Pay-as-you-go customers on the Vodafone UK network will face per-minute call charges from 1 August and potentially have to spend more as a consequence.

On the Vodafone UK website, the operator informs customers that “pay-as-you-go pricing just got simpler”, adding there will be “no more complicated pricing by the second – just clear, straightforward per-minute charges”.

Yet the example of ‘simpler’ pricing that Vodafone gives is unlikely to excite its prepaid customer base.

“If your call is a minute and 37 seconds long, it’ll be charged as two minutes,” explains Vodafone. “That way, you’ll always know exactly how many minutes you have left.”

Moreover, there is no rounding down. So, if a call lasts a second or two over one minute, it will be charged as two minutes and not one.

As The Guardian points out, a call lasting 62 seconds, which currently costs 26p will, from 1 August, cost 50p. That’s an increase of 92 per cent.

The pricing change affects calls to UK and international landlines and mobiles.

A Vodafone spokeswoman, quoted by The Guardian, said “many of our competitors already offer this kind of price charging”.