Three cheers for 3. Well, kinda. Earlier this week the boss of 3 in Ireland scrapped roaming charges for its punters while they're out and about in Britain or Northern Ireland.

3 Ireland MD Robert Finnegan told ElectricNews.Net that the decision to shelve roaming charges was based on customer feedback.

"We looked at trends of our customers, many of whom travel to Britain regularly. Roaming charges are unfair, so we decided to tackle the issue by eliminating them," he said.

"We at 3 treat all people equally and those travelling on business shouldn't be treated differently from those travelling on holiday."

Splendid news. Of course, if roaming charges are scrapped for Irish customers visting the UK, it would only be fair for the agreement to be reciprocated for 3 UK users. No?

Well, no, actually.

If you're signed up with 3 UK and you're looking to visit Ireland, you'll still have to pay full whack.

"3 UK cannot do the same offer at this time as the cost for 3 UK to provide international roaming to its customers whilst in Ireland is higher," explained a 3 UK spokesman. "This is due to the significant cost of wholesale international roaming rates currently available on networks other than 3 Ireland. We hope this will change in the future." ®

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