One of the biggest issues for residents of St Margarets is that mobile network providers inadvertently charge people in the area for using French mobile networks.
“It costs time and money, with endless phone calls to the mobile network to remove roaming charges and the burden of proof being on the consumer,” says Jaenicke, whose phone is powered by BT (now part of the EE network). “As a resident, I now turn off my roaming, which solves this issue, yet causes the even bigger issue of having no signal at all, which in turn can become a risk when at the beach.”
The roaming problem, which Jaenicke said affects other networks in the area, can have wider issues for the people of St Margarets.
“I’m the owner of the local bistro, FirstLight, and there is often a mad panic when parents look at their phones to check the time and shout: ‘Oh no, it’s past 3pm, I’m late to pick the kids up’,” says Jaenicke. “We gently remind them it’s only just gone 2pm and that their phones have gone an hour ahead, to French time.”