Inclusive services

More and more people can access mobile telephony

In all our markets the number of mobile contracts outstrips, or is very close to, the population count.

We believe that mobile services should be accessible to all types of customers, regardless of cost, special needs, age, knowledge and geography.

In all our markets we offer various mobile tariffs to suit customer needs and lifestyles. These include services at lower cost in chosen areas – usually close to a customer’s home or business or through reduced-rate international services.

Our pre-pay services equip customers and users of all ages and social groups to budget for their mobile use.

With strong market growth and increasing competition, the cost of mobile has in fact reduced by about two thirds since its introduction 20 years ago. Our services are more accessible than ever to increasing numbers of people.

Any inability to access information and communications technology creates what is often referred to as the digital divide. We also examine ways to make our services more inclusive, not only through offering good value services, but also in serving people with special needs.

We took part in the UK Government’s Digital Inclusive Panel which contributed to the UK Digital Strategy. We comply with the General Code 15 and the Code of Practice for Service Delivery for the Disabled and Elderly in the UK. We belong to the Employers Forum for the Disabled and the Two Ticks scheme, which raises disability awareness among employers. In Ireland, we have launched a handset for the visually impaired with special ‘talk’ software that converts text to voice.

O2 makes provision for those with special needs – like invoicing in Braille, using larger text size, audio options, the vibrate function for the hard of hearing, and a fully accessible website, O2 Access, for people with visual impairments.

O2 Ireland has raised awareness of dyslexia internally, providing managers with guidelines on communications, showing employees how to view web pages in larger font sizes and making internal communications more accessible. 

We have also revised our customer-care letters, reducing them in length, writing them in simpler English and bulleting information where possible.

During the year O2 became the first company in the world to adopt the Segala Trustmark as standard throughout its online content.

The Segala trust mark is an endorsement of the importance we place on the ability of people of all age groups and capabilities to view and engage with content on the website.