I wanted to let you know of a con of which you might like to make your readers aware.
My O2 mobile phone account has a travel bolt-on that allows me to use my UK allowance of minutes and data when travelling in Europe for a flat fee of £1.99 a day.
On a recent trip, I was stung for a £21 international data roaming charge from Bermuda. Looking in my diary, I realised this was incurred while I was on the P&O car ferry from Hull to Rotterdam. The company, it seems, has installed a Bermuda-registered phone mast on its ferry, so your phone thinks it is in Bermuda and charges accordingly.
There was one announcement about this, but I suspect many holiday travellers with European data roaming will be stung this summer.
HB, Otley
Thanks for your timely reminder about the perils of using a mobile while at sea. This is not the first time this problem has featured in these pages.
P&O told us the charges come from Cellular at Sea, an external company that offers international network coverage. “We use this internally and a mobile phone will connect to it automatically if data roaming is not switched off.
“We have posters on board which explain the costs and that you will be billed directly by your provider. We do rely on all passengers to take responsibility for their own mobile phone usage whilst travelling with us. On this occasion, as a gesture of goodwill we would like to pay the £21 cost to HB.”
You had also complained to O2, and it has also agreed to refund the cost.
Other ferry (and cruise) passengers take note.
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