Telstra launches $10/day international roaming

Buy a Glocalme mobile roaming hotspot, arrive in 100+ countries (or better still do it before you leave) choose a plan and you have a mobile data hotspot with you 24 hours a day and can connect up to 5 devices and will still cost you less than Telstra. I just used them in Europe and they are so much better than most other options.

You're right about the current travel pass being complicated.  Last time I went overseas, it took 3 unhelpful phone calls and a 45 minute web-chat to to set up a 2 week pass.

I recently spent 2 weeks in Beijing and pre-purchased Telstra's international travel pass using China Mobile's network. The data service was very scratchy. Occasionally you'd get a 4G signal but you'd need to stay still or it would drop back to Edge. Other travellers used Vodafone's package and they had reliable 4G in most places.

Come on Telstra, this is not competitive.  Vodafone is half your price.  Why pay $10/day for 100MB when Vodafone offer $5/day for Gigabytes?

Will this be for post paid only or will it include prepay numbers as well?

3c per MB equates to $30 per GB so the $25 top-up option doesn't really make sense unless you're guaranteed to use the full quota.

Hmmm happy to pay but the service needs to be up to scratch. I'm with Telstra but have a Vodafone work phone. Even somewhere like Singapore I've been unable to get decent data speed with Vodafone.

Pick yourself up a prepaid sim for about 10GBP / 10EUR in Europe and you can roam the entire Continent now. Telstra's 10AUD per day looks like typical Australian corporate gouging.

I still prefer to go to the location and get a sim card there. Usually it's trouble free and I've not had any issues signing up as a foreigner. Europe is especially easy. 

I am going to Europe at the end of this month for 2 weeks - Greece, Germany, Belgium and Spain. I am looking at the Australia post sim which is $25 and at the moment comes with 1gb in Europe. Can someone recommend something better. Is it easy to buy a prepaid sim in Greece? I don't want to waste time looking for somewhere to buy. I am on Telstra prepaid and they currently offer $29 pack for 100mb. Not sure how this will change with the above.

I've got a trip coming up and I bet none of the countries I'm worried about are covered - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, EU, Mauritania, Brazil, Suriname, Uruguay, Argentina.

Any suggestions for what is best for a month in the US?

Why why why do the telcos bother insulting us with meagre data caps - 100MB? Local SIM every time.

Is it working automatically or I have to per-organize it as with the "pass"?

The Auspost SIM is good for data and SMS but hopeless for calls. Just spent three months in the US with one. Will get a ATT SIM next time.

As a long term Telstra customer, this is dissapointing. I'll stick to buying local sim cards in the country I arrive into.

Anyone know the best way to get coverage in Japan? I am lead to believe they have wifi everywhere, is that correct/

I spend on average 150+ days a year overseas and apart from 1 or 2 not covered countries (Canada - Sheesh) have always been able to connect and get decent speeds with Voda, the $5 per day has been a godsend, compared to the past. Telstra are just leveraging their current customers loyalty.

@GMG Not sure about Canada, but Mexico isn't covered by their $5 roaming either, you have to use their PAYG roaming in Mexico.

It's Telstra. What do you expect ? Seriously. You're just lazy if you're still with them for anything.

I agree local SIMs are the best. Calls, data and available at every airport. Some hotels even provide a local mobile to use. I recall sitting next to an American in Hanoi who was using their  mobile to make/take calls. I said to her this must be costing her a fortune. She said it was part of her US plan at no additional cost.  Aussie telcos are ripping us off when it comes to roaming.Until they get it right I'll be using a local SIM. That being said, I do understand that some travellers may need to get calls/messages on their Aussie number, but at what price?  

Haha Telstra (and Optus) need to get out onto the real world. For the last 2 years, my Voda Red Sim has given me full access to my data, 10gb at 4g speeds, in Europe and UK with free calls and txts back to Oz, all for $5/day. Oh and its all free in NZ too. Shhh keep it  to yourself!

I think Telstra management are living in a cave!!!

This is great, and long overdue, for Telstra customers. Unfortunately it govt/enterprise customers will continue to be screwed by Telstra with exorbitant and unreasonable charges.

All EU carriers must now allow customers to roam within the EU at no additional charge using allowances from one's plan. I was recently in the UK and purchased an EE prepaid sim which gave me 1GB for 30 days for 10 pounds plus included call minutes and texts. I was able to roam elsewhere in the EU using this allowance although included calls and texts were only to a UK number.

At $300 p/m still a laughable rip off compared to just about any other option.  

Still too little, too late.

Agree that this is a shocking offer. So if you are away for 4 weeks you will pay $280 and I assume you will also need to pay your normal monthly fee which would probably bring the total charge to somewhere in the vicinity of $350 and still you are having a massively compromised service with the data limits they impose. I would rate this 1/2 star out of 10 and that is being generous. I am in Brazil at the moment and I bought a VIVO sim for about $5 and can top up with 700MB of data for around $4 which lasts 7 days. If a regular consumer can get this kind of offer then Telstra with their buying power must be making astronomical margins on this kind of product. As for the unlimited SMS, can someone remind me what year we are in? Are we back in 2008? I can't remember the last time I sent an SMS.

Worth a read about Telstra's wifi roaming in today's AFR, just NZ at this stage. https://www.afr.com/technology/telstra-makes-wifi-calling-easy-and-cheap-20170706-gx5rq3

Telstra always the follower never the leader 

Thanks god my contract expires this month. Bye bye Telstra!

I am in Europe now (visiting France, Germany and Italy). I bought a Telstra travel pass (equivlant to $10/day). I cannot recommend it. First there was a total outage when in Paris as Telstra were "patching" some servers. Now in Germany the service has been terrible. I cannot reliably be called, I cannot send nor receive SMS in a timely fashion (sometimes they arrive many hours later). Data is patchy, mostly 3G only (this is in the big cities), and iMessage has not worked well.

This kind of extortion is why people are walking away from Telstra. My contracts are up for renewal in a couple of months and Vodafone or Optus are going to win the business.

David, it would be worth an update on this article and roaming plans generally across the major carriers. This Telstra new package mentioned in this article back in July didn't work and has been pulled. Virtually everyone hit the 100MB daily limit quickly, creating much angst, and customers were pushed over into another $10 purchase for 500MB on the spot. They scrapped the program some time in November/early December. The new plan is 200MB per day, but again unused data doesn't roll to the next day etc. Worth seeing what happened, how it now compares. I can't see any news on it anywhere. Over to ABT.

I just finished using a prepaid SIM that covered all of Uk & Europe for up to 30 days with unlimited calls and 12GB of data - for $45. Worked like a dream. Even continued to work in HK and Macau on the way home!

Got a French Orange sim to get net while driving around Europe, continually sent messages in French even when I signed up in English and could not top up at the Orange store in Brussels, supposedly a different company! , slow and unworkable.

love this service, much better than the old. easy to use, just click a button and you're away. no mucking around with swapping sims or different phone numbers. $10 per day and only charged if I make a call. great coverage. Data is $200mb/day - plenty if I leave any social media stuff till I'm on my (free) hotel wifi. I'm sold.

I am having a look into Global mobile WiFi hotspot devices as an alternative to paying $10 each day across 3 devices for 2 weeks. Chris, this may be a separate topic.