Mobile broadband giant tries to defend excess data fee

A leading mobile communications giant has recently been defending its excess data charges for mobile broadband users, stating that the fees are there to act as a deterrent.

With all mobile and fixed line broadband service providers put a data download limit into place, and generally the more expensive the package the greater the data download limit. Many packages even offer unlimited downloads, but most consumers now know that ‘unlimited’ is not actually unlimited, as the download limits are subject to fair usage policy.

If the user exceeds the download limits put into place by the provider, fees and charges are imposed for any additional data downloaded, and the cost of this can mount up quite quickly. One mobile communications giant has recently been slated over the amount that it is charging mobile broadband customers for excess data downloads, and has been trying to defend the fees that are in place. The mobile provider is said to be charging the highest fees for exceeding data download limits out of all the mobile broadband providers.

On out of bundle services the mobile provider, O2, is charging just over two hundred pounds per GB once the data download limit on the mobile broadband service has been reached. The provider claims, however, that the fee is put into place just as a deterrent, and that there are measures taken to ensure that customers do not exceed their limit wherever possible.

An official from O2 said: “Very few of our customers go over their limits. We text them when they are at 50 per cent of the usage, and again at 90 per cent and again if they go over. We keep them well-informed and people understand our pricing structure.”