No Roaming Charges in June (1 Viewer)

[SuperMike]

So, it would seem that all is not as we thought. Now, why is that no surprise ?

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/ne...-stop-firms-charging-some-extra-fees-for-data

 

[Stealaway]

It's free with Three

 

[The Wino]

As I don't use a lot of data and have a 3 sim I would sooner they kept on charging for high data users rather than included all the data allowance and had to look to make up the lost income somewhere else!. The "free" use of data when roaming must leave a shortfall in their income it won't be as simple as lets give it away free and charge no more for other services

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[Jaws]

Never use data anyway.. Only really interested in calls and texts... But the info is worth knowing and I thank 'ee good sir for the heads up

 

[2657]

It's free with Three

But time limited and throttled, no streaming etc.

 

[urban_biker]

It's free with Three

Not if you are on an essentials plan its not. They are now charging £5 a month extra for the "free" feel at home.

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[2657]

Not if you are on an essentials plan its not. They are now charging £5 a month extra for the "free" feel at home.

Is it still throttled? Won't need a lot of data with the speeds that I have encountered in France, Spain and Portugal.

I use the 3 PAYG data sims, it is a very good service but limited.

 

[Emmit]

We have a Tesco PAYG Sim in our phone.
When we were in Europe over the winter we were charged, I think 4p per minute for phone calls and 1/2p (or was it 1p) for texts.
The credit lasted forever.
Come back to the UK and the money gets gobbled up.

No doubt come June, the 4p disappears and we'll be charged as if we were at home. Not happy.

 

[peterc10]

We use a 3 prepaid sim and have never had any problems with it. We even use it to facetime our kids in UK and USA. At the moment we get through a 12Gb sim in about 3 to 4 weeks. I suspect I will need to change to another one some time this week.

I do not think they throttle it but would be happy if they did to not allow streaming of TV etc. That slows the networks down for everybody else.

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[iandsm]

I was little concerned to read this as I have just upgraded my Vodafone package which was 4GB roaming inclusive to the newer inclusive plan which gives unlimited roaming calls, texts and 20 GB of data for £22 a month, in other words use of your UK allowance abroad. I read the small print and saw in the T&C that customers roaming semi permanently or permanently which might be roaming for more than 30 days may cause Vodafone to suspend the roaming service.

i have had a chat with a nice lady in India or somewhere like that and also the uk retentions department (Because I thought I might leave if the 30 day limit was correct) and was assured by both that this will not apply. The UK retention department confirm that they have had other customers asking about this and have checked with management who say this will not apply since the allowances are updated monthly anyway. All that would happen is that should a customer reach their allowance limit (20GB in my case) Vodafone would send a text to give the option of purchasing further data till the next monthly allowance kicks in and of course if the customer didn't purchase further data, it would be suspended until then.

Data speeds are not throttled or otherwise limited.

 

[Reallyretired]

I use 3 prepaid Sims but only use data for browsing and email (and here of course). The lack of speed is not really a problem.

 

[emjaiuk]

We use a 3 prepaid sim and have never had any problems with it. We even use it to facetime our kids in UK and USA. At the moment we get through a 12Gb sim in about 3 to 4 weeks. I suspect I will need to change to another one some time this week.

I do not think they throttle it but would be happy if they did to not allow streaming of TV etc. That slows the networks down for everybody else.

Totally agree, the more obsatcles they put in to prevent people streaming movies or TV the better as far as I am concerned. Mobile isn't the same as home broadband yet.

Malcolm

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[Addie]

I think the key thing to remember that us a motorhome travellers are very much the exception and test the limitations of these roaming deals. A 'normal' holidaymaker spending perhaps 1-2 weeks abroad as an absolute maximum would probably find the new changes ample for their requirements, or at least all my non-motorhoming friends do.

A truly unlimited, or perhaps circa 50GB, pan-European SIM Card is what we all yearn for but in reality, the economics of it just doesn't make if feasible. If our experience of the EuropaSIM franchise was anything to go by, some of our customers saw the 500MB daily limit as a 'goal' rather than a 'limit'

We can always expect limitations in terms of time spent abroad (30 days in the case of Vodafone / EE or '2 months' in the case of Three), data used (12GB per month in the case of Three and 15GB per month in the case of EE) and service (traffic shaping / throttling / Fair Usage Policies).

In our experience, every customer's experience will be different. We've had customers get 9 months out of a 12GB SIM and others get 59 days. I've had customers get 3 months out of an EE SIM, others fall foul of the 30 day limitation in the T&C's despite being 'told' something different.

