UK Mobile Operators Gift Free Calls to Pakistan After Floods

Mobile operators and some broadband ISPs including Vodafone, BT, EE, Plusnet, iD Mobile, O2 and Virgin Media have in the last week responded, separately, to the massive floods in Pakistan by giving their UK customers free calls to the country and roaming.

The gestures and timeframes tend to vary, but it appears to have started when Vodafone issued the following statement on 29th August 2022: “As a result of the devastating floods in Pakistan, we’ll be crediting all Vodafone UK customers who use minutes, texts or data in Pakistan between 29th August and 5th September. We will also be crediting all calls and texts from customers in the UK contacting friends and family in Pakistan during this period.”

A couple of days after that BT, EE and Plusnet (all part of the same group) followed with this statement: “We’ve made mobile calls, texts and data used in Pakistan free-of-charge for customers between 31st August and 5th September (inclusive). We’re closely monitoring the floods and will help our customers in the region wherever we can. We’ve also made calls from the UK into Pakistan free.”

The above gestures were followed on 1st September by iD Mobile, which pledged to provide “free calls/texts from the UK to Pakistan, and customers roaming in Pakistan will get free calls, texts and data until further notice.”

Both Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) also issued the following pledge on Friday: “In response to the ongoing crisis and to support any of our customers in Pakistan, we are crediting back all charges for mobile calls, texts and data used in Pakistan for all of our Virgin Media & O2 customers between 29 August and 10 September 2022. In addition, to ensure UK customers can contact loved ones directly impacted, we also are crediting back charges for international calls and texts to mobiles and landlines from the UK to Pakistan during the same time period, too.”

We should point out that VMO2 has clarified that their measures apply to customers on O2 Pay Monthly, O2 Pay As You Go, Virgin Mobile, VMO2 Business customers and Virgin Media home phone customers. It’s possible that other operators may have also launched similar promotions, but none of them have notified us directly, and those listed above are merely the ones we’ve spotted in a quick pass (we couldn’t see a similar offer from Three UK).