I am abroad at the moment and unable to check details, but I will say this. The Vodafone cheap international calls from UK to certain countries have been there for some time; this is not something new at all. The variation of Vodafone Passport is a temporary promotion. Other Vodafone offers in UK are not necessarily valid abroad, for example stop the clock. So I very much doubt that there will be 5p calls possible while roaming, and suggest checking the terms before continuing speculation at this hysterical level.

Vodafone is obviously trialing those free incoming calls in the UK. Usage statistics from that trial will later form the basis of decision regarding the introduction of such or similar tariffs to other countries. Free incoming calls can become a losing game if the portion of calls over third-party (i.e. non-Vodafone) networks is too high. Vodafone may also have considered travel habits and geographical situation of each nation. Hungary e.g. is surrounded by countries, where Vodafone doesn't operate any network, so Hungarians are way more likely to roam on a non-Vodafone network than British, who mostly travel to Western European countries, in which Vodafone have their own networks. So I'm not that indignant about that preference of the British.

Verbatim: USA 5 ppm cost to call landline or mobile
 

Hi Andy,

No one is speculating. At the bottom of the press release from Vodafone UK, it states:

"Vodafone Pay as You Go call costs on the Simply Tariff for Vodafone International are:

USA, Canada, China: 5 ppm cost to call landline, 5 ppm cost to call mobile."

Signed, sealed. Now just need Vodafone UK to deliver
 

The following text is also in the press release:

"From June 1, pay as you go and pay monthly consumer customers can talk, text and send picture messages from over 35 countries across Europe this summer for the same price as at home".

PS: If you don´t mind me asking, Andy, are you the famous Andy Abramson?

Will vodafone UK make a greater profit?
 

Will vodafone UK make a greater profit with, or without roaming charges?

T-Mobile, Telefonica, etc, are likely to be adversely affected if they don´t announce similar, or even better, promotions. Vodafone´s immediate customer gain may be the other networks´ long-term loss.

The voip companies and the international phone card companies are likely to be losers. The (mobile) voip bloggers (Jeff Pulver, Andy Abramson, Dan York, etc) have not (yet) commented on the new vodafone UK promotion. But let´s be realistic -- who will search for voip wifi access, if they don´t have to pay anything extra (i.e. no roaming charges) to make or receive calls on their normal european cell phones? The vodafone UK promotion, if continued indefinitely, might be so successful that it kills the "mobile voip" mass market in Europe, before it even takes off! Well, at least until cheaper roaming data tariffs become available.

Not unless they bring roaming in the US on board which they should be able to do with their partial interest in Verizon. Now, if only we could get it to work the other way and have European wide data plans.

While I do agree with Andy about probably what it means, the operative word is probably. After all, the gist of the press release is that for the three month period all calls throughout the countries mentioned will be billed as if they were on the home network so if it costs 5p to call the USA and Canada and China while in Britain then if the press release is interpreted literally it would mean the same would be true anywhere the promotion is in effect.

But I think the information about the new international rates does seem to indicate the rates are only effective in Britain.....

I suppose we will get clarification in the near future!

Stu...

Do remember that verizon is not a gsm carrier......vodafone did make a bid to buy AT&T's gsm network when it went up for sale which cingular purchased and changed the name back to AT&T....

If travel statistics coincide with roaming statistics, Hungarians are not indeed that likely to go roaming in non-Vodafone countries in huge numbers... Where most of Hungarians go are Austria, Germany, Croatia... Even for neigbouring countries, maybe Slovakia is the one exception as Romania is Vodafone... It looks to me that Vodafone might have special roaming agreements with some providers, so not all Passport networks are Vodafone. Also, most countries where Hungarians travel are EU countries anyway, with the price cap effective. But why should they care? Vodafone passport is only a roaming tariff valid in countries where Vodafone wants it to be valid. If they are afraid of Hungarians travelling to YYY too much, they simply do not apply the tariff there. So easy :)

Here's the quote I was referring to:

"With our promotion you can sit on the beach with your phone switched on knowing you can take and make a call just as you would if you were in your back garden,"

Now I think I understand English very well. Doesn't this mean that if it costs 5p/minute to call the USA from Britain on vodafone with passport enabled, it would cost 5p/minute to call the USA from Germany? Or am I missing something?