3 UK abolishes roaming cost

[AndreA]

News Release
3 Group announces new pricing policy, cutting the cost of international roaming on the 3 networks London 16 January 2007
3 Group, the global leader in 3G mobile broadband, today announced the introduction of "3 Like Home". This is a pricing policy that will permit 3 customers to travel abroad and use other 3 Group networks for a price similar to that on their home 3 network.
When 3 customers travel to another country in which 3 also operates, customers will be able to make and receive calls using the visited 3 network and be charged as if they were still using their home network. The same principle will apply to SMS, MMS, video calling and data services. The visited 3 network can be considered a virtual extension of their home network and can therefore be used as if the customer were not roaming at all.
"3 Like Home" reflects the 3 Group's strategy of giving customers fair and transparent treatment and attractive pricing, and will help to increase its base of customers that travel abroad. It will also allow many customers to make wider use of the recently launched X-Series product suite which offers mobile broadband for a flat rate fee.
"3 Like Home" is consistent with the European Commission's campaign to reduce the cost of mobile calls when roaming in Europe.
Christian Salbaing, Managing Director of European Telecommunications at 3 Group said:
"The launch of the '3 Like Home' scheme will significantly benefit our customers as they travel between the 3 Group's networks. It underlines our commitment to fair treatment and reasonable pricing for all our customers.
"While 3 customers will continue to face higher charges if they roam onto a non-3 network, this is because of the high wholesale charges required by many of 3's roaming partners. We hope the European Commission will be successful in significantly reducing these wholesale charges, which will allow price reductions for customers roaming between different operators within Europe."
"3 Like Home" is being introduced progressively for customers of 3 in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, the Republic of Ireland, Sweden and the UK. The rollout will be tailored to specific market conditions in each 3 country and exact pricing details will become available as implemented.


http://www.hutchison-whampoa.com/upl...0/1860_eng.htm

[Effendi]

And at last "3 like home" lands in Italy as well, called "3 come a casa", the exact translation... pity that the English tariff has not been perfectly translated as well and we have by far the worst option of the group!

3 come a casa

Outgoing calls to Italy: 50c€ set-up fee, normal national rate
Outgoing calls to other countries: 50c€ set-up fee, normal international rate
Incoming calls: 50c€
Outgoing SMS: international fee (30c€)
Data calls: national fee (no data options)

All in all, that's just shit...

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by Effendi

Outgoing calls to Italy: 50c€ set-up fee, normal national rate
Outgoing calls to other countries: 50c€ set-up fee, normal international rate
Incoming calls: 50c€
Outgoing SMS: international fee (30c€)
Data calls: national fee (no data options)

All in all, that's just shit...

Incoming calls are charged 50 cents per call, not per minute, I hope ???

[Effendi]

Yeah, of course, 50 cent per call... consider that the normal fee with non-3 operators is 95cent/min plus a set-up of 15 cent... (with Wind it's 35 cent).

But with all the other 3s in the World incoming calls are free on "sister-networks", while we pay 50 cents...

[maccoy]

I saw the new "3 come a casa" tariff and i'm feeling disgusted.
They decided to imitate the Vodafone Passport option reducing by half the set-up fee but their offer includes less than half the countries of the Vodafone Passport...
They could make an effort to keep their national tariffs unchanged!

[Effendi]

Not only less than half countries, but also very very little coverage (just Hong Kong can be considered with "national" coverage and Sweden is ok, but the rest....)

[andy]

I drove through Austria, and the coverage was as patchy as the map lead me to expect - just brief periods near Linz, St Polten and Wien, and no roaming on any other network. I had looked forward to using a callback service to call home for two pence a minute, but I didn't bother in the end.

[AndreA]

Originally Posted by Effendi

But with all the other 3s in the World incoming calls are free on "sister-networks", while we pay 50 cents...

Proud to be italian?

[callfan]

Oh yes... Very, very proud (by my side, ovviously)...