O2, owned by the Telefónica group, announced that all its customers in the Czech Republic, Ireland, Germany, Spain and the UK can enjoy price cuts in excess of 40 per cent if they want to use their phones for emailing or surfing the web in other European countries. UK customers can experience a price reduction of 57-80 per cent.

The benefits of these cuts can be enjoyed by all individual customers, irrespective of the fact whether they are on a prepay deal or a contract. The cuts will be applicable before July 2008. Previously, contract customers had to pay a tariff between £6 and £7.05 per megabyte of data depending on the country concerned. Prepay customers had to pay around £15 per megabyte. As per the new scheme, both groups will be paying just £3 per megabyte. If the customers choose a data bundle, they can expect an even better deal. The charges for text messaging while in roaming has also undergone a sea change for prepay customers. The rate has been slashed from 49p to 25p per message.

An official spokesperson for Vodafone said that customers did not prefer to be charged on the basis of megabyte. Thus it charges a flat rate of €12 per day irrespective of the fact how much data is used. An official spokesperson of T-Mobile said that it did not have any plans to follow O2’s gesture. Instead it provides 31,000 wi-fi hotspots worldwide.

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