Think you're getting a good deal when you use your phone overseas? Well, soz, you're not. Overseas roaming charges are actually €20 per week higher for Irish mobile phone users than for other people in Europe.
According to new figures from ComReg, the telecoms regulator, there are surcharges of up to 30c per minute being applied to Irish customers when they try to call their mammies in places like America or Australia.
That means someone making a 10-minute call home from the US has to pay almost €3 more than yer man in another European country.
The research also shows an average surcharge of 98c per minute is applied by Irish phone companies, compared with 69c per minute across the EU.
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And lads, it's not just calls made outside the EU that are high for the Irish, we're also getting slapped with higher fees at home in Ireland.
A spokeswoman for Vodafone, played it all day, telling Independent.ie,
"Roaming charges that Irish consumers pay when using their mobile phones outside the EU are a function of the commercial agreements in place between operators here and their counterparts in the countries in question.
"This has to be seen in the context that Ireland is one of the cheapest countries in Europe for mobile users, as was pointed out in ComReg's most recent quarterly report."
From June 15, most roaming charges are being abolished in the EU but Irish operators might use this to jack up the price of calls and texts.
Ugh. Life is hard.
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