O2 to drop roaming charges for North

Mobile phone company O2 Ireland is to drop "roaming" charges for customers using its phones in the North and also eliminate them for business customers travelling to the UK.

The company claims the move will result in savings of 60 cent a call for O2 Ireland subscribers making calls while in the North.

Customers will not be charged for receiving calls when in Northern Ireland as currently happens.

Similarly, O2 Ireland will not charge its subscribers in the Republic extra for sending and receiving calls and texts back and forth across the border.

The company also plans to cut the roaming charges, which apply to making and receiving calls, for business customers when they travel to Britain.

They will just be charged according whichever price plan they have agreed with the company.

O2's initiative will also eliminate the problem of "inadvertent roaming" for the company's subscribers in the border counties.

This occurs where O2 Ireland subscribers inadvertently end up on the UK equivalent's service because the two networks intersect around the border.

This means that they incur charges even though they are not aware that they are "roaming".

That problem has led to complaints from consumers, and both O2 and Vodafone gave their contract subscribers the option of paying an extra tariff on their monthly bills to eliminate cross-border roaming charges.

O2 Ireland has cut these charges, €7.50 a month, as well.

However, only O2 Ireland is taking this initiative. O2 UK, to which Northern Ireland-based customers subscribe, gave no indication that it intended to follow suit. This means that Northern-Ireland based subscribers will still be hit for extra charges or tarrifs when they cross the border.

Foreign minister, Dermot Ahern, yesterday welcomed O2 Ireland's initiative, but called on its UK counterpart to extend the offer to its customers in Northern Ireland.

"It is imperative now that O2 UK move now to replicate the move by O2 Ireland," he said.

O2 Ireland chief executive Danuta Gray said yesterday that the UK company would still offer bill-paying customers the extra tariff option to cut roaming charges, and would extend this to pre-paid customers.

She said that the company knew that there has been pressure from consumers to cut cross-border roaming charges in Ireland.

"We have wanted to do this for some time, but it takes time to put everything in place," she said.

O2 will launch an advertising campaign next week to publicise the initiative. Subscribers will be able to take advantage of the cuts by contacting its customer care lines. The new service will be launched in April.

Vodafone issued a statement last night saying that it has various offers for roaming within Ireland and abroad. However, it did not say if it was going to follow its smaller competitor and cut these charges.