UK carrier drops roaming in 11 countries

[snidely]

T-Mobile, U.S. started this trend by dropping roaming costs in 100+ countries 7 weeks ago. I asked, then, if this could be the end of a need for Intl. cards.


Three UK Scraps Roaming Charges in the USA - Outlines LTE Rollout Plans

Published on: 4th Dec 2013

UK based Hutchison 3G is scrapping roaming costs for customers visiting the USA, as well as Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Macau. It has now scrapped roaming costs in 11 countries under its "Feel At Home" branded service.

Feel At Home allows customers to use their UK allowances to use data, text, call home and receive calls from home when abroad in certain countries.

As part of its quarterly business update Three added that it has increases its total active customers to 7.8 million - a 9.7% increase since Q3 2012. Three added close to 300,000 net new customers in Q3.

Richard Woodward, Chief Financial Officer, said: "With a strong network foundation in place and a growing brand reputation, we've seen another quarter of improving profitability. We have also continued our customer growth in both the contract and prepaid markets through simple and enjoyable propositions like Feel at Home and 321. With nearly 8 million customers now on the Three network this is an excellent platform to continue to grow our financial performance."

Three also confirmed its 4G rollout plans. From 2nd December, Three started upgrading customers with a 4G-ready device, so they can access the LTE network when they are in an area with 4G coverage. This rollout will accelerate in January, with all customers with a compatible device able to access 4G at no extra cost by the end of Q1 2014 when they are in an area with 4G coverage.

Three aims to cover 50 cities with 4G by the end of 2014 and 98% of the population by the end of 2015.

[gkeeper]

Originally Posted by snidely

T-Mobile, U.S. started this trend by dropping roaming costs in 100+ countries 7 weeks ago. I asked, then, if this could be the end of a need for Intl. cards.


Three UK Scraps Roaming Charges in the USA - Outlines LTE Rollout Plans

Published on: 4th Dec 2013

UK based Hutchison 3G is scrapping roaming costs for customers visiting the USA, as well as Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Macau. It has now scrapped roaming costs in 11 countries under its "Feel At Home" branded service.

Feel At Home allows customers to use their UK allowances to use data, text, call home and receive calls from home when abroad in certain countries.

As part of its quarterly business update Three added that it has increases its total active customers to 7.8 million - a 9.7% increase since Q3 2012. Three added close to 300,000 net new customers in Q3.

Richard Woodward, Chief Financial Officer, said: "With a strong network foundation in place and a growing brand reputation, we've seen another quarter of improving profitability. We have also continued our customer growth in both the contract and prepaid markets through simple and enjoyable propositions like Feel at Home and 321. With nearly 8 million customers now on the Three network this is an excellent platform to continue to grow our financial performance."

Three also confirmed its 4G rollout plans. From 2nd December, Three started upgrading customers with a 4G-ready device, so they can access the LTE network when they are in an area with 4G coverage. This rollout will accelerate in January, with all customers with a compatible device able to access 4G at no extra cost by the end of Q1 2014 when they are in an area with 4G coverage.

Three aims to cover 50 cities with 4G by the end of 2014 and 98% of the population by the end of 2015.

It is a nice move by 3 but only if you are calling back to UK or receiving from the UK. If i am reading the 3 website correctly calling any other country while roaming internally or externally will still carry a very high call rate.

Roaming in the United States:
Voice calls to UK send 20p / min receive Free
Voice call to countries in the same band send £1.40 / min receive 99p / min
Voice call to countries in different bands send £1.40 / min receive 99p / min

please feel free to let me know if i am reading this wrongly.

[Stu]

Here is the link:

http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phones/Feel_At_Home

I read it to say outbound calls to the UK are on plan (no mention of the country you are in), but I don't see anything about inbound call. Since Three UK doesn't surcharge inbound calls from foreign destinations I think it is more likely than not that inbound calls are not surcharged. This UK article reads the situation the same Snidely:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...-FREE-U-S.html

Regardless, if you can call the UK for included minutes, you can use a cheap calling card to call elsewhere.

Australian providers have flat fee roaming in some countries:

http://www.vodafone.com.au/personal/...tional-roaming

Then there is TMobile USA and variants of Three like home in other countries. The way things are going, we may need to shutter this web site in a year or two and just be content with a world without roaming fees.

The fact that the US (which use to not be a team player in roaming) is now a cheap or free roam in these deals makes me think that an EU without roaming fees may be include her number one trading partner

[gkeeper]

Originally Posted by Stu

Here is the link:

http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phones/Feel_At_Home

I read it to say outbound calls to the UK are on plan (no mention of the country you are in), but I don't see anything about inbound call. Since Three UK doesn't surcharge inbound calls from foreign destinations I think it is more likely than not that inbound calls are not surcharged. This UK article reads the situation the same Snidely:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...-FREE-U-S.html

Regardless, if you can call the UK for included minutes, you can use a cheap calling card to call elsewhere.

Australian providers have flat fee roaming in some countries:

http://www.vodafone.com.au/personal/...tional-roaming

Then there is TMobile USA and variants of Three like home in other countries. The way things are going, we may need to shutter this web site in a year or two and just be content with a world without roaming fees.

The fact that the US (which use to not be a team player in roaming) is now a cheap or free roam in these deals makes me think that an EU without roaming fees may be include her number one trading partner

Thanks STU i did take the prices from there site, i don't think its very clear, when it looks to good to be true:>) i think its great that they have dropped roaming in these countries but when i read the website it is only for calls from and back to UK, all other calls in these countries are charged at £1.40 outgoing and £0.99 incoming, i will check with 3 direct and report back, i would not like someone to get a nasty shock when they get home. Operators are very good when it comes to hidden rates.

[Stu]

Another reason why I wouldn't want to charge on incoming calls in that manner is that caller-ids often get scrambled. I don't want to tell you how many UK calls I've received from "Bermuda," e.g. area code "441." In 2014, Central Illinois gets area code 447 so all my UK mobile calls will be "coming" from Springfield, Illinois or something. I've also when using Piranha or Telna received some caller-id like +4412125551212 where the caller was actually calling from +1-212-555-1212. The question is whether Three has figure this problem out yet or not.

As carriers start rolling out VOLT, I'm also curious whether this becomes irrelevant. It will all be a data call.

[robsaw]

Originally Posted by Stu

As carriers start rolling out VOLT, I'm also curious whether this becomes irrelevant. It will all be a data call.

If you mean VoLTE, that won't change issues with the ID or avoid most parts of the plain old switched telephone network that many calls will still cross over.

[snidely]

I know nothing about the service - but the web site doesn't make this obvious ANYWHERE.
At one point some American LD carriers refused to complete calls to various high cost numbers. Don't know if that's still the case.

[Stu]

Sonnyjohn has been spamming xxsim. It was pointed out on the thread on Piranha. It is best to ignore him.