3 Network removes Roaming Charges

[Pierre ZFP]

'3' have announced that they are removing roaming charges from calls abroad to the UK so you can use your 'free' minutes.

The bad news is that it is only the following countries at the moment

 Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Austria,  Hong Kong,  Australia and  Ireland

They claim to have done this in response to a customer survey which said that a lot of people turn their phones off when abroad due to excessive charges (well blow me, who'd have thought it, must have been a graduate from the University of the bleedin' obvious to come up with that)

What I'm hoping is that the other phone companies will, with their usual 'Sheep Syndrome',  follow suit.

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6263699.stm

http://www.three.co.uk/personal/coverage_/going_abroad_/like_home_details.omp

[Dick Smith]

I wonder if Mr Branson is reading that article...

I note that you don't include la belle France in your list.

[Pierre ZFP]

No, no France at the moment (no 3 Network?)  And on a selfish note, no Luxembourg either

So foggy here today ca 't see h nd   n   ront  of  k yb  rd

[Dick Smith]

A pity. As holiday-homers we get stung on roaming charges, which are excessive, because we use mobiles quite a bit and none of the calls are local. I especially resent having to pay when someone calls me.

Perhaps sometime in the future - though it seems that reductions in mobile charges are slow in coming.

[Will]

Dick - sim4travel and similar services have no charge for receiving calls when abroad and low charges for making them. You have to use a different number and you need an unlocked phone though.

Remarkably, Orange France has always let us use our free minutes for calling and receiving anywhere - not just within France. Because they don't make a big thing of this, I presume it applies to other French phone companies' contracts.

[tel]

I thought the European Commision had warned ALL mobile networks that they must reduce Roaming prices or face stiff fines.

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/roaming/roaming_regulation/index_en.htm

[Sprogster]

'3' are only allowing roaming at UK call charge rates in those few specified countries where they operate networks.

In France my suggestion is to buy an 'Orange' pre-pay sim card, which you can easily top up over the internet to keep it active. Although you will have a French mobile number, when in France you can divert your incoming UK mobile calls to your UK mobile phone message service, where you have a recorded message asking the caller to phone your French mobile number.

If you get regular incoming calls to your UK mobile whilst in France this will save you a fortune, as you pay for the roaming charges on incoming calls whilst outside the UK. 

[Ecossais]

The only reason 3 can make their “3 like home” offer is because Hutchison Whampoa also own 3G networks in these countries.  If you take your 3 mobile to these countries you can also use 3’s mobile internet services as if you were in the UK.  Details:  http://www.three.co.uk/personal/coverage_/going_abroad_/like_home_details.omp

Similarly, O2 which is owned by Telefonica of Spain currently has an offer called “Chosen country – Spain”.  This gives you free incoming calls and all outgoing calls at 25p per minute.  This costs £5 per month and can you can take it for a month at a time as required.

If you are on O2, their best deal for France is their “My Europe” scheme which gives you incoming and outgoing calls for 35p per minute.

For it to be viable for mobile networks to offer some sort of deal where you can use your UK minutes while abroad, they need to own or have some sort of relationship with a network in the foreign country.

As far is France is concerned, Orange, owned by France Telecom, is obviously also in the UK, Vodafone has some sort of relationship with SFR.

I’m not aware of any special offer for Orange UK customers travelling to France whereby you can use your “UK” minutes.

Vodafone has “Vodafone Passport”, available on Pay As You Go or Contract – the way this works is that for incoming calls when in France (or many other countries), all you pay is a connection charge of 75p per call and then no further charge for calls up to an hour.  Outgoing calls attract the same 75p connection charge and then calls come out of your “UK” minutes.  To get these rates you must ask for your number to be set up for “Passport” and you must manually set your mobile to roam on SFR when in France.

Whatever network you are on, if you want to use a UK mobile abroad, it’s worthwhile regularly checking your network’s website for new international use options.

[Simon_Catlin]

Orange don't have anything to use your inclusive minutes (yet).  You can (and I do) pay £2.00 which gets me up to 50% discount in some cases and 0% in others.

It is called Frequent Traveller.

http://www1.orange.co.uk/frequent_traveller/