O2 ends ‘unlimited’ mobile internet smokescreen

O2's announcement that they are to end its ‘unlimited' iPhone mobile internet plan may not be immediately welcomed by users, but uSwitch.com explains why this move towards fairer pricing plans is a win for consumers.

Matthew Wheeler, Communications Expert at uSwitch.com, comments: "Many consumers are shocked to realise that their so-called ‘unlimited' mobile internet plans are anything but unlimited. O2's ‘unlimited' plan saw customers who went above its ‘Excessive Use' policy charged per day for internet use. Today's announcement is a move towards greater transparency of pricing.

"This problem is by no means limited to O2 plans. Heavy users of mobile internet on all networks have found themselves stung after breaching their ‘fair usage' contract, despite buying into what was advertised as ‘unlimited' internet plans. It is appalling that the networks have been able to mislead consumers for so long and the remaining networks should work towards greater billing clarity.

"uSwitch.com has developed a comparison table which displays the true fair usage policy of all so-called ‘unlimited' data deals. This allows consumers to see exactly what is being offered by each network. We urge other mobile providers to follow O2's lead, and blow away the ‘unlimited' smokescreen".

‘Excessive use' costs by mobile data provider:

Orange: Data usage throttled once data limit reached, 60p daily charge for new customers and £1.50 daily charge for existing customers.

T-Mobile: No charges for exceeding data limits, data usage throttled.

O2: Standard data charges once over data limit. £1 per day on contract, £3 per MB on prepay contracts.

Vodafone: £5 per 500MB in excess of data limit.

Three: Notifications when 500MB data limit reached, 10p per MB in excess of data limit.

Virgin: £2 per MB in excess of 1GB data limit.