Editor's Blog Section

From ‘Hanging Up’ column, issue 40 – April/May 2009

Heard the one about the chap who went skiing, downloaded a few TV programmes to entertain his son in the evening, and got hit with a bill for nearly £22,000 on his return?

Unfortunately for the father, this was no joke. He had assumed his £25 Vodafone data card would cover the cost, but it merely gave him access to mobile broadband abroad. The downloads were charged at a rate equating to £300 per minute. Yes, that’s right: per minute!

Since the advent of what is now being called “mobile broadband” (you might think of it as a wireless dongle), it has never been so easy to stay in touch via a wireless network wherever you happen to be. And sure enough, both consumers and businesses are embracing the opportunity to do so in droves

According to some startling statistics just revealed by Orange, sales of mobile broadband dongles have gone up 500 per cent in a year. Data traffic passing via those mobile dongles was up an astronomical 4,125 per cent – which Orange rightly calls astounding.

Data traffic on mobile phones and handsets doubled in the same period: healthy enough growth in normal circumstances, and owed largely to the proliferation of smartphones, which have made it easier to access the Internet.

Users taking making full advantage of the opportunity to visit social networking sites and download music and applications while on the move. No wonder Orange predicts mobile data demand will grow even further.

The good news is that prices will fall. The bad news is that users are unlikely to enjoy the same unlimited data transfers that most home broadband users have come to expect. That’s Orange’s warning, anyway, and anecdotal evidence so far seems to support it.

A friend of mine recently moved to a flat with no fixed broadband connection, and began using her phone regularly to check emails and catch up with friends on Facebook. When the next bill arrived from the network operator it was double her usual monthly charge. She had assumed that the monthly charge with its inclusive texts and voice calls would include any surfing charges. Wrong.

There’s a much cheaper alternative of course: Wi-Fi. But even if access to Wi-Fi networks is getting better all the time, paying for it can still be a fraught process.

Several companies, from airport operators to train companies, now promote the fact that they offer Wi-Fi access, although if you want to do anything other than check train or flight times, there’s often a charge for this. Some Wi-Fi providers have deals with network operators; if you travel by Virgin Trains regularly, for instance, and have a T-Mobile broadband account or travel first class, access couldn’t be easier. If not, you have to jump through several hoops to log on.

It seems highly likely that more users are going to get caught out by extra charges, no least because both consumers and businesses have become used to fixed-price all-inclusive monthly text and voice packages.

Similar packages are being offered for mobile broadband, but with a vital difference: the networks tend to impose fixed data limits, and apply high charges for any downloads that exceed them, often giving no warning that limits have been exceeded. No wonder consumer groups are calling for action to make the situation clearer.

To be fair to Vodafone, it reportedly refunded the skier for his inadvertent overspending, but others may not be so fortunate. Ofcom says that it is discussing this with network operators in the UK. The European Parliament, which has already acted to cap voice roaming charges, has voted to cap the price of data roaming to 50 cents per megabyte. But this could take months before this is implemented.

In the meantime, caveat emptor.

Sharon Clancy