Managing mobile costs
Managing mobile costs
We are determined to provide high-quality, reliable products and value for money – simply explained.
Our research tells us that value and price are high among consumers’ criteria when they choose a mobile phone operator. Increasingly, today’s mobile customers are fickle and willing to switch service provider on grounds of cost.
We provide pre-pay and post-pay packages and bundles to suit a range of budgets, enabling people to better manage their mobile phone spend. In 2006 we launched an online tool to raise awareness among the general public on how to manage their mobile phone spend, see http://mobilematters.o2.com./.
So that customers can compare our tariffs with those of other operators, we publish prices and tariffs online and in our shops.
O2 applies checks to bills. Our processes and accuracy are regularly audited by an independent third party and our billing accuracy meets industry standards under the British Approvals Board for Telecommunication’s (BABT) monitoring scheme.
In January 2006, Manx Telecom, our business in the Isle of Man, became the first operator to achieve dual BABT approval for its fixed and mobile services.
In the UK and Germany we have services that lower the cost of mobile calls in chosen locations, usually close to a customer’s home or business, for example, the ‘Genion Homezone’ service in Germany.
In Germany and the Czech Republic we offer lower-rate tariffs for students and younger users, helping parents to provide their dependents with a mobile phone.
In the UK we also offer free calls for O2 contract customers to community helplines, such as Childline, the Bullying Line and Crimestoppers.
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Children and spending
The fastest-growing new group of mobile phone users are children between the ages of 9 and 11. We particularly want to help them manage the cost and use mobile phones responsibly.
In 2006, O2 in the UK worked with the Personal Finance Education Group (pfeg) to support primary schools to develop and deliver a module of financial education for 9 to 11 year olds on the costs and responsible use of mobile phones.
Our Pfeg link has been a ground-breaking project. The scheme was piloted in eight schools in the East London area; it encourages teachers to give lessons as part of the Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) and citizenship curriculum.
Pupils learn about pre- and post-pay options, the structure behind our costs, off peak and peak costs, how to stay out of debt and in general, how to be responsible when using a mobile phone. We completed the pilot in early 2007 and aim to extend to UK schools nationally using pfeg’s website and via their regional offices, from which teachers are to download the tools and lesson plans.
We also work with young people in Germany. We belong to a working group on the financial education of young people, founded by the Consumer Protection Agency of Northrine-Westfalia, and we are working with JFF – a media and teaching institute in Munich – helping schoolchildren learn how to use mobile phones in a creative and responsible way. The interactive learning software ‘mobile phone course with Polly and Fred’ playfully guides 8 to 12 year olds toward responsible use of the mobile phone.
O2 Germany has signed up to a Code of Conduct on Consumer Protection, which regulates transparency of premium SMS prices, requests cost-control mechanisms, and demands the right to cancel subscription services at any time.
In Ireland we offer a dual-access service for parents to monitor their children’s mobile phone account records.
We also encourage content providers to be clear in their advertising of services, especially those that appeal to young people, and are subscription based.
To put an immediate stop to unwanted premium-rate services in the UK, Germany and Ireland, send STOP by return.
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