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| ONE X OF A RIP-OFF ON YOUR MOBILES http://www.bbfans.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=22937 |
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| Author: | JimD [ 30 Oct 05, 13:53 ] |
| Post subject: | ONE X OF A RIP-OFF ON YOUR MOBILES |
30 October 2005 SundayMirror By Ben Harvey MILLIONS of X Factor fans who use mobiles to vote are being ripped off by phone companies. Virgin Mobile is the worst offender - charging 85p a call, giving the firm a profit of 50p. T-Mobile charges 75p a call, Vodaphone 60p a minute and O2 and Orange just 50p a call. An X Factor source confirmed the system is a huge money-spinner for the ITV show - which itself rakes in 35p a call. Viewers last year spent £2.8million calling and texting the hit series - developed by pop svengali Simon Cowell and owned by production house Talkbackthames - and have helped ITV to earn £200 million in the past six months alone. The source said: "It's a major source of revenue for the X Factor and one we are keen to grow - but we cannot tell the mobile networks what they can charge." A Sunday Mirror investigation also revealed mobile networks are raking in cash from the text messaging service. As well as charging 35p a text most then charge an additional 12p for a "confirmation message" which is sent to show a vote has been registered. Last night Vodaphone, O2, Orange and Virgin stood by their call rates. But a T-Mobile spokeswoman said: "In the next few days we will be reducing how much we charge customers to use phone services like those on TV shows like X Factor." |
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