Emergency relief

There was overwhelming support from our employees and customers for the victims of the 2004 tsunami disaster.

With the rest of the industry, we set up a short premium rate text code for the public to make donations to the Disasters Emergency Committee. Administration costs were waived and, with agreement from HM Customs & Excise, all donations were zero-rated for VAT. Our network's appeal raised £1.0 million.

For several weeks, O2 Ireland waived call charges to the afflicted region and O2 Germany gave up space on TV advertisements to allow charities to publish their hotlines. All in all our direct contribution to tsunami appeals amounted to around £414,000 with employees contributing £133,000.