Vodafone Boosts Roaming Offers Ahead Of Christmas

Vodafone has added a number of new countries to its various roaming offers ahead of the festive period, allowing customers to use their UK data, call and text allowances in more than 100 countries.

Twenty-eight new nations have been added to the World Traveller offer, which costs £3 a day, while the operator’s Business Traveller now extends to another 54 countries – including Australia, India and the United Arab Emirates.

The Newbury-based firm also claims to offer 4G roaming in more countries than any of its UK rivals, adding Morocco, Turks & Caicos and Uruguay, bringing the total number to 73.

Vodafone roaming

All four major operators offer roaming bundles that claim to provide more certainty and minimise the cost of using a smartphone abroad. Three has abolished many charges in 18 selected countries and says the ‘Feel at Home’ offer has saved its customers £1.3 billion over the past two years.

Roaming is set to be abolished across the European Union (EU) from 2017, with European mobile users paying the same for calls, texts and data as they would in their home country, with “fair use” limits introduced to prevent citizens from abusing the system by purchasing SIM cards with cheaper tariffs from abroad. These ‘fair use’ limits are still to be determined by the EU.

The EU says consumers will benefit from cheaper roaming, while operators will be able to take advantage of increased demand. It adds that the new regulations pave the way for innovations like connected cars and other new types of mobile application that are no longer subject to national borders.

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