Vodafone Reduces Mobile Data Roaming Rates
Vodafone adds cheaper internet charges to their reduced rates scheme from today, as customers in Europe will now be able to access the web from their mobile at a daily cost of £4.99, with a 25MB data limit.
Vodafone also promises that ‘later in summer 2009′ customers will receive real time alerts as they approach the end of their data allowance, which should bring an end to users unwittingly racking up excessively high bills whilst using mobile internet abroad.
This is an extension of their opt-in ‘Passport’ scheme, wherein the 75p roaming charge has been abolished (albeit temporarily) for calls, texts and MMS messages. Vodafone will now charge Passport members per kb for the first 1MB, then charging the full £4.99 whether the other 24MB is used or not.
Sounds harsh, but according to Vodafone 25MB is enough to ‘browse approximately 250 internet pages, read and reply to 25 emails, find your way to a restaurant on Google Maps, read eight news stories on the BBC website, change your status on Facebook and watch three 90 second videos on YouTube’.
Still not nearly enough to do any downloading through, so keep your ‘Mad Men’ fetish on hold until you return.
Sounds like plenty of data activity, but how do you know when your 25MB is up? Vodafone pledge that customers will receive alerts as they burn through their data allowance, but this service is due ‘later in summer 2009,’ so the short answer is that you still have to take care when browsing abroad.
Tags: data charges, vodafone, vodafone passport, X sim only deals