Bad (formerly good) news from the big chaos of Wind...
 

Starting today, 22 March 2007, the billing with the MEGA options outside of Italy will change once again! From the crazy actual 0.90€/KB to the still crazy, but a bit less, 0.30 €/KB. For some strange reason they won't send an SMS about this change, but it's official, believe me (even if, as usual, they have to update the website).

It's total chaos in Wind since the beginning of March and the new rules in Italian telecoms, one day they increase tariffs, the other day they decrease other tariffs, no one is able to understand what do they have in mind.

Anyway, from today, the MEGA options outside of Italy are as follows:
Mega 300: 0.97MB for 8.00€ (i.e. 8€/MB, rather than 12,50€/MB with normal tariff)
Mega NoLimit: 9.76 MB (i.e. 2€/MB, rather than 12,50€/MB with normal tariff)
Mega 15000: 48.82 MB (i.e. 0.60€/MB, rather than 12,50€/MB with normal tariff)

Still valid the Wind Pass:
Wind Pass: 2.34MB for 3.00€ (i.e. 1.28€/MB, rather than 12,50€/MB with normal tariff)

At the same time they are closing the CAMEL service on the following networks:
Orange, Dominican Rep.
Optus, Australia
T-Mobile, USA
That's quite ununderstandable... and it would be interesting to know if also data roaming is affected...

Hmm, but this means that exceeding the limits of the packets will cost crazy 300€/MB anyway - better than 900 after all :-P.

What does this really mean - no more outgoing calls in prepaid roaming? Or, there's a USSD substitute?

I'm not sure I'd describe this as "good news" as the prices are still not all that great. I'm not sure I'd want to do business with a company like this anyway - the only reason for € 300/MB (never mind 900!) is to rob their customers. If the've done it once, they'll do something similar again.

Of course they are not reliable, but it's a prepaid offer, you can use it if you find it good and stop whenever you want. And of course it's not such a good news, paying 300 euros per MB is still nonsense, but still better than 900 :D

Of course there is USSD (*124*number#) for the countries where CAMEL has been dismissed.

It's still a lot cheaper than what you'll get by using your regular postpaid abroad. The Mega Options were never intended to be used outside of Italy. I'm sure WIND lost serious money when people started using them in their homecountries because it was actually cheaper than anything the locals offered.

In my opinion ~50mb for €30 is still a good deal if you travel a lot. You don't have to pay attention to what network you're using and don't have to fear a 4 or 5 digit bill coming home.

Any news on extending the Mega Options after July?

it's still soon, and in this period it's a total chaos, so it's better not to think about it! :D

This sounds like good news BUT I've checked just now and my usage on Mega-15000 yesterday & today in Belgium, Germany and UK is (as far as I can calculate) being charged at EUR 0.90/kb. Here's a copy of the entries in 155.it:

25/03/2007 13:02:26 SC*** Regno unito Traffico Internet -- Connessione dati GPRS -- 22342 Byt. 19,636524 dettaglio
25/03/2007 13:02:00 SC*** Regno unito Traffico Internet -- Connessione dati GPRS -- 144 Byt. 0,126563 dettaglio
25/03/2007 12:31:49 SC*** Regno unito Traffico Internet -- Connessione dati GPRS -- 54052 Byt. 47,506641 dettaglio
25/03/2007 12:31:41 SC*** Regno unito Traffico Internet -- Connessione dati GPRS -- 1198 Byt. 1,052930 dettaglio
25/03/2007 10:15:07 SC*** Germania Traffico Internet -- Connessione dati GPRS -- 297271 Byt. 261,273346 dettaglio
25/03/2007 10:14:38 SC*** Germania Traffico Internet -- Connessione dati GPRS -- 275 Byt. 0,241699 dettaglio
25/03/2007 10:10:41 SC*** Germania Traffico Internet -- Connessione dati GPRS -- 2543 Byt. 2,235059 dettaglio
25/03/2007 10:07:06 SC*** Germania Traffico Internet -- Connessione dati GPRS -- 48679 Byt. 42,784275 dettaglio
25/03/2007 10:01:10 SC*** Germania Traffico Internet -- Connessione dati GPRS -- 23790 Byt. 20,909180 dettaglio
25/03/2007 09:53:11 SC*** Germania Traffico Internet -- Connessione dati GPRS -- 8624 Byt. 7,579688 dettaglio
25/03/2007 09:52:19 SC*** Germania Traffico Internet -- Connessione dati GPRS -- 1372 Byt. 1,205859 dettaglio
25/03/2007 09:50:13 SC*** Germania Traffico Internet -- Connessione dati GPRS -- 19674 Byt. 17,291603 dettaglio
24/03/2007 05:01:38 SC*** Belgio Traffico Internet -- Connessione dati GPRS -- 181448 Byt. 159,475784

Yeah, they had problems in converting to the new tariff... yeah, it's absurd, and I ask your pardon for having not written it sooner (but I knew it just few mins ago). They'll try again to change the tariff soon, but I have no idea when... they are in total chaos...