Vodafone UK Abolishes Roaming Charges for Summer and cuts long distance cost for good

[MATHA531]

babble...

It should only take one...that's what happened as I pointed out elsewhere in the USA...today it is unheard of on most of the USA cell carriers to have a litimed calling area...the USA is one big roaming area...you pay the same to receive a call if you have a T Mobile USA account in NY when you're in California as you do in NY. And it costs the same to make the call. I think that's the model Ms. Redding has hoped Europe to emulate.

As I said, I just can't see how the other vodafone companies can fail to match vodafone UK and I can[t see how the other British cell providers can afford not to match either. The only question is what will happen at the end of the summer.

[babble]

Yes, I agree with you entirely. The greater the public discussion, the greater the pressure on the mobile telecoms companies to completely abolish european roaming tariffs.

And my apologies to Ms Reding for previously misspelling her surname.

[inquisitor]

Originally Posted by MATHA531

As I said, I just can't see how the other vodafone companies can fail to match vodafone UK ...

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.

[hkr]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

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.

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