3 Abolishes Roaming Charges

Jam Man

http://www.rte.ie/business/2006/0313/3ireland.html

3Ireland abolishes UK roaming charges

March 13, 2006 13:04
From tomorrow, all customers of the 3 Ireland network will no longer have to pay higher call charges to domestic or UK numbers while roaming in Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

In addition, 3 Ireland has abolished international calling charges to all UK numbers from the Republic of Ireland. Per-minute international calls from Ireland to the UK have been reduced from 49c to 30c, and customers can use up to half of their allotted monthly bundled minutes to make these calls.

Last month O2 announced that fom April, roaming between the Republic and the North will be scrapped on O2's network for all its pre-pay and post-pay customers. The Minister and business groups welcomed the move.

BuffyBot

A good move on their part

paulm17781

Has anyone read this anywhere else? There is no update on the 3 site and I couldn't be bothered calling them at this minute.

Cabaal

http://www.3ireland.ie/ireland/icompany/media.omp

13 March 2006
3 Ireland Eliminates Northern Ireland and Great Britain Roaming Charges For All Customers
Calls Made While Roaming in Northern Ireland & Great Britain Treated as Regular Domestic Calls and Included in Monthly Minute Bundles

From tomorrow, all customers of 3, Ireland's newest mobile network, will no longer have to pay higher call charges to domestic or UK numbers while roaming in Northern Ireland and Great Britain. 3 Ireland is the first network to abolish roaming charges on a pan-UK basis for all its customers -- business and consumer alike -- without subjecting them to additional connection fees.

Nice idea for Three to announce it and set the date for it to start as tomorrow, makes them look very good compared to O2 & Vodafone.....so who's left Meteor?

paulm17781

Cabaal wrote:

http://www.3ireland.ie/ireland/icompany/media.omp

That wasn't there when I checked earlier. This is great, I'm going to Manchester in two weeks, a very welcome development by 3.

BuffyBot

so who's left Meteor?

Going to be a lot harder for them to do, with no sister network in the UK.

paulm17781

BuffyBot wrote:

Going to be a lot harder for them to do, with no sister network in the UK.

I would imagine they will try to make a deal with Orange or T-Mobile or someone who does not operate here.

kevinmcc

anyone know if text messages will still be charged at the higher rate or has this been dropped aswell?

Sam Vimes

now if only roaming worked properly

Dellas

Whats the story with Video calling from here to the UK ??? Are you now charged the same ??

drdre

thats great news form 3 but meteor are left and they should do it soon.

it really is a great benifit if you travel alot.

Saruman

Vodafone and O2 maybe to a lesser extent have networks all over Europe so some day maybe we will have no EU roaming charges

I wonder though... does it work both ways?? Do british customers have to pay roaming when they come here?

BuffyBot

I would imagine they will try to make a deal with Orange or T-Mobile or someone who does not operate here.

The problem with that is who comes off better out of it? The smaller Irish network, or the UK network..when it's within the one corporation it's not so much an issue, but two seperate companies will find it harder to strike a deal.

cupthehand

Will O2 follow Vodafone and Three's lead and abolish roaming charges in UK?
Just doing it for the North seems a bit of a cop out now compared to the other two.While they're at it O2 should also take a few pointers from their UK sister company and bring out something along the bolt-ons that they have there, which represent great value for pre-pay customers (especially the International one which gives both cheap calls and txt's from the UK to other countrys, 25 per msg is a lil steep when you try to stay in contact with friends all over the world.)

1huge1

on enn http://www.enn.ie/frontpage/news-9674485.html it says they have also dropped the price of video calls to the same as voice calls but its still not included in your minutes
but its still preety sweet that you can video call the UK for on 30c a minute

byrnefm

I know Vodafone are doing it for the pay-monthly customers but are they doing it at all for their PAYG customers? Will they still have to pay for incoming calls?

paulm17781

3 still haven't put the new prices on their website. I want to be certain there are no 'set up' costs or anything.

spanner_head

3 ends UK roaming charges
Laura Slattery




Ireland's newest mobile network, 3, has abolished higher call charges for customers who make or receive calls while roaming in the UK.

From today, all domestic and UK calls made and received while roaming on UK networks will be included as part of the bundle of minutes offered on 3 Ireland's monthly price plans.

