O2 won’t charge your data allowance for more than 20 support and advice websites during the Covid-19 crisis, the mobile network announced today.
O2 has added 22 new websites to its list of pages that won’t put a dent in customers’ monthly data allowance. These include citizens’ and financial guidance, help for children and the elderly, mental health services and health, disability and bereavement support.
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The advice and support services join the NHS as a zero-rated site under O2. The network promised to halt charges for pages belonging to the health service last week to allow users to access important advice, worry-free.
Zero-rate is a term used by mobile networks and internet service providers to describe the practice of not charging users to visit certain websites. These temporary changes mean that you’ll be able to access essential health advice and support without worrying about eating into your data allowance or receiving additional charges while the coronavirus pandemic is ongoing.
“Our customers are the most important thing to us, and we want to ensure that they have the support they need throughout this difficult time”, said O2 CEO Mark Evans.
“That’s why, further to our announcement last week zero-rating NHS websites, we’re ensuring that additional websites providing financial guidance, health and emotional advice and support can also be accessed by our customers without using any data allowance for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis”.
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Support and advice sites you can now visit on O2 at no charge include:
- Citizens Advice
- The Money Advice Service
- Step Change
- Samaritans
- Mind
- Rethink
- Anxiety.org
- YoungMinds
- MindOut
- Age UK
- The Silver Line
- The Mix
- Childline
- Alzheimer’s Society
- Macmillan Cancer Support
- Asthma UK
- British Heart Foundation
- Diabetes UK
- Scope
- RNIB
- Action on Hearing Loss
- Cruse Bereavement Care
You can also visit NHS websites free of cost.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
