Most of us, these days, whether on our land line, or mobile, have a package so that some of our calls are covered. It might be all calls to landlines in Ireland, or all calls to the same network from our mobile. By and large these packages are very useful, if you can stay within the rules and mostly operate within your package. The problem is that often, you can't know, at the time of making the call, whether it's covered by your package or not and the first you know of it is when you have to pay the bill, or find all your credit gone, or enormously depleted. To me this seems unfair. I think it should be at least made clear, when I'm making the call, whether it's part of my plan or not.
At the moment, when you make a call from an Irish network mobile, there is an indication, in some cases, of whether you will pay extra or not. For example, if I have an 086 number with O2 and I am calling another 086 number which has migrated to a different mobile company, there is a slight "beep" just before the number rings. If, however, I am calling, from the same 086 O2 phone, an 087 number, (or 085, 083 etc) I get no indication of whether this call is covered or not, even if it has migrated to O2.
I think it should be possible that the caller is let know, before the call commences, whether it's covered in their package, or not. Simply replace the "beep" with an announcement saying "Free" or "Charged" or whatever format would let the caller know what the hell it is that he's doing. This should be applied to all calls made, whether from a land line or a mobile phone.
The more I think about it the more unfair it seems to me that you cannot know, when making a phone call, whether you're paying extra for it or not.
I have contacted both Comreg and the Dept of Communications about this and the people I spoke to had never heard of such an idea before, but both admired it greatly as a service to consumers. The extent of Comreg's powers is that if enough people mention the same idea to them within a certain amount of time, they will recommend it to the different phone companies.
I cannot see any phone company or service provider jumping on this willingly or chomping at the bit to implement it. It would only work properly if all companies and service providers implemented it anyway.
I would appreciate anyone's thoughts or impressions on this idea, and please, if anyone thinks well of it, do contact Comreg on 018049600, and/or the Department of Communications on 016782000.
[FONT="]I hope I've explained my idea well enough but would welcome any questions.[/FONT]
At the moment, when you make a call from an Irish network mobile, there is an indication, in some cases, of whether you will pay extra or not. For example, if I have an 086 number with O2 and I am calling another 086 number which has migrated to a different mobile company, there is a slight "beep" just before the number rings. If, however, I am calling, from the same 086 O2 phone, an 087 number, (or 085, 083 etc) I get no indication of whether this call is covered or not, even if it has migrated to O2.
I think it should be possible that the caller is let know, before the call commences, whether it's covered in their package, or not. Simply replace the "beep" with an announcement saying "Free" or "Charged" or whatever format would let the caller know what the hell it is that he's doing. This should be applied to all calls made, whether from a land line or a mobile phone.
The more I think about it the more unfair it seems to me that you cannot know, when making a phone call, whether you're paying extra for it or not.
I have contacted both Comreg and the Dept of Communications about this and the people I spoke to had never heard of such an idea before, but both admired it greatly as a service to consumers. The extent of Comreg's powers is that if enough people mention the same idea to them within a certain amount of time, they will recommend it to the different phone companies.
I cannot see any phone company or service provider jumping on this willingly or chomping at the bit to implement it. It would only work properly if all companies and service providers implemented it anyway.
I would appreciate anyone's thoughts or impressions on this idea, and please, if anyone thinks well of it, do contact Comreg on 018049600, and/or the Department of Communications on 016782000.
[FONT="]I hope I've explained my idea well enough but would welcome any questions.[/FONT]