Vodafone extends $5/day global roaming to all postpaid plans
By David Flynn, March 19 2014
Vodafone will make its $5/day global roaming available to customers on postpaid plans and slash data and voice charges in more than 200 countries outside of the '$5/day' zone including India, Canada and Fiji.
From March 23, all of Vodafone Australia current postpaid plans are eligible for the same $5/day Red Roaming deal which is currently restricted to the carrier's premium Red plans.
This lets you use your plan’s voice, text and data allowances for a flat $5 a day across almost 46 countries worldwide including New Zealand, Asia, the US, UK and Europe, with up to 90 days of roaming per year.
Existing customers on current plans will need to opt in for the global roaming deal, but from April 23 Red Roaming will automatically "to all new customers connecting to our current postpaid plans" the carrier advises.
Vodafone customers who are on older plans prior to April 2013 can switch to a current plan without paying any fees, provided the new plan is the same or greater value than the old plan.
“You shouldn’t have to adjust three different settings in your phone or buy a new SIM card to enjoy using your phone like you would at home" says Kim Clarke, Vodafone's Chief Marketing Officer.
“These plans are enormously popular with people travelling for business as it saves them a fortune on expensive hotel WiFi charges.”
$1 per minute, $1 per Mb
There's also good news for travellers heading to countries not covered by the Red Roaming network with Vodafone simplifying its calling and data rates to more than 200 countries.
Gone is the complicated table listing over 20 different call rates depending on the destination. In its place is a flat $1 per minute call rate and $1 per MB data rate.
Vodafone says this represents a reduction in data charges of up to 90%.
Earlier this month Vodafone added the globetrotter-friendly roaming option to business bundles which can share call value and data caps among multiple employees in the same business
Read: Vodafone extends $5/day global roaming to business plans
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David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
19 Mar 2014
Total posts 26
Vodafone actually has really good customer service...As long as you are on a red plan. I accidently turned my phone on in Malaysia a month ago. Got charged $215 for downloading 20mb. They said hold off a month and we'll wipe the cost. This must of been why. 4 years ago I regretted moving to vodafone so much. I would say they are now on par with Telstra and miles ahead in customer service.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
24 Mar 2013
Total posts 67
No they are not on par with Telstea as far as country service goes, however, I have switched back to vodafone after paying higher costs with telstra and dodgy call centre service I do agree the red plan is the way to go (helped by a convincing daughter who works for them). City slickers are spoilt by service and choice get out to the bush and see what country folk have to endure. Goes the same for airline travel. Cheers.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
21 Aug 2013
Total posts 138
SO what I have been waiting for! This was the only thing that stopped me ditching Telstra for them now their 3G & 4G call quality/depth in cities is on par with Telstra, as of several months ago. I too was burned by Voda back in the late nineties, but a lot has changed since then. Even though the older legacy Telstra plan I'm on has offered reasonably good value, it doesn't have the roaming value that Voda offers. I'll await March 23 with baited breath...
12 Dec 2012
Total posts 1029
Now they need to get something like this on the prepaid plans.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
11 Mar 2014
Total posts 7
Vodafone have the worst customer service. After haggling over a bill for four months and getting nowhere (overseas call centres with robotic staff) I finally got to speak to a supervisor who said she'd waive the charge (which incidentally was for global roaming on a very old plan that I kept being told never existed until I produced the plan and was then told they'd cancelled it a few months ago so I still owned the money). Needless to say, when my next bill came the outstanding charge was still on it and as life is too short I just paid it and moved to Telstra.
Malaysia Airlines - Enrich
11 Oct 2012
Total posts 19
Have been with Vodafone through think and thin and I would say their Red plan is really good. Use my Galaxy Note 3 on Red 80 and its blazingly fast in Sydney. I've tried prepaid Telstra before and customer services is ridiculous. Vodafone have always been good on customer service. I use a secondary local SIM for travelling with my Blackberry and that is cheap enough but $5 per day roaming is excellent value.
Qantas
26 Mar 2014
Total posts 1
Just done the plan change with Voda. Have been with them for more than 10 years. Just spent a week in Tasmania, coverage not great but Red Roaming makes sense and with regular OS travel the rates are execllent.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
14 Apr 2014
Total posts 1
Just contacted Vodafone to get this added to my phone and was told that I would need to change my current post paid plan to a new Red plan despite the plan I am on being renewed last month. The upshot is I would have to pay an extra $15 a month for the same service I have now to get the $5 deal.
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