O2 under fire over hiking peak times
From next month most of O2’s 1.1 million pay-as-you-go customers will see peak rates apply for 10 hours of the day instead of eight. This means that the off-peak period, when call rates drop dramatically, will only run for 14 hours instead of 16.
Last night the Consumers’ Association of Ireland (CAI) accused O2 of profiteering, saying the company was introducing a price rise through the back door.
“Consumers will have to pay at the highest rates for longer in the day now and this is a great disappointment.
“The only people who will benefit from these changes will be the company and not their hard-pressed customers who will be facing higher bills,” said CAI chief executive Dermott Jewell.
Of O2’s 1.1m pre-pay customers, 896,000 are on the Night Owl tariff with peak rates from 10am to 6pm weekdays and cheap rates outside these times.
But from May 7 the peak hours will be 8am till 6pm, an increase of two hours for the most expensive calling period and a reduction of two hours for cheaper calls. Hence a 10-minute call on this tariff to a landline at 9am weekdays costs €1.50, but will rise by 266% or €4 to €5.50 as the peak rate will kick in sooner.
O2 also has an Early Bird tariff offering cheap pay-as-you-go calls in the daytime, with around 224,000 customers signed up to the deal.
They get cheap rates between 2am and 6pm daily, but have to pay peak rates from 6pm to 2am the following day.
But under the changes the cheap rate will reduce from 16 to 10 hours a day, starting at 8am instead of 2am.
Likewise the peak-period will run an extra six hours and will apply from 6pm and not finish until 8am.
Hence a 10-minute Early Bird call at 7am to another mobile costs €1.90 as it is classed as off-peak.
But next month the same call rises to €6.30 — a hike of €4.40 or 231% — as the time will fall into the peak-rate period.
O2 defended the changes, saying the new regime would bring the company into line with competitors Vodafone and Meteor on peak and off-peak periods.
“It means greater transparency for our customers who will be able to compare us to other operators. It also brings our pre-pay charging periods into line with those on our bill-pay tariff,” said spokeswoman Fiona Dowling.
She said few customers would be affected by the changes as these were taking place when the fewest calls were being made.
Mr Jewell said O2 customers were being deprived of the chance to benefit from different charging periods to Vodafone and Meteor’s, which set peak hours at 8am to 6pm with cheaper calls outside these times.
