steverjames wrote:
I know this isn’t ideal for people who are going to areas that have increased in price, and I wish we didn’t have to do that if I’m honest. Unfortunately the costs just don’t add up otherwise. It’s a very delicate balancing act between how much benefit people get and whether it’s something we can sustain. One thing we looked at is introducing a new roaming pricing tier, for example, but the development time that would have taken would have put us past our June implementation deadline.
@steverjames - The 15th June 2017 implementation date of Regulation (EU) 2015/2120 has been widely known since the European Commission's press release on 30th June 2015, almost two years ago. The subsequent regulation containing the relevant detail was published on 25th November 2015, over 18 months ago.
For many years, giffgaff has been voluntarily including non-EEA Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man, Switzerland and Monaco within the same pricing tier as EEA countries, because the high level of the EU roaming price caps has made it feasible to do so. Giffgaff has known since 30th June 2015 that it would have to apply domestic prices (including goodybags) to EEA roaming with effect from 15th June 2017, and therefore that the unregulated wholesale prices charged by networks in Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man, Switzerland and Monaco would make it difficult to continue treating these 5 non-EEA destinations in the same way as EEA destinations.
On 8th March 2017, gifgaff implemented a new roaming pricing tier for "Zone A" (comprising Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and United States). I therefore ask you:
- Given that giffgaff has known since 30th June 2015 that it would likewise need to create another new pricing tier for Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man, Switzerland and Monaco with effect from 15th June 2017, why did you leave it almost two years until May 2017 to start thinking about the development required or about any other solution?
- Why was a new pricing tier for these 5 non-EEA destinations not implemented at the same time as the new "Zone A" pricing tier?
- Why should giffgaff members suffer a 200-fold price increase from 0.5p/min to £1/min for incoming calls in these 5 destinations as a result of giffgaff's failure to plan ahead, despite giffgaff having had the unusual luxury of two years' notice?
- Other UK networks are offering roaming at domestic prices in these 5 non-EEA destinations, and Three has done so for a long time. What is different about giffgaff, compared to other UK networks, that prevents it from doing the same? For example, does giffgaff pay higher wholesale charges than other UK networks pay to networks in these 5 non-EEA destinations?
This huge unmerited increase in roaming charges in Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man, Switzerland and Monaco has upset a lot of giffgaff members. In particular @bigjlenny, @cyrillic_guy, @frpc, @chellyyy94, @dannyromeril, @koolrulez, @rutolander, @bighairytoe, @1colinh, @soruk, @dianehand, @chopdog_iphone, @weetinamc and @karlhoran4 have all quite rightly questioned or challenged the increase. I invite these members to "report content" of my post in order to draw educators' attention to it and to solicit your earliest response to the above four questions.
