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Vodafone Cut Roaming Rip-Off

Vodafone plans to let customers “Roam Like Home” in UK, USA & NZ for $5 per day, it announced today. 

The telcos’ customers can use their existing call, text and data plan inclusions while travelling. 

Recently this writer paid over $100 mobile bill for a three week stint in Europe, for just a few texts text and shorts calls. (Ouch). 
However, that nothing compared to the horror stories we’ve heard of, with consumers going into ‘bill shock’ having been charged thousands for mobile use while overseas. Internet data is a particular scourge. 
“Australians’ love affair with smartphones is well known but an increasing number of customers have been getting caught out by unacceptably high bills when they’re overseas, particularly in relation to data usage,” said Vodafone CEO Bill Morrow.
“$5 a day to use your normal plan overseas is the cost of a coffee in New York, London or Auckland. But it’s hard to put a price on having your smartphone on you to keep in touch with friends and family at home, share your holiday snaps on Facebook and Instagram, or use Google Maps when you’re lost in a foreign city.”
These cheap rates are helped by Vodafone piggybacking off Vodafone Group, the largest mobile network in the world. 
Vodafone’s boss says determined to end global roaming bill shock “just as soon as I can.” The red telco plans to extend the roaming deal to “as many countries across the globe as we possibly can”. 
Morrow says customers who do not buy a data pack to use while overseas are charged default rates of up to $20,000 for 1GB of data.

“These prices do not paint a pretty picture of the Australian telecommunications industry.” 
“Global roaming costs are a worldwide issue because of the prices various networks charge each other “