UK mobile prices 'too high', claims Oftel

UK mobile phone users are not getting the best deals possible, according to research from telecoms watchdog Oftel.

In the first stage of its review of the mobile industry, Oftel said it is concerned that the UK consumer does not appear to get a good deal on services including international roaming and calls between different networks.

According to Oftel's findings, international roaming tariffs for UK customers are higher than in other EU countries and are very complex. It is often difficult, if not impossible, for customers to know in advance exactly what charges will be made, Oftel said.

The watchdog also found that the mobile operators were making profits greater than would be expected in a fully competitive market. It warned that it would clamp down if further research showed that there was no effective competition between operators.

David Edmonds, director general of telecommunications, said: "UK mobile phone prices overall compare favourably to the rest of Europe and they continue to fall. However, there is evidence that prices could be lower still."

"In particular, prices for international roaming and for calls between different mobile networks are not coming down as much as other services," said Edmonds. "This suggests that consumers who use these services a lot might be losing out."

However, despite the concerns, Oftel found that overall mobile prices have fallen by 24 per cent since January 1999, and that around 90 per cent of customers are satisfied with their service.

BT Cellnet said in a statement: "This is an important piece of work from Oftel and we welcome the effort Oftel has clearly undertaken in pulling it together. We welcome the overriding conclusion that the UK consumer is getting a good deal, with overall customer satisfaction at a high and stable level, measuring well against European benchmarks. This is great news for UK customers."

"As you appreciate it would be premature to make detailed comments at this stage when there's a lot of detail in over 120 pages which Oftel wants the industry to consider over the next three months. We look forward to working with Oftel in the coming months," the statement added.

Kevin Perlmutter, corporate PR manager for One2One, said: "We welcome the review and the findings that UK consumers are getting a good deal for many of their mobile services, and that prices have fallen since 1999."

"It is a pretty extensive review and we will need to digest the findings before we can comment further, but with regard to findings on international roaming, the EU Commission has recently cited One2One as a positive example of how these services should be made available to customers," added Perlmutter.