Vodafone UK Abolishes Roaming Charges for Summer and cuts long distance cost for good

[Stu]

I think the headline should be changed to "Vodafone SUSPENDS..." instead of abolishes...

[MATHA531]

I'm confused...I can't find info about the free Vodafone Passport form 01 June on the web site but here's what it says about Vodafone passport with the 75p fee:

*Vodafone Passport is available on all current Pay Monthly price plans, and Smartplus, Smartstep, Anytime and Anynet Pay as you talk price plans.

But according to the above, the vodafone payg is the simply plan not listed here.

I'm really confused now. Can anybody help?

[MATHA531]

Now I see it...as far as the 5p to the USA...gotcha

But is this available on all their PAYG plans?

[MATHA531]

...and that being the dase, does it mean I get the 5p/minute to call the USA say from Germany as I'm supposed to pay the same thing I pay in the UK?

[MATHA531]

...and with all this being true, can Orange and O2 be far behind? (Didn't list T Mobile UK...according to some things I have read, they're getting out of the UK business)

[MATHA531]

Ok..I see now it does seem to apply to all their PAYG tariffs....the question still that I would like answered...do I get the 5p/minute to the USA from all the European countries (and Australia and NZ too)?

[MATHA531]

Please forgive me if I ask too many questions as I am a little slow to pick up on things but they eventually come to me.....

So let's see...I get a free Vodafone UK sim card and sign up for passport after an initial top up....I now can call landlines in Europe for 5p/minute and mobiles for 15p while I can call all numbers in the USA and Canada and China for 5p. Got that. I am on the simple plan so all calls within the UK are 20p/minute got that too (including to voice mail).....now I travel to France...ah ha the promotion says all calls I make will be charged as if I'm in the UK...so if I call a UK number, it's 20p including voice mail...right. But if I call a local French landline, then it's 5p (far better than I would get using a French prepaid sim)..if I call the USA it's 5p whether I'm in the UK or Australia, right?

And the one thing I seem to have missed, is the billing per minute or per second or per second with a minimum...it's probably in there but I can't seem to find it.

Frankly, if I have it right, at least for this summer, it might be the best deal there is and culd really inflict severe damage on some of the international cards. Also one advantage of vodafone is you can top up in any country which has a vodafone subsidiarly with local vouchers in that country. Thus if I'm in France I cause an SFR voucher to top up the vodafone UK account while I'm in France, right?

Finally, won't this force O2 and Orange to have to match? That's what happened in the USA a decade ago. In the original development of cell phones, originally you had a very small calling area which came out of your minutes for each month (and they were very limited, let me tell you). Calls outside your local area were billed as long distance.

Then along came Sprint, yes they were the first, to revolutionize this and make the whole USA roaming free and long distance free. Muchagainst their will, the other carriers were forced to match and we were on the way to what we have today...national calling areas, lots of minutes and no long distance charges (but some of them make it up with asininely high international roaming charges, are you listenng AT&T and T Mobile USA)....I know this is a temporary promotion but isn't this what Ms. Redding has been after and isn't vodafone just trying to show that regulation by the eu is unnecessary.....

Finally, what about the other vodafone subsidiaries...will vodafone DE be forced to match this for its customers? After all, if I have a German Vodafone card, I pay astronomically high rates both to call within Germany and pay the eu rates to roam throughout the eu...now I can have a vodafone UK card, top it up with a vodafone DE voucher so that's no problem and call within Germany for 5p which is what 0,07€. What will vodafone have to do to keep their other subsidiaries happy.

Hey Mr. Ed, does this worry you?

[babble]

The german media are reporting that a spokesperson has said that vodafone Germany has no plans to offer the british package to its german customers.

We´ll see what happens when the official statement is reported in the german newspapers tomorrow.

German denial from vodafone: Aktion: Vodafone UK verzichtet auf Roaming-Entgelte - teltarif.de News

[babble]

The new british tariff is to have a snappy name: "Vodafone International".

Vodafone must surely realise that its customers in other countries will want this tariff as well!

[MATHA531]

Originally Posted by babble

The new british tariff is to have a snappy name: "Vodafone International".

Vodafone must surely realise that its customers in other countries will want this tariff as well!

Well obviously, if I were in Germany even if I didn't go to the UK, I could easily pick up a vodafone UK sim card for next to nothing on ebay, top it up with a vodafone de voucher, and be able to make calls for 5p/minute within Germany and almost the entire eu as well as Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada and China (in the last 3 also to mobile numbers) and 20p/minute to UK numbers both landline and mobile.

How can they not match?