Irish customers of mobile phone operator 02 paid an average bill of €572 for their services last year, far more than their counterparts in the UK and Germany. Barry O'Halloran reports
O2 Ireland, which operates the group's business in the Republic, yesterday released figures showing that in the 12 months to December 31st, the average revenue it earned from each Irish customer was €572.
The comparable figure in the UK for 2005 was €395, while in Germany, the operator's other major market, it was €338.
The new National Consumer Agency is likely to raise the issue of mobile phone charges with communications industry regulator Comreg this year as part of its programme. Its chairwoman, Anne Fitzgerald, confirmed that it intended doing this. "It is one of the issues that we will be looking at," she said.
The figures show "post-paid" customers, who get a monthly bill, were charged more than three times the amount handed over by "pre-paid" customers, who top up their call credit as they require it.
The average O2 post-paid bill for the whole year was €1,155 in 2005, while those with pre-paid phones were charged €360.
The comparable charges in Germany were €514 and €135. In the UK, they were €765 for bill-paying customers and €201 for pre-paid, which was the one exception to the rule that Irish customers paid more.
The O2 operator's bigger competitor in the Republic's mobile market, Vodafone, will publish figures today that are widely expected to show a similar disparity between the amount paid by users here and in other countries.
Labour's communications spokesman, Tommy Broughan, yesterday called for a crackdown on "excessive" mobile phone charges.
"It is clear that Irish consumers are paying much higher than average rates for some mobile services. Irish consumers are paying more than twice what their German counterparts are paying."
Both operators say Irish customers have bigger bills because they use their phones more.
An O2 spokeswoman said last night its per-minute charges for mobile phone calls in the Republic were the lowest of its three markets. In November 2004, she said, the company showed an Oireachtas committee that it charged an average of 18.1 cent per minute in the Republic, 20.6 cent in the UK and 20.5 cent in Germany. Those figures were based on charges levied in September 2004.
While it does not have more up-to-date information, the spokeswoman said that since 2000, pre-paid costs had fallen 38 per cent and post-paid charges 45 per cent.
In October, Comreg blamed poor competition for the fact that charges for some mobile services were "stubbornly high". In February 2005, it ruled that Vodafone, Meteor and 02 had dominant positions in the Republic's market. However it agreed to annul this when the companies appealed the declaration to a special panel in December.