According to complaints from consumer centers, customers in the Telefónica network are at particular risk of receiving increased bills by roaming at sea. Telefónica-Deutschland spokesman Jörg Borm said to Golem.de:
“Basically, the mobile phone use on ships, ferries and in aircraft is not subject to regulation.To protect O2 customers from unexpected costs in the use of mobile data, Telefónica Germany has come to an end May all O2 customers in principle for data roaming aboard ships and aircraft blocked. “
READ MORE: Telefónica customers particularly at “bill shock” risk
Telephony and the use of SMS on board are still possible. But even that is quite expensive : For calls to Germany – depending on the provider – amounts between 3 and 7 euros per minute call required. In some cases, an additional dialing fee may apply. For incoming calls, the call minute can cost between 1.50 and 7 euros. Sending a text message with costs between 40 cents to 1.50 euros is comparatively cheap.
Consumer Center criticizes alleged missing warnings
The Verbraucherzentrale Schleswig-Holstein had criticized that Telefónica’s informational SMS contained no warnings about the exact costs that could arise. There is also no automatic cost limit of about 60 euros. You have a specific case in which a consumer should pay over 11,000 euros. About 25 Euro will be charged per MByte.
Borm said, “Of course, O2 has always been providing its customers with SMS alerts about roaming costs aboard ships.” In addition, since the end of May, all O2 customers have been informed by an SMS about specific roaming costs that could possibly arise for data usage on board should customers be aware of this.
