22 thousand dollars for four episodes of Friends

According to the Sunday Times one couple got more than they bargained for courtesy of the almost extortionate charges that mobile phone companies are allowed to levy in Europe when it comes to sending text or data while 'roaming' away from your home country. Although the case in question might be a little out of the ordinary, it does serve to highlight just how ridiculous the situation has been allowed to become. Mrs X decided to download no less than four episodes of the sitcom Friends via the unlimited broadband service on the mobile phone belonging to Mr X. Not as daft as it may sound, the episodes had been made available for free download and if Mr X had not needed to travel to Germany from the UK on business before the downloads had completed there would have been no additional charges made.