Vodafone launches WorldTraveller
It has been revealed that Vodafone will allow customers who pay monthly to use any inclusive minutes, data and texts while they are travelling abroad.
The WorldTraveller scheme will become available to both pay monthly and some business users at the end of August 2014. The scheme will cost the user £5 per day and travellers will be able to access Vodafone’s services while travelling in countries such as the US, Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, South Africa, Qatar, India and Ghana. The charges will only be made for the days during which the phone is in use.
The new WorldTraveller scheme follows the EuroTraveller scheme, which allows users to access Vodafone’s services while travelling in EU countries for a charge of £2 per day; the EuroTraveller scheme is in place until the end of August. In order to activate either the WorldTraveller or EuroTraveller service, the user needs to call 5555 from one of the countries included in the scheme; in addition, users will not need to pay any charges for receiving a call or a text.
Three has already dropped its fees for data roaming in 16 countries and has launched a similar service to Vodafone; however, Three does not make a charge for people to use their inclusive data, calls or texts while in these countries.
The EU has already ensured that roaming fees will be reduced by putting caps on the cost of making calls, sending texts and using data while travelling in Europe, with the aim being to remove European roaming fees completely by the end of next year.