There is also some worrying guidelines around the successive use of PAYG SIM cards in the same device - although quite how these can or will be policed remain to be seen. If this was easily implemented then surely we would have already seen this - along with forced UK activation on PAYG cards whereas at present they can be used abroad from day 1.

It's an interesting market and then we'll have Brexit to content with.

 

[2657]

We can always to see if there are any time limits but have not found any expect limitations in terms of time spent abroad (30 days in the case of Vodafone

Vodafone are currently offering deals that include an amount of data roaming, I have looked at their T&C's to see if there are any time limits but have not found any, could you point me in the right direction.

edit: just seen the useful post by @iandsm

 

[2657]

I do not think they throttle it

My experience over the last couple of years using quite a few different 3 PAYG data sims in various countries is that the service is definitely slower than when connected through the same network directly. I have tested this in France as I have a local sim when we are back at the static.

Never been able to watch you tube clips or any clips on this and other forums and takes an age for pages with photo's to load.

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[Addie]

Vodafone are currently offering deals that include an amount of data roaming, I have looked at their T&C's to see if there are any time limits but have not found any, could you point me in the right direction.

Certainly
https://www.vodafone.co.uk/cs/groups/configfiles/documents/document/vfcon072758.pdf

'Pay monthly airtime conditions, Updated April 2017...

...Inclusive roaming allowances are only for our UK customers who are on short holidays or short business trips to countries within our Europe Zone. If you’re permanently roaming abroad - for example, you continuously use your phone from within our Europe Zone for more than 30 days – we may suspend international roaming on your account so you’re no longer able to use your phone abroad. We’ll contact you before we do this

[and]

We may decide to set a monthly call and/ or internet limit on your account. It’s possible you may go over this limit (for example when you’re roaming) but if this happens you must still pay all charges. If your usage increases significantly we may ask for a part payment so you can continue to use the services"

But as @iandsm has found this is open to interpretation by an individual employee. This is far more ambiguous than the other operators and is typical of Vodafone (who were behind EuropaSIM). I would expect T&C changes at some point to clarify this once they have some data about how people are actually using it.

My advice based on experience would be to get something in writing in relation to your account and specific usage and then at least you should be in a position to defend your understanding/interpretation.

 

[2657]

Certainly
https://www.vodafone.co.uk/cs/groups/configfiles/documents/document/vfcon072758.pdf

'Pay monthly airtime conditions, Updated April 2017...

...Inclusive roaming allowances are only for our UK customers who are on short holidays or short business trips to countries within our Europe Zone. If you’re permanently roaming abroad - for example, you continuously use your phone from within our Europe Zone for more than 30 days – we may suspend international roaming on your account so you’re no longer able to use your phone abroad. We’ll contact you before we do this

[and]

We may decide to set a monthly call and/ or internet limit on your account. It’s possible you may go over this limit (for example when you’re roaming) but if this happens you must still pay all charges. If your usage increases significantly we may ask for a part payment so you can continue to use the services"

But as @iandsm has found this is open to interpretation by an individual employee. This is far more ambiguous than the other operators and is typical of Vodafone (who were behind EuropaSIM). I would expect T&C changes at some point to clarify this once they have some data about how people are actually using it.

My advice based on experience would be to get something in writing in relation to your account and specific usage and then at least you should be in a position to defend your understanding/interpretation.

Thanks for that, the last time I looked was in March when back in the UK and tried to upgrade a very long standing contract with Vodafone only to find that my contract was now being managed by a company called One Com and I could not deal directly with Vodafone or their shops. To say I was not best pleased was an understatement and I am currently attempting to reverse the situation so that I can again walk into one of their shops and effect any changes to my contract.

 

[Stealaway]

I pay £10 for 600 minutes 1 gig data including almost any where in Europe. More than sufficient for me.

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[iandsm]

Certainly
https://www.vodafone.co.uk/cs/groups/configfiles/documents/document/vfcon072758.pdf

'Pay monthly airtime conditions, Updated April 2017...

...Inclusive roaming allowances are only for our UK customers who are on short holidays or short business trips to countries within our Europe Zone. If you’re permanently roaming abroad - for example, you continuously use your phone from within our Europe Zone for more than 30 days – we may suspend international roaming on your account so you’re no longer able to use your phone abroad. We’ll contact you before we do this

[and]

We may decide to set a monthly call and/ or internet limit on your account. It’s possible you may go over this limit (for example when you’re roaming) but if this happens you must still pay all charges. If your usage increases significantly we may ask for a part payment so you can continue to use the services"

But as @iandsm has found this is open to interpretation by an individual employee. This is far more ambiguous than the other operators and is typical of Vodafone (who were behind EuropaSIM). I would expect T&C changes at some point to clarify this once they have some data about how people are actually using it.