If the calls use up more than half a customer's allotted monthly minutes, they are charged at 30 cent per minute, the same price as a local call.

The company has also eliminated international charges for calls to all UK numbers from the Republic of Ireland. Customers can use up half of their monthly minutes for calls to the UK.

The mobile phone operator's move follows an announcement by Vodafone last week that it is to abolish UK roaming charges for bill paying customers who sign up to its Vodafone Passport deal. However the calls cannot be included as part of the inclusive minutes granted under its monthly price plans.

Vodafone Passport customers who travel to countries other than the UK pay a connection charge of 79 cent and then the same call rate that they do at home.

Last month, 02 Ireland dropped its roaming charges for customers using its network in Northern Ireland and also eliminated them for business customers travelling to the rest of the UK.

Robert Finnegan, 3 Ireland's managing director, said he believed that the other operators' roaming offerings did not go far enough.

The network, which operates one of the Republic's third-generation (3G) mobile phone licences, is owned by Hutchison Whampoa group, which holds 3G licences in nine other countries.

The operator has also announced that video calls to the 3 network will now be charged at the same rate as voice calls, 30 cent per minute.




© The Irish Times

Blaster99

paulm17781 wrote:

3 still haven't put the new prices on their website. I want to be certain there are no 'set up' costs or anything.

Good point, but seeing as the calls work off the inclusive minutes I wouldn't think so. I would also assume that the UK non-geo numbers are not included in the call bundles which is a pain because those are invariably the ones I end up calling in the UK.

kevinmcc

Just checked with 3 and text messages will still cost 35 cent:mad:

Random

I love this whole roaming charges saga ..

O2 annouce it starts in April for business customers and soon after for consumers - dam good deal so it is.

Vodafone announce it for everyone from some date in March, bettering O2s offer.

3 just take the piss and say "yeh .. sure .. tomorrow"

Yggr of Asgard

They updated the website with details:

http://www.three.ie/ireland/iexplore/ihowmuch/ipriceplans/index.omp

1huge1

it still costs 30c a min receiving calls whats up with that
same price as making a call come on they have to change that
oh wait they can still be used as part of your mins so it aint that bad
but i just read this dosnt include video calls which i suppose is understandable ( i dont think i spelled that right...)

1huge1

just found out of 3 that video calls are now included in your minutes again good news

Dellas

kevinmcc wrote:

Just checked with 3 and text messages will still cost 35 cent:mad:

Are you saying that if your on Text and Talk you cant use your inclusive Texts to the UK ??? ( mind you theres only a few networks you can do this on anyway with 3) If thats the case is not such a good deal as I text loads to NI and UK

paulm17781

paulm17781 wrote:

I would imagine they will try to make a deal with Orange or T-Mobile or someone who does not operate here.

They could be bought by either of them yet given that the current bidders on Eircom dont want meteor...

Blaster99

I didn't realise until I saw the pricing details that they will charge for incoming calls in the UK. So they have not abolished roaming charges, they've just lowered them. I thought the idea with this Irl/NI thing was that you would not be charged for incoming calls when travelling in the border areas?

BrianD

The abolishing of the all roaming charge i.e charge for receiving calls while in the UK would be a bridge to far for the operators. I thought that there would be no roaming charges. If this was the case then effectively Ireland and the UK would be a single market or zone. It would then be harder for the the operators to justify the tarrifs charged to Irish customers over those charged to UK customers for the same service. Given the profitability of the Irish market there's no way they'd throw the golden goose out of the nest!

Blaster99

Another thing. I seem to recall the last time I was in the UK, the network varied between 3 and T-Mobile. Presumably T-Mobile is 3's backup network. Do you get the same rates if you're on T-Mobile coverage?

paulm17781

I figured it wouldn't be completely free.

Jam Man

I just checked and the receiving calls bit is included in the monthly minutes so it's kinda free...:)

jrey1981

will the free uk call minutes from a 3 bundle include mobiles?

I might consider changing to 3 if that is the case...I currently pay € 36 + vat per month for 100 irish, uk or near europe minutes to landlines and mobiles...

Blaster99

Going by what their site says, yes it does include mobiles. But check with them to be sure before ordering. I seriously doubt you can find a better deal than 3. For that kind of money you get 400 minutes with 3. Seemingly you can only use half of them for the UK calls, though.