Channel4 Dispatches preparing hatchet job on the UK mobile industry

Channel4’s Dispatches team are preparing a hatchet job on the UK mobile industry.

I was talking to one operator and, well, it looks like the producers appear to be doing their best to knock together yet another one of those thematic documentaries.

You know the type. Lots of good theme music, lots of hanging questions with little in the way of fair and balanced reporting — and plenty of highs and lows spaced between the adverts to keep you watching.

I can’t watch Panorama or Dispatches because of the silly way in which they deliver their message.

So what’s the message of Monday evening’s programme? Let’s take a guess from it’s title:

The Great Mobile Phone Rip Off

Definitely fair and balanced.

You know I’d have agreed with the title statement a few years ago. But now? No. It’s massively dated. There are problems yes. Roaming is still crazy — my 308 pound Vodafone bill is testament to that (from last month, where I mistakenly chatted away for hours at 125p per minute, when I wrongly thought I was benefiting from the Vodafone Passport plan). That’s being addressed and there are rays of light appearing. It won’t be long. There’s no price collusion, the operators are doing their best to make cash before one of them breaks ranks, and cuts roaming prices dramatically. Then it won’t be long before that cash cow turns into a damp squid.

Text messaging over priced? Well again, it’s just not an issue. I even started a maketextingcheaper campaign a few years ago. Nobody cared enough to support it! And today’s massive availability of ‘unlimited’ texting plans and various Flext-style plans (as well as Pay As You Go offerings) make this issue nigh on mute.

So make sure you’re busy on Monday night. Turn over to some Simpsons re-runs, unless you’d like to watch what I suspect will be a rather dramatic piece of entertainment-cum-fair-and-balanced reporting.

I’m going to see if I can get a list of points that the show is covering and see how crazy (or reasonable, you never know!) they are.