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MOBILE GIANT THREE has announced that Irish customers on its all-you-can-eat data plan will not be able to avail of the same offer when roaming in the EU.
This is despite the fact that the EU recently announced plans to abolish roaming charges across all member states.
Under the move, first reported by the Irish Independent, Three Irish customers will still keep their all-you-can-eat offer, up to a limit of 60 gigabytes (GB) at home. The paper also reported that other operators, including Meteor, are considering a similar move.
However, Three customers will not be able to use the 60GB when roaming. Instead, customers will get a ‘additional allocation of data’ to be used when abroad, and the 60GB will be used when at home.
The company is also raising its monthly prices for many bill pay customers, by €5 in some cases.
Three said that the changes are due to the “increased cost of doing business”.
Three’s roaming data allocation will be between 1GB and 7GB depending on the plan that the customer is on. When customers go over this allocation while roaming, they will then be charged for every additional unit of data that they use while abroad.
EU rules
The moves comes ahead of new EU regulations that are set to come into force in the middle of June.
One part of the rules was the concept of ‘roam like at home’. According to the EU Commission, travelers are meant to be able to “call, text and surf on their mobile devices when abroad in the EU for no extra charge on top of the price they pay at home”.
Telecoms operators are obliged to include this provision in customer contracts. However, customers can still be charged for data usage. As part of the EU’s plan, roaming customers will be charged the wholesale rate for data, 85 cent per megabyte (MB).
In cases where an operator is providing an all you can eat service, the company can limit data volumes to twice what the customer would be able to buy with the value of their contract.
For example, for someone with a €40 per month contract, each 85 cent buys them 1MB of data. €40 buys about 4.8GB of data, so the customer would be entitled to a 9.6GB allowance.
The Irish Independent reported that there is a loophole where a company’s data offering is classed as a ‘service benefit’, rather than a ‘core’, part of a customer contract.
It said a company could do this to provide a lower data allowance to customers travelling in the EU.
However, the EU Commission said in a statement this evening: “There is no loophole by which part of the domestic data allowance could be regarded as gift or side benefit and would therefore not count when traveling abroad.
“Doing so would appear like a clear case of circumvention, for which there is no basis in the roaming regulation.”
Cost of business
A spokeswoman for Three mobile said that the company’s new plans “include an allocation of data which, in addition to the call and text plan allocation, can be used at home or when roaming in the EU”.
All you can eat data remains available to customers, for free and for use at home, as an additional service.
“This is the first time that Three has revised the cost of its core portfolio in a number of years. These changes are a direct result of the increase in costs of doing business.”
The Irish Independent also reported that other companies, including Meteor and Eir, are considering following suit.
A spokesman for Meteor said that the company introduced a free 1GB roaming data allowance a year ago and is examining what system to put in place by the June deadline.
Written by Paul O’Donoghue and posted on Fora.ie
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They only key issue is that the DUP messed up when they were deal breakers under Theresa May. The DUP blundered big time, hopefully Sunak will sign the deal and leave you as the minority party you are.
@Mick McGuinness: The dinosaurs in the DUP, Paisley, Dodds and Sammy Wilson in Westminster will say NO and there is nothing the DUP Party who are living and working in NI can do about it.
Dinosaurs are pulling the strings.
@Mick McGuinness: the DUP thrives on poverty driven hate division sectarianism and protestant supremecy. There is nothing in the deal for them politically and they will find reasons not to support it.
@Mick McGuinness: I agree with what you say, BUT , the Big Deal her is ,— They are going to have to go into Government under a FENIAN ,– that they will try to avoid at All costs . So my guess is that they will find a flimsy excuse to delay and up scuttle the Applecart . .
You get the impression that the DUP would literally ‘burn the house down around themselves’ rather than entertain anything that risks NI’s position in relation to the Crown.
That is far more important to them than healthcare, education and the general wellbeing of the people of NI.
The irony of course is that the Crown, the UK goverment and the UK in general would prefer if NI would float off somewhere else and stop bothering them.
@Stanley Marsh: it’s a pity it wouldn’t just float off….full stop.
@Paul Shepherd: That’s what successive Irish and British governments thought since the foundation of this state. When it came back to bite them the same governments wondered how this could have happened. Suppose the fact of having a Republican first minister elected by the majority is the real sticking point to the DUP.
Donaldson won’t like this because he and and won’t be able to apply the so called ’Stormont Brake’ by themselves- they will need consensus from other parties. Jeffrey won’t be able to just throw all the toys out of the pram every time he gets a little wobbler
@Dave Harris: delicious irony in that, lol
There hasn’t been this much buzz and frenzy around the DUP since the witch burnings of the 1600s.
@Kevin Fitz: Sunak asked to give DUP more time, another 800 years should do
Go to DUP Facebook page and check out the comments under their posts about this. You will get the basic understanding of how a DUP person thinks. Ejit of the highest order.
Northern Ireland will be an ‘economic powerhouse’ with access to both markets? Ummmm like being in the EU then?
Rishi Sunak ought to listen to himself
Anymore more and itll be a case of just give the DUP what they want
Good old Jeffrey, head up rear end again
@Richard Starling:
In fairness, Jeffrey would take a seat in the Lords tomorrow if offered and dump the turd that is NI politics.
So NI pretty much has the same access to both markets that the UK had prior to Brexit.
Duck Donaldson
Good luck with that. No cash for ash deal there
Would it be possible to shrink Northern Ireland into one county and to give it to the dup forever and let’s get nexrit done
@FlopFlipU: Yes, it could end up like Gibraltar.
@FlopFlipU: No.
@FlopFlipU: so another sectarian head count gerrymandered entity. Yeah that really worked over past 100 years of 6 county gerrymandered state.
Lady Bird version in block capitals and mostly pictures for DUP please.
NI had access to UK and EU markets before Brexit .. it now has access but with some extra paperwork
It would be a lot more ‘exciting’ if the U.K didn’t inflict Brexshit on the world in the first place
And yet the Dup have put the Union before the people.
I really hope the DUP stay true to form and vote no to this deal. It would force Westminsters hand and put them at complete odds with the DUP. Calling it “the Windsor” agreement was genius!!!
Blunder of the highest order. You’d have to wonder what genius thought this was a good way to phrase it this way.
Britain being able to make their own environmental laws hasn’t worked out well for them, not sure I would be mentioning that, either.
The ‘Stormont Brake’ will be the rock upon which this punt will founder!
have your say