Due to a recent Eu ruling UK mobile providers are now legally obligated to offer customers a 3G roaming service in Europe for no extra charge. As much as this is an incredibly positive step in the right direction there are still thousands of people who need to travel outside of the EU on a regular basis. Customers may need to travel often for work or just be looking at taking a year off to do some travelling and if they are looking to do this they will need to rely on something more robust than an EU legislation which is still in the stages of being rolled out. Many mobile phone providers have now come to the realisation that customers want assurances of fair data usage when they are out of the country.
What are the options?
All of the well known mobile providers now have an option to add a bundle for travelling. Surprisingly, some of the lesser known providers like iD and Tesco Mobile also have great deals. If customers are pay monthly it will be easier to have the bundle with an existing contract, but if customers are pay as you go they have the option to switch provider just for the benefit of the network’s bundle.
Vodafone
For pay monthly customers Vodafone offers global roaming as a set standard for any customers that signed up to their contracts after 12th April 2017. This is also available to sim only customers who have signed up after that date. There are 50 ‘Roam Free’ destinations that can be accessed without any extra charge. It would be as if customers are using the data in the UK and is taken from the standard allowance. There are some countries that are available outside of the EU on this incentive – but they do also have another plan for people who need to travel outside of included destinations.
There are 60 ‘Roam Further’ countries available for a daily flat rate of £5. If customers have added this onto their contract they will only be charged for the each day that they actually use data.
EE
EE currently offers its customers free roaming in 48 EU destinations. If they are on a 4GEE max contract they can also get roaming in a few countries outside of the EU (the full list is available on their website). Customers can use 15gb of data per day without being charged any extra as long as this is part of their allowance when they are at home in the UK. Customers that are not on a contract that includes roaming outside of the EU countries can buy a ‘Travel Data Pass’. This ranges from £3 – £5 per day depending on the country the data is to be used in. This bundle allows customers to use 500mb per day – anything above this is charged at the roaming rate.
iD from Carphone Warehouse
iD is a relatively new network – but they have already figured out how important roaming abroad is. They also offer a ‘Roam Like Home’ service for customers travelling to EU countries. Pay monthly, sim only and pay as you go customers can roam in 50 countries without it costing any extra outside of their normal charges. There is a plan on iD called the ‘Takeaway Plan’. This gives customers the luxury of being able to roam without any extra charges in the USA and Australia. Any customers wishing to roam outside of these countries or in these countries without being signed up to the correct plan will need to consult the website to check the charges – as they do not offer bundles just yet.
Tesco Mobile
Tesco mobile offer a ‘Home From Home’ incentive giving customers the opportunity to roam in 48 EU countries without any extra charge. While abroad a maximum of 12gb per month of data can be used before any extra charges incur on your monthly bill. Tesco does cap data usage while abroad to 5mb per day – so if you are a pay monthly customer it is a good piece of insurance for you to not have to worry about spending too much.
