Roaming

Thanks to a joint initiative with Telefónica Móviles in Spain, O2 UK launched a new roaming proposition, My Europe, in October 2006.

By removing charges when receiving calls abroad this service offers significant savings over standard call rates for holidaymakers and business travellers to Spain. These include a 35p per minute pan-EU flat rate for UK customers and the first-ever package that removes charges when receiving calls abroad. We believe we were the first operators in the world to launch such a service regardless of which network the call was received on.

Early in 2007 this offer was extended and covered 30 countries for O2 UK customers. Telefónica Móviles (33 countries covered) and Telefónica O2 Czech Republic (six countries) launched similar offers in 2006. O2 Germany followed with My Europe TOP offer in March 2007. In November 2006, O2 Ireland extended this offer as a permanent free opt-in offer to all pay monthly customers.

Stronger collaboration within the Telefónica Group helps us develop and provide more innovative products. We believe this has led to real customer benefits, not least this transparent and competitive roaming offer.

EU roaming regulation

Given our special roaming offers and a decrease in roaming charges in 2006 we do not see the need for a European regulation on roaming.

To protect customers and to substantially reduce the level of mobile roaming charges across the European Union, the EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media published her proposal for regulation in July 2006.

We are convinced that competition not regulation is the best way to maximize benefits to consumers and encourage innovation. We believe that complex regulations nearly always have unintended consequences: distorting markets, reducing competition, disadvantaging some consumer groups, or removing incentives to invest in infrastructure.

Inadvertent roaming

In February 2006, O2 Ireland became the first operator to abolish roaming charges between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland – introducing ‘All-Island’ pricing for people travelling between the north and south.

Roaming charges in Ireland were a concern for those living or working near the border, who often incurred roaming fees inadvertently, sometimes in their own homes.

In addition, international roaming has been abolished for O2 Ireland’s business customers between Ireland and the UK.

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