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Vodafone Drops European Roaming Charges
(14 May 2009, BWCS Staff)Vodafone UK appears to have stolen a march on its rivals by dropping roaming charges to 45 countries. Instead, customers travelling abroad will only pay their usual rates for calls and messages home. However, they will still be charged high rates for data services. Vodafone has had a similar service on the go for a while. Under the terms of the previous offer, subscribers could sign up for free to the so-called Passport service and then pay £0.64 for a connection fee, after which the price dropped to their usual domestic rates. This new system removes the £0.64 charge per call and also adds texting and MMS messages to the mix.
According to the operator, customers calling from one of the designated foreign countries will be able to call or text home, or to another Vodafone customer, for the same rate as if they were actually in their own country. The move, designed to capture the imagination of those heading abroad this summer, has also clearly been inspired by the popularity of the recent EC decision to curb roaming charges across Europe.
The operator argues that the range of countries supported by the deal covers most popular holiday destinations, apart from the US. While those holidaying in Europe should save on calls back home, it may remove the excuse that some had to keep their mobiles switched off while on holiday.
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