One of the things I wished for last month was a decent cooperative pay-as-you-go mobile phone service. About the same time, Ofcom started a social web consultation about mobile phone services. Now there’s an excellent presentation by Vivian Woodall, Chief Executive of The Phone Co-op that was given to FCS’ Comms Provider 08 event.
Ofcom’s Mobile citizens, mobile consumers: the importance of mobile suggests the idea of re-regulating is “controversial”. I’ve left a comment there that asks why. It seems obvious to me that UK mobile phone service is currently a market for lemons – useful independent measurements are few and far between, there are no trial periods and it’s often expensive to change provider. Maybe it’s different in the big cities.
Meanwhile, real complaints like An Orange-coloured hell, T-Mobile is the new Orange.. and Cancelling a Three mobile contract FAIL keep appearing with depressing frequency.
Just how big does the FAIL need to be before Ofcom actually intervene?