My advice based on experience would be to get something in writing in relation to your account and specific usage and then at least you should be in a position to defend your understanding/interpretation.

For the avoidance of doubt I would just point out that the advice I received came firstly from the help desk and I have it from them in writing. Further, that the advice I received from the UK retentions staff was not the interpretation of an individual and was not ambiguous. The person concerned explained that she and a number of her colleagues had put the issue to management as they had received other enquiries of a similar nature. Management confirmed the advice I outlined in my earlier post to staff who relayed it to me. Therefore, as the information and answers I received were the same and had come from two separate sources from within Vodafone I don't expect any problems.

The second paragraph above "We may decide to set a monthly call and/ or internet limit on your account. It’s possible you may go over this limit (for example when you’re roaming) but if this happens you must still pay all charges. If your usage increases significantly we may ask for a part payment so you can continue to use the services"" does not appear in pay monthly terms and conditions quoted, I haven't seen it before.

 

[Clickem]

We're going to France from the 23rd May to the 21st of June and have just had an Email from BT to say that From 1 June we can use our data, calls and text allowance in France, and many more countries

From 15 June if our plan gives 20GB or more of data each month, a surcharge may be applied, if we use more than 15GB, while roaming, in one billing cycle.

So well pleased with not having to wait until the 15th

 

[iandsm]

For the avoidance of doubt I would just point out that the advice I received came firstly from the help desk and I have it from them in writing. Further, that the advice I received from the UK retentions staff was not the interpretation of an individual and was not ambiguous. The person concerned explained that she and a number of her colleagues had put the issue to management as they had received other enquiries of a similar nature. Management confirmed the advice I outlined in my earlier post to staff who relayed it to me. Therefore, as the information and answers I received were the same and had come from two separate sources from within Vodafone I don't expect any problems.

The second paragraph above "We may decide to set a monthly call and/ or internet limit on your account. It’s possible you may go over this limit (for example when you’re roaming) but if this happens you must still pay all charges. If your usage increases significantly we may ask for a part payment so you can continue to use the services"" does not appear in pay monthly terms and conditions quoted, I haven't seen it before.

Just correcting myself, the paragraph above does indeed show in the T&C I had overlooked it. However I think that it would only apply to bundles where some of the items are unlimited and presumably only when they are abused.

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[Theonlysue]

We use a 3 prepaid sim and have never had any problems with it. We even use it to facetime our kids in UK and USA. At the moment we get through a 12Gb sim in about 3 to 4 weeks. I suspect I will need to change to another one some time this week.

I do not think they throttle it but would be happy if they did to not allow streaming of TV etc. That slows the networks down for everybody else.

Is facetime not streaming?

 

[BILL 875]

Too many people walk round wit fone stuck to the ear or on their nose end, what do they talk about all day.

Bill

 

[chaser]

Too many people walk round wit fone stuck to the ear or on their nose end, what do they talk about all day.

Bill

Probably answering posts about data roaming on here

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[Gorse Hill]

It's free with Three

Not so sure

To ensure all our customers can benefit from Feel At Home in Europe with roaming at no extra cost, we reserve the right to apply a surcharge in case of abusive use.

In order to help us to detect possible abuse of Feel At Home in Europe, we may monitor your usage and presence. We’ll look at the balance of your roaming and domestic (UK) activity over 120 days: if you spend a majority of your time abroad and consume more abroad than at home over the 120 days, we have the right to add a small surcharge to your usage. This surcharge will be capped at a maximum of 0.73p/MB; 3p/min; and 0.9p/SMS. Don’t worry – we’ll send you an alert 2 weeks before the surcharge is applied, giving you an opportunity to modify your roaming behaviour to avoid this surcharge.

 

[JJ]

I have a dream...

That one day, before I die, I will see that all the people in world, no matter where they are, no matter their age, no matter the colour of their skin or the god they pray to will, if they want, have easy access to fast, unlimited internet.

Until that glorious day, I will spend most of my time in Portugal, where I am connected to the fabulous, fast and unlimited NOS network.

JJ

 

[Stealaway]

We’ll look at the balance of your roaming and domestic (UK) activity over 120 days: if you spend a majority of your time abroad and consume more abroad than at home over the 120 days, we have the right to add a small surcharge to your usage.

We only travel abroad around for 30 -35 days holidays, twice a year, so it's never a concern. Completely free charges.

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