Ofcom asks networks, ISPs: Hey, wouldn't it be nice if you let customers know the best deal once their contract's up?

Re: Contracts

This.

Currently the end of a contract is a double win for the supplier. The long contract term is supposedly there to make sure they make money back from the setup costs they usually waive. After the fixed term ends they are presumably making much more money from you each month as the setup cost has been recouped... and then they up the monthly price too!

The regulator should demand the cost out of contract is no more than in contract.

Re: Contracts

How did we ever get to this stage where mobiles and broadband are on (usually 1 or 2 year) contracts?

Because it avoids the big upfront payment that would otherwise be required. If one supplier is saying "£350 for the phone, and £20/month, no contract" and the other says "Only £30/month, with a free phone, and a free upgrade every two years (2 year contract)" the second one looks better for people who can't find £350 in one go, and hey it's only two years. The phone companies rely on enough people not changing their phone immediately the two years are up to cover the extra costs of the cheaper monthly payments.

Re: Contracts

How did we ever get to this stage where mobiles and broadband are on (usually 1 or 2 year) contracts?

Because most people found it easier to fork out twenty or thirty quid a month rather than having to find £300-400 - and that was back in the day before phone makers realised that the gullible could be easily fleeced for £1,000+

Now we've got the value camp of people buying SIM free handsets, we've got an intermediate group buying a handset on contract and wanting to keep it beyond the contract (to whom this proposal applies). And then there's the group that want to always have the newest, shiniest, and who are happy to be perpetually paying full contract prices, renewing as soon as the contract ends (or permits an "upgrade").

But, as usual, Ofcom have flunked consumer protection, in favour of cosying up to the industry. MNOs should not be required to tell their customers they might get a better deal, they should be compelled by law to put customers onto an regulated airtime only contract when the handset's paid off.

Change is likely to come - there's a very slow moving trend that is pushing for all consumer regulation to be separated out from technical/asset regulatory bodies (Ofwat, Ofgem Ofcom, possibly FCA and CAB), and combined into a single consumer regulator, applying common standards for most consumer services. Its a long way off, but I look forward to the happy day when the clowns at Ofcom lose their consumer protection responsibilities to a body far more capable of doing the job.

They want churn to allow them the illusion of growth. It keeps the shareholders happy. The next stage after that is to follow the American dream and start hitting our political parties with bungs to remove regulation. When I look at the prices they pay in America and Canada I can see why these corporations want that model elsewhere.

O2 already does.

This is where the suppliers are winning, they hope that all customers go through a web channel to renew which usually ends up with a crap deal. In all cases phone up and haggle, if they have it built into their model the human at the end will be versed in getting you a better deal that isn't published on their site. That is definitely true of a certain TV satellite provider I know of and I have been able to get better deals in person with EE as well.

They are obliged to unlock it.

Re: What is this out of contract thingie?

I'd like to do that. Unfortunately, I have been and can give you the results. I have no results. I'm not looking at U.K. contracts, but I assume they're much the same.

For each provider I check, they have several different plans, all of which seem very similar. I'm a very simple customer; I already have my hardware and I don't need very much data. Each plan has the following variables:

Minutes/texts provided

Data cap

Data speed

Data at high speed cap

Roaming costs

Price difference for different number of lines

Very few of this matters to me. Ideally, I'd like a plan where I have a specific price for each type a thing and just live with it, although I'm fine with caps. Whenever a plan as simple as this exists, prices are much higher than all the other plans where details are less clear. Or sometimes, they will have more complexity to make up for it, such as some plans where there is also a cost for the sim itself (I don't know why). I have found no resource that allows for easy comparisons, and I have had enough conversations with the people at the mobile providers to know that I dislike having conversations with the people at the mobile providers.

Re: What is this out of contract thingie?

" looking with dismay and horror at their bill after travelling within 5 miles of the Serbian or Turkish border..."

Although it has a border with Serbia, Montenegro doesn't have a border with Turkey (well, not unless Erdogan's done something pretty dramatic overnight).

Are you sure you weren't in Bulgaria, which is the only country to have borders with Serbia and Turkey...?

Re: Ofcom Asks...

"...when your term of office is nearing completion,"

It is more akin to an elected person having to tell you all the personal deals they have cut that benefited from them holding that position. The Westminster parliament has a register of members' interests - which MPs sometimes forget to update.

It recently emerged that the recent Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, is paid over £200k a year for writing a newspaper column.