Mobile phones charges set to soar

Millions of mobile phone users face higher charges from next month as the biggest players in the market raise their pay-as-you-go prices.

Orange pay-as-you-go customers will be charged 25 per cent more for calls to mobiles, landlines and voicemail from Friday, with text messages going up from 10 to 12p. And Vodafone customers on its Simply tariff will, on 14 July, be hit with a 19 per cent increase in the cost of calls to mobiles, landlines and voicemail, while the cost of texting will go up by 20 per cent. However, Vodafone pay-as-you-go customers who aren’t on the Simply tariff face a 66 per cent hike in the minimum call charge, also on 14 July.