Football fans face bills for ‘phantom calls’ despite lack of coverage

IRISH soccer fans who attended the recent World Cup qualifier in France may get billed for “phantom” calls, despite being without mobile phone coverage for most of last weekend.

The country’s largest mobile phone operator, Vodafone, has confirmed there were network problems prior to the general collapse of the phone system in Paris last Saturday afternoon.

The problem related to calls made by supporters to other Irish mobile phone numbers which appeared to be answered but which did not enable people to speak to each other.

Such calls would have occurred before the collapse of the local Parisian network, which prevented the vast majority of the 30,000 Irish supporters in the French capital from using their phones. It was further exacerbated by a switch failure on the part of France Telecom’s landline network used to route international calls between French and Irish mobile systems.

“We are aware there were issues in relation to all three French networks which would have been used for roaming,” said Vodafone spokesperson Tara Delaney.

The company acknowledged connections between phones might have existed without “speech circuits”.

It is understood similar problems were experienced by O2 network users. However, an O2 spokesperson said its customer service department was unaware of any such complaints.

Telecom sources said it was likely that customers would be charged for such “phantom” calls as they would appear on itemised bills. The scale of the problem will not emerge until contract customers receive their monthly phone bills in November.

Vodafone and 02 said they had not received any complaints on the matter, but would be happy to treat any concerns from customers on an individual basis.