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£11,000 bill for downloading four episodes of Friends

A man was charged £11,000 when his wife downloaded four episodes of Friends through his mobile phone.

The man had the Vodafone business mobile broadband package on his phone. His wife ordered the programmes here in the UK, but her husband then flew to Germany on a business trip, taking the phone with him before the download completed.  Consequently it continued when he landed in Germany.  The download would have been free had it taken place in the UK.

Communications regulator Ofcom’s CEO Ed Richards confirmed that they would look into the high fee. The move will be part of a wider crackdown on mobile operator charges when customers use their mobile phone to send data and text messages when abroad.

On taking a quick glance at Vodafone’s mobile broadband tariffs, they do appear to have strict usage quotas for using their mobile broadband package abroad. At the most you get 200MB (Megabytes) per month included on any mobile network, but then it costs £4.25 per Megabyte after this.

However, according to a Telegraph report, the EU commission has ordered mobile operators to reduce their charges to customers downloading data or texting on their mobile when abroad by July 1st 2008, so things may start to improve after this.