Vodafone cuts international data roaming charges

Stuart Corner
Friday, 18 April 2008 05:52

Your IT - Home IT

Vodafone Australia today launched two international data roaming plans that it says will reduce "dramatically" the price of mobile Internet access for Australian customers travelling to 38 countries.

The Roaming Data Bundles are available as an optional extra to customers who have subscribed to Vodafone's 5GB for $39 per month mobile data plan. They enable customers to take their laptops overseas and connect to the Internet using either their Vodafone Mobile Connect USB modem or Expresscard (supplied for $0 as part of the 5GB/$39 plan). Two sizes are available: 25MB for $49 per month (Light) and 120MB for $199 per month (Heavy).

Customers can choose the duration of their international roaming plan with a minimum period of one month, and are able to activate a new plan each time they travel. No additional fixed-term contract is required. The 38 countries covered by the plans account for more than 85 percent of all Vodafone Australia's international roaming traffic and include China, the US, UK, New Zealand, Singapore and India.

Vodafone's new prices at about $2.00 per Mbyte on the light plan and slightly less than $2.00 on the heavy plan are still much higher than the $0.50 per Mbyte charged to 3 users roaming onto 3 networks overseas, without having to purchase a minimum of one months service. However they are a big improvement on the $20 per Mbyte charged by Optus (with no concessions to those roaming onto other SingTel owned networks), the $15 per Mbyte charged by Telstra and the $15-$30 charges imposed by 3 to non-3 networks.