Guest lescargot Posted March 31, 2006 Report Posted March 31, 2006 I have recently left Orange to join T-Mobile on one of their excellent FLex-T packages. However today I got a bit of a shock when checking my bill - Calls to the Channel Islands are classed as international calls at 50 p/min. Ouch! With orange calls to the channel islands were classed as uk calls and came out of your tariff. Fortunately with t-mobile you can easily check the cost of your call online so i have found this out fairly early on without too much financial damage. Despite this problem I have no regrets leaving orange.
Guest Swampie Posted March 31, 2006 Report Posted March 31, 2006 The Channel Islands are confusing from a national point of view. They're practically on the cost of France (they're far closer to France than the UK). Technically, the Channel Islands are part of the UK (well, owned by the Crown) but they aren't represented in the UK parliaments, nor are they goverened by UK tax laws. They have special status within the EU - they're not members, but they're treated as members for the purpose of VAT (ie. importing goods to your country from the Channel Islands are classed as coming from within the EU). They also issue their own coins and notes, although Bank of England and Scottish money is still accepted. Their mail system operates independently of Royal Mail, with UK stamps not being valid on the islands, although for mail from the UK, it is classed as UK Inland - and therefore they have UK postcodes! They have their own Internet Top LeveL Domains (TLDs) - .gg and .je. They also have their own car registration schemes. Back to the point - the Channel Islands operate their own telecom systems, completely indepentent of the UK, and Ofcom has no jurisdiction over their operations. So, it's completely up to the network to decide whether to class calls to the Channel Islands as UK or international. Considering how far away from the UK mainland, and how close they are to france, I'd have expected it to be international to be honest.
Guest lescargot Posted March 31, 2006 Report Posted March 31, 2006 The geographical location does not come into it as i have also been charged international rate for calls to the Isle of Man. If i were calling from a bt landline (does anyone use these to make calls these days?) I would be charged national rate.
Guest TheNerd Posted May 21, 2006 Report Posted May 21, 2006 The geographical location does not come into it as i have also been charged international rate for calls to the Isle of Man. If i were calling from a bt landline (does anyone use these to make calls these days?) I would be charged national rate. I too call the Isle of Man regularly, and my move from Orange to T-Mobile has proved costly! Geographically, the Isle of Man is only 83 miles from the mainland (Liverpool). Although the Queen is the constituntional "Head of State" for the island it is not part of Great Britain nor the United Kingdom. It has its own parliament, its own laws, and perhaps more crucially its own telecommunications company. Whenever I visit the island, my mobile changes service provider just like it would in France, Spain or the USA for instance. This means I suffer the cost of foreign tariffs both for making and receiving calls (again I think more down to T-Mobile's policies) when I use my phone on the island. It seems a bit unfair as BT landline calls are at the 'expected' national rate, but I can see some of the arguement for T-Mobiles charges. - I'm just not delighted by them. ;) Nevertheless I'm happy with the service I get from T-Mobile and have been really pleased with the MDA Vario which wasn't available on Orange. I no longer feel I have to be loyal to any provider these days, and so if I see a better offer from anyone else I may just switch - but I'll check their policies for national rate calls first this time :P
Guest sporkguy Posted May 21, 2006 Report Posted May 21, 2006 The geographical location does not come into it as i have also been charged international rate for calls to the Isle of Man. If i were calling from a bt landline (does anyone use these to make calls these days?) I would be charged national rate. land...line....? ;)
Guest mcwarre Posted June 17, 2006 Report Posted June 17, 2006 Although the Queen is the constituntional "Head of State" for the island it is not part of Great Britain nor the United Kingdom. It has its own parliament, its own laws, and perhaps more crucially its own telecommunications company. So does Australia and New Zealand :)
Guest elhornet Posted June 28, 2006 Report Posted June 28, 2006 Irrelevant I know, but I got slugged import duties when receiving a package from the Channel Islands. Work that one out!
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now