PrePaidGSM.net Forum (Archived) - View Single Post - Vodafone UK Abolishes Roaming Charges for Summer and cuts long distance cost for good

MATHA531 · 14-05-2009, 21:38

Please forgive me if I ask too many questions as I am a little slow to pick up on things but they eventually come to me.....

So let's see...I get a free Vodafone UK sim card and sign up for passport after an initial top up....I now can call landlines in Europe for 5p/minute and mobiles for 15p while I can call all numbers in the USA and Canada and China for 5p. Got that. I am on the simple plan so all calls within the UK are 20p/minute got that too (including to voice mail).....now I travel to France...ah ha the promotion says all calls I make will be charged as if I'm in the UK...so if I call a UK number, it's 20p including voice mail...right. But if I call a local French landline, then it's 5p (far better than I would get using a French prepaid sim)..if I call the USA it's 5p whether I'm in the UK or Australia, right?

And the one thing I seem to have missed, is the billing per minute or per second or per second with a minimum...it's probably in there but I can't seem to find it.

Frankly, if I have it right, at least for this summer, it might be the best deal there is and culd really inflict severe damage on some of the international cards. Also one advantage of vodafone is you can top up in any country which has a vodafone subsidiarly with local vouchers in that country. Thus if I'm in France I cause an SFR voucher to top up the vodafone UK account while I'm in France, right?

Finally, won't this force O2 and Orange to have to match? That's what happened in the USA a decade ago. In the original development of cell phones, originally you had a very small calling area which came out of your minutes for each month (and they were very limited, let me tell you). Calls outside your local area were billed as long distance.

Then along came Sprint, yes they were the first, to revolutionize this and make the whole USA roaming free and long distance free. Muchagainst their will, the other carriers were forced to match and we were on the way to what we have today...national calling areas, lots of minutes and no long distance charges (but some of them make it up with asininely high international roaming charges, are you listenng AT&T and T Mobile USA)....I know this is a temporary promotion but isn't this what Ms. Redding has been after and isn't vodafone just trying to show that regulation by the eu is unnecessary.....

Finally, what about the other vodafone subsidiaries...will vodafone DE be forced to match this for its customers? After all, if I have a German Vodafone card, I pay astronomically high rates both to call within Germany and pay the eu rates to roam throughout the eu...now I can have a vodafone UK card, top it up with a vodafone DE voucher so that's no problem and call within Germany for 5p which is what 0,07€. What will vodafone have to do to keep their other subsidiaries happy.

Hey Mr. Ed, does this worry you?

	(#17)
MATHA531 (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Specialist Posts: 869 Join Date: 15 Oct 2004 Country:	14-05-2009, 21:38 Please forgive me if I ask too many questions as I am a little slow to pick up on things but they eventually come to me..... So let's see...I get a free Vodafone UK sim card and sign up for passport after an initial top up....I now can call landlines in Europe for 5p/minute and mobiles for 15p while I can call all numbers in the USA and Canada and China for 5p. Got that. I am on the simple plan so all calls within the UK are 20p/minute got that too (including to voice mail).....now I travel to France...ah ha the promotion says all calls I make will be charged as if I'm in the UK...so if I call a UK number, it's 20p including voice mail...right. But if I call a local French landline, then it's 5p (far better than I would get using a French prepaid sim)..if I call the USA it's 5p whether I'm in the UK or Australia, right? And the one thing I seem to have missed, is the billing per minute or per second or per second with a minimum...it's probably in there but I can't seem to find it. Frankly, if I have it right, at least for this summer, it might be the best deal there is and culd really inflict severe damage on some of the international cards. Also one advantage of vodafone is you can top up in any country which has a vodafone subsidiarly with local vouchers in that country. Thus if I'm in France I cause an SFR voucher to top up the vodafone UK account while I'm in France, right? Finally, won't this force O2 and Orange to have to match? That's what happened in the USA a decade ago. In the original development of cell phones, originally you had a very small calling area which came out of your minutes for each month (and they were very limited, let me tell you). Calls outside your local area were billed as long distance. Then along came Sprint, yes they were the first, to revolutionize this and make the whole USA roaming free and long distance free. Muchagainst their will, the other carriers were forced to match and we were on the way to what we have today...national calling areas, lots of minutes and no long distance charges (but some of them make it up with asininely high international roaming charges, are you listenng AT&T and T Mobile USA)....I know this is a temporary promotion but isn't this what Ms. Redding has been after and isn't vodafone just trying to show that regulation by the eu is unnecessary..... Finally, what about the other vodafone subsidiaries...will vodafone DE be forced to match this for its customers? After all, if I have a German Vodafone card, I pay astronomically high rates both to call within Germany and pay the eu rates to roam throughout the eu...now I can have a vodafone UK card, top it up with a vodafone DE voucher so that's no problem and call within Germany for 5p which is what 0,07€. What will vodafone have to do to keep their other subsidiaries happy. Hey Mr. Ed, does this worry you?