Today both O2 and Vodafone have made announcement of new deals that will reduce call costs across EU roaming rates and business tariffs for calls to the UK.
Thankfully, the European Commission last year introduced a compulsory Eurotariff that had the knock-on effect of dramatically reducing roaming rates throughout the 27 EU member states.
The move was obviously welcomed as it cut the average cost per minute of calling home from an EU country from €1.10 to about 49c (a reduction of over 50pc), although 3 Ireland was the cheapest of the mobile operators here.
Now, O2 Ireland has reduced the cost of sending a text home for prepay customers when in one of the member states to 29c from 39c and this will take effect on 1 July 2008.
The problem is it still costs 59c to make calls while roaming in the EU on a flat rate and 29c to receive calls, which is the exact same as Vodafone’s rates, while 3 Ireland charges 39c and 19c respectively to make and receive calls while roaming.
Vodafone’s big announcement will be good news for SME customers using the Wireless Office Plus package because the new tariff will allow customers to call UK mobiles and landlines from Irish mobiles for 15c a minute.
“We know from our customers that approximately 70pc of international calls they make are to the UK,” said Eavann Murphy, head of marketing, business & enterprise, Vodafone Ireland.
“We have therefore introduced a 15c flat rate for all calls to UK mobiles and landlines. This is the best value available in the market and stands to deliver significant cost savings for these customers.
By Marie Boran
