Ofcom publishes guidance about 'small print' charges

Regulator Ofcom has published guidance that tells communications providers how it thinks the law - the the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999 - applies to any charges consumers may have to pay in addition to their regular bill. These charges are usually for not paying by direct debit, for receiving paper bills, for late payments or for leaving before a contract ends. Ofcom has also published a consumer guide that covers the same subject. Its guidance says charges for late payments and different payment methods should be limited to the cost of dealing with payments, charges for itemised billing shouldn't be more than £1.50 per bill and consumers who end contracts early should never have to pay more than the payments left under the contract. [Press release; Consumer guide (pdf)]

O2's parent publishes Q3 results

Telefónica, which owns O2 in the UK, says its profits for the third quarter of 2008 were down 50% year-on-year... although it's worth noting that last year's figure included the sale of television company Endemol. In the UK, O2's revenue was up 8.7% and a record-breaking 277,593 'contract' customers had been added. [Sources: Telefonica press release; FT.com; Bloomberg.com]

Prepay sales outselling 'post pay' 2 to 1 worldwide

Sales of 'pay monthly' contracts may be increasing in the UK, but things are different in the rest of the world. Informa Telecoms & Media says prepaid mobile services are outperforming the traditional 'contract' market at a rate of two to one. They say there were 2.33 billion prepaid subscriptions in the world at the end of 2007, generating $241.9 billion in revenue. Annual growth in prepay sales will drop to around 9% from 2007 to 2013, but will still account for over 80% of new connections. In addition, almost 29% of mobile connections in 2008 aren't expected to be the customer's main number but will be an additional handset. [Source: Telecoms.com]

New quarterly industry figures from Ofcom

Another quarter, another batch of UK statistics from regulator Ofcom. Apparently revenue across Vodafone, O2, Orange and T-Mobile fell by 1.6% in Q1 2008, with call volumes dropping slightly (0.23%) and messaging volumes increasing by 8%. Customers with 'pay monthly' constracts increased by 1.9% - a trend that's happened since the beginning of 2006. 'Contract' customers now account for 36% of all mobile subscribers, compared to 32% in Q1 2006. [Press release]

O2 to ditch 12-month contracts

O2 is dropping 12-month contracts for new 'pay monthly' customers and is insisting on a minimum term of 18 months. This reflects a general move in the UK mobile industry, with 84%of July 2008 contracts being 18-month deals. [Source: FierceWireless.com]

Mobile phones and contracts feature twice in consumer complaint 'top 5'

Consumer Direct, the UK government-funded advice service, has revealed the top ten complaints it had to deal with in 2007. At the top of the list of over 1.5 million calls and emails came second-hand cars bought from independent dealers - also top of the 2006 list - with mobile phone contracts moving up the list to 2nd place. TVs were in 3rd place, with mobile phone equipment in 4th place - over 50,000 complaints about mobile phones in total. [Press release]