Vodafone is offering up to two years of double data on its Red roaming plans, giving travellers as much as 10GB per month for use in Australia and overseas.
The carrier's Double Data promotion runs through to 31 January 2014 – although subscribers need to sign up before 3 January 2014 – and is available for all prepaid plans of $45 for month-by-month plans and $60 for 12 month or 24 month contracts.
This includes the SIM-only Red $50/1.5GB plan, which is doubled to 3GB/month; the Red $65 plan, which sees its standard monthly data allocation jump from 2.5GB to 5GB; and the SIM-only Red $85/5GB plan, which rockets to 10GB per month.
The more expensive handset-inclusive plans also get that second serve of data for the term of the contract, of course, while the SIM-only plans which are billed on a month-by-month basis are covered for a whole two years.
In other words: sign up for the Red $85 SIM-only plan and you'll have 10GB of data per month through to the end of 2015 at no extra charge.
The extra data allowance will be especially handy if you’ll be using your 4G smartphone as a wi-fi hotspot or tethering via a USB cable – and it's a much better deal than buying Vodafone's add-on data packs, which give you 1GB for an extra $10 per month and 2.5GB for $20 per month.
How Vodafone Red roaming works
As we've previously detailed, all Red plans includes unlimited calls to all Australian mobile and landline numbers except for the usual set of 13, 1800 and ‘premium’ numbers.
Texts to all Australian and international mobiles are free of charge, although as with all such unlimited deals you'll be subject to a 'fair use' policy to prevent Red rorting.
(Australian telephone support is also part of the Red recipe, with all support calls answered by a support centre based in Hobart rather than being flung off to India or the Philippines.)
When you're in a Red-friendly country you can use your plan's call, text and data allowance for an extra $5 per day. This also includes unlimited standard calls and text messages back to Australia as well as within the country you’re currently in.
At the time of writing Vodafone's $5/day Red roaming deal covers new Zealand, the UK, Europe and the USA for an extra $5 per day, and includes unlimited standard calls and text messages back to Australia as well as the country you’re currently in.
Vodafone plans to build on Red's roaming roster list next year, with Asia tipped to be on top of the list.
Vodafone's increased focus on globetrotter-friendly roaming deals comes as Optus and Telstra also reduced their international roaming prices, while the Australian and New Zealand governments are moving to slash the cost of trans-Tasman mobile roaming fees next year.
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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.
Emirates Airlines - Skywards
07 Sep 2012
Total posts 146
Have been a Vodafone Red customer since the first week they launched, and was quite excited to read this, until I called Vodafone and was told that existing customers won't get the double data deal.
As Homer Simpson once said, Urge To Kill...Rising!
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