Vodafone launches $5/day roaming to US, UK and New Zealand
By David Flynn, July 31 2013
Vodafone Australia will limit global roaming fees at $5 per day for travellers to the US, UK and New Zealand under new plans to be released next month.
All Vodafone Australia customers visiting those three countries will be able to use their current plan's voice, text and data allowances for an additional $5 per day under the carrier's 'Roam Like Home' service.
Pleasingly, if you exceed your plan's monthly talk, text or data limits while overseas you'll be billed based on Australian pricing rather than typically rapacious global roaming rates.
Vodafone Australia CEO Bill Morrow said that the USA, United Kingdom and New Zealand account for 50 percent of the countries where Vodafone customers use international roaming, and that the carrier was looking to expand the new system to other countries.
Vodafone subscribers won't need to opt into the scheme: they'll automatically be eligible once they activate their phone in those countries, with their device auto-roaming onto the local network which supports the plan. In the UK and New Zealand this will be Vodafone, while the US partner is AT&T.
However, the deal will to be limited to customers signing onto a series of new Vodafone plans to be unveilled next month – existing plans won't qualify for the $5 per day deal.
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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.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
20 Nov 2012
Total posts 68
I really like the sound to this, and also to drive competition.
Hopefully gone are the days of wasting time getting a local data plan and SIM.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 May 2011
Total posts 732
Let's wait till the details of the new plans are known befroe we get really excited....there must be a catch!
Questions I have are amongst others: When roaming, you pay the extra 5AUD and are you then able to call Australian phonenumbers (mobile and fixed) and be called at the flat fee of 5AUD a day? Will it be deducted in some way from your plan if you call Australian phones? how about calling US numbers (when in the US) or numbers in NZ or the UK, does this fall under the 5AUD or are you not able to call these numbers?
Again, we need some more details I think before we can judge if this is a step up!
21 Apr 2012
Total posts 3006
Wow!
If this does what it says on the package, in my eyes Vodafone would have absolved all of its past sins.
As KG said, devil's in the details!
I wonder what Telstra's response will be. Assuming;
it would be considerably cheaper to take on another Vodafone contract on a low bundle/cap then to pay Telstra roaming rates since you'll only "upgrade" to a higher bundle/cap on the month you are travelling. Plus you could even get an iPhone 5 as part of the contract to use abroad - My iPhone 3 has had its day!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
07 Apr 2013
Total posts 146
Telstra already has an international casual traveller data pack starting at $29 for 20MB, $85 for 60MB, $160 for 120MB, $350 for 300MB.
The plans are for 30 days from the day of activation, the downfall being it isn't for calls or sms.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer - Silver
15 May 2012
Total posts 30
I am glad that Vodafone has done this, but I just think Vodafone's reputation in Australia is just so poor now considering their constant network problems in Australia, I still won't be lining up to lock myself into a Vodafone contract.
I am not sure how many are aware, but Optus offers a service of unlimited data in a whole heap of countries, it costs around $25 for 3 days or $40 for 5 days, so may be costly, but it's unlimited data, (separate from your allowances in your cap), it's with a carrier you can trust, and its easy to get, downside is that it's only for postpaid customers, but most people these days are postpaid so its good!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer - Silver
15 May 2012
Total posts 30
But not as costly as going without a pack hahahaha!
Qantas
22 Oct 2012
Total posts 319
There's just one problem with this new offer: It's Vodaphone!
I was in South Africa recently, and when QF63 arrived at J'burg I went to the Vodacom store (part of Vodafone) in the terminal to get a PAYG SIM card, but they couldn't sell it to me as their computers were "offline". So next day I was in Cape Town and tried another Vodacom store, and again the same problem. I told the sales assistant how Vodafone in Australia is now known as Vodafail due to their network problems, and she couldn't stop giggling.
Anyway, the next day I got a SIM card for a month, cost me AUD$20 for local calls and about 500 MB of data. If planning on being in a country for more than a couple of days, I'd always get a local SIM card. In the UK, I pay £15 to Three for a local PAYG SIM card and get lots of local calls and Unlimited data for a month - beat that!
04 Nov 2010
Total posts 670
I like the sound of this so far, $5 a day to use my Voafone plan in NZ or the US sounds good to me, but I will wait to see these new plans and also some of the fine print. But it's a good start!
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