New mobile roaming tariffs – are they any good?
The latest European mobile roaming price caps will come into force on July 1 limiting costs to 23p a minute for calls, 7p a text and 56p/MB of data (excluding VAT).
In response the networks are introducing new price plans so we’re taking a look at each to see how they stack up.
Three’s New Euro Internet Pass
Three has introduced a Euro Internet Pass
Mobile network Three has introduced a new tariff that will provide you unlimited data when abroad in Europe for £5 a day. While this may sound like a great deal, it’s worth noting that the rules now limit prices to 56p/MB – so to make it even the same price as not buying the pass you will have to use at least 10MB during the day.
Using more than this will be easy if you’re uploading a lot of high-res pictures and doing a lot of browsing, but for occasional users it may be cheaper not to buy the pass. It’s also worth noting that tethering – where you use your mobile as a connection to the internet for another product such as a laptop – isn’t included in this deal.
Vodafone’s EuroTraveller
Vodafone’s EuroTraveller lets you use your bundles abroad
Vodafone has also introduced a new tariff, giving customers the chance to take their normal price plans on holiday with them. Costing £3 a day for each day it is used, EuroTraveller allows users to use their phone on the same tarrif as at home – including using bundled minutes, texts and data – with no costs for receiving calls.
While it’s great that Vodafone will allow you to use your bundles, again it is worth considering how much you will use your phone while abroad and what you will use it for. With call pricing capped at 23p a minute and texts at 7p, it will take quite a bit of use to add up to £3 – although if you’re a big web browser with a large data allowance it is worth a look.
O2 Travel
O2 Travel offers 25MB of data for £1.99
O2 Travel launches on July 1 and, like the Vodafone EuroTraveller, aims to allow you to take your home price plan away with you. For a 50p connection fee for each call – both making and receiving – users will be able to use their normal bundles, although beware because if you go over your allowance it will resort to the base rate which is charged at the hefty cost of 35p per minute. Text messages will cost the minimum rate of 7p a message.
Data costs £1.99 a day for 25MB, which unlike some tariffs is well below the 56p per MB threshold, although if you only use a couple of MBs it will end up costing you more.
- Mobile and data roaming rates to fall – how rates will fall over the next few years
- Using mobile phones abroad – read our advice for using your phone abroad
- Best mobile phone networks – see which performed best in our survey
Post a Comment
Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked
Ian
Vodafone are also scrapping their 25mb for £2 in europe and 25mb for £5 in the rest of the world. Incidentally you used to be able to pay £10 for a whole month of 25mb a day, also scrapped.
So actually unless you opt for the new £3 a day (with no extra allowance now) the old 25mb goes from £2 a day to a whopping £365 for a 3 week holiday in Europe this summer. Even the £3 a day sees an increase from £10 to £72.
So much for data prices coming down…
antruth
Here’s an alternative worth checking out:
http://www.maxroam.com/Home.aspx?cur=USD
Matt
Vodafone Euro Traveller works out incredibly expensive if you are mainly a data user with varied roamed call use.
Data Traveller cost only 10 pounds a month for 25mb a day. In my case calls varied but in total monthly bill if I was roaming for a month was never as high as what it would cost with Euro Traveller – around 90 pounds!
As Vodafone removed the old services without giving the option to keep them, many customers and I are fighting to be released from our contracts as they are now pretty much useless when abroad and we chose Vodafone due to these services being available. Vodafone, however, are not allowing this and so complaints have been lodged with Ofcom, the Ombudsman and BBC Watchdog.
You can see the discontent here:
http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Pay-Monthly-Services/Eurotraveller-questions/td-p/1150087
I urge all of you who are unhappy not to just sit back and take this kind of treatment. The more Vodafone see that people are upset and their reputation go down the drain, the more they are likely to worry and listen!