Where is the regulator?

Mobile phone contracts have the tendency of becoming confusing and not transparent to the end user. All three local operators offer similar contracts, offering a certain number of free calls and free SMS to either numbers of their network, selected numbers or sometimes to other networks. Unfortunately, the end user has no information to which network the number he is calling belongs to due the number portability introduced a few years ago. It is therefore very difficult for him to ascertain the costs of his call. It is unclear why the Communications Authority (MCA) has not imposed to the operator to inform for example the caller of the eventual cost per minute of the call before starting it, and also to inform him on the final costs of his call (or SMS). This would be a perfect normal procedure similar to ordering a burger from the menu and paying for it after Its consummation. There are no cost surprises with the burger, with one’s mobile phone bill there are.

The EU has imposed to the operator to notify by SMS the client when the current mobile phone spending has reached a certain amount, how does this work when one uses a tablet? I would have thought that MCA would have better controlled that.

Why are there no more contracts without a term? Why are consumers obliged to subscribe a yearly, and more often a two yearly contract? Why has MCA no say in this?

My final note is a comment on the introduction of the latest RED offer of Vodafone. As smart phones are replacing consistently the old mobile phones, a clear shift from traditional mobile phone calling and texting has taken place to data based services. Services like Skype, Whatsapp or Facebook have become the main communications vehicle of today’s consumers. Therefore I find it very surprising and also misinforming from Vodafone to introduce for example a RED plan at 35€ a month with only 500 mb of data in its plan: a typical iPhone users consumes an average of 2 gb per month! And who needs all these “free” minutes of call or SMS when they already exists with the data based services, and are even better as they offer for example video calls?

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