.

Comment posted by Anonymous on 17/08/2009 10:09:33

Landline phone charges are too expensive anyway

Of course inter-operator charges should be scrapped completely. I also think line rental charges are a rip off, so my only phone is a mobile with free outgoing landline calls for a fixed fee. It is a shame that those calling me from landlines pay a premium.

Comment posted by Anonymous on 17/08/2009 11:50:38

Hands up anybody who thinks BT are doing this for the benefit of consumers?

If you've still got your hand up, go and ask BT for landline telephone service, no monthly charge, 0.3p per minute landline calls. Which means approx 66 hours of calls per month before you break even with BT's lowest standing charge, which doesn't include any free calls since they all have "connection fees" of over 5p.

That is what BT says their MTR is to other networks, so should be more than sufficient for calls to other landlines, the vast majority of which are run by BT.

Then wait for them to stop laughing and then fob you off with an excuse about "profitability" and "investment costs".

If that doesn't persuade you consider this from BT on the TTR website:
"Without MTRs it would be possible to offer fixed-price bundles offering unlimited calls, which would include calls to mobile phones on all UK mobile networks."

Comment posted by Anonymous on 18/08/2009 02:46:36

Stop mobile phone charges

Comment posted by Anonymous on 18/08/2009 09:22:38