Economy on the back foot

of data; that downloading programmes is better done on somebody else’s Wi-Fi with unlimited data!

But we never had to factor in a teenager into the equation, and data for today’s teenager is what TV was for my generation — just a given, and preferably in copious quantities.

There is no warning from the phone company.

Unlike the text that will be sent to your phone if you are going over your monthly limit, mobile phone companies refuse to send any automated message regarding data usage on a dongle to the owner’s phone... refuse until they realise that you’ve used up the equivalent of two year’s dongle fees in a single month.

I queried this with the ComReg, and a pleasant man in their call centre informed me that this was standard practice for mobile phone operators.

Needless to say I was livid. Annoyed that our household has let it happen.

But more annoyed that a company that I pay about €3,000 a year to in phone and internet charges would have the gall to saddle me with such punitive charges.

After pleading my case I was told that the best they could do was halve the surcharge.

I didn’t know whether to feel grateful or annoyed. If we had gone out 12 months ago and bought a ready-togo SIM card with unlimited data for €20 a month, we would never have had this problem.

Would that have been gaming the system?

If we lived in a town or city we would have had hi-speed internet at an affordable price coming out of a socket in the wall for years.

Instead, I’m supposed to feel grateful that I ‘only’ paid €500 for my December internet service.

All because we live in the country and play by the rules. And then the politicians wonder why there’s still a two-speed economy.