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

[petkow]

Originally Posted by Stu

... best rate you have to call a Swiss Mobile?

Have you checked betamax price comparison ?

[inquisitor]

Originally Posted by MATHA531

But, maybe I'm just dense, what does this have to do with no roaming fees on Vodafone UK...this would only affect who was receiving the call, So if your girlfriend was on vodafone UK and taking advantage of the summer promotion, even under the terms of the original Vodafone Passport the total charge to the receiving party would only be 75p....or did you use a callback service to make the call but even then, the fee under the rules for vodafone passport would be 75p so I'm just wondering just how much did the summer promotion cost vodafone in this case.....

During the summer promotion Vodafone UK PAYG customers are not charged a single penny for receiving calls in whole Europe, Australia and New Zealand. So my girlfriend, who is roaming with my Vodafone UK PAYG SIM in Switzerland doesn't pay anything for receiving calls. Only the calling party pays, in that case me. So the total income of Vodafone when I call her now is ~ GBP 0.05/min and I hardly believe these 5 pence will cover the rates, which the foreign network operator charges to Vodafone. Just for comparsion: German operators usually charge € 0.69/min for incoming calls in Switzerland, sure that rate includes a giant margin, but I'm sure Swiss operators will receive more than € 0.06/min from those € 0.69/min.
And of course whenever my girlfriend or I need to place outgoing calls, we use callback through Betmax' Java midlet (http://gsm.voipbuster.com).

[MATHA531]

...but inquisitor, you missed my point. Even without the summer promotion, the most your girl friend would have paid under Vodafone Passport is 75p....hardly an earth shaking amount...now if you want to tell me all these 75p add up eventually, I'll buy that. But how many people spoke for an hour under this promotion?

My point is that the promotion didn't cost Vodafone all that much, in this case a grand total of 75p.....

[inquisitor]

When it comes to long calls you are right - 75p won't offset the absent incoming charges. However the average duration of mobile calls ranges between 40-90s, so those 75p with Passport would cover the roaming costs for an average call.
Within the EU those 75p will even increase the income from incoming calls, given the fact average calls don't exceed 2 minutes.

So my point is, that Passport's business model relies on a charge for incoming calls. Maybe Vodafone just has this summer promotion to decoy customers and when they are in the trap, they'll start charging those 75p again.

[Stu]

Or perhaps they will start adding conditions. For example on ATT's corporate iPhone International plan (5 gigs of iPhone data for most countries for $69), you have to spend at least one day a month in the U.S.

[Stu]

With the EU rates on incoming, you're right that the 75p model for incoming won't work. Most calls will be cheaper without passport. This model has increased their business, but they really don't want the folks who frequent this forum as customers. Moreover, the UK has more ex pats than any nationality other than India. The number of Brits moving elsewhere and staying on Vodafone will be high.

What I see them doing is either requiring a percentage of the calls to be made in the UK or some other proxy to insure that they get some domestic business for this promo. They couldn't do this this summer because many people took these free SIMs as they were about to jump on a plane some place. My best friend sent me two that someone Voda employee was just handing out at a street corner.

They have a hit on their hands and I think they will tweak it, not abolish it. I'm just afraid that the non-UK members of this forum will get tweaked out of business.

[Motel75]

It might be worth it to Voda to overtake O2 to become the #1 provider in the UK. They had 2 million fewer users than O2, but were weak in prepaid.

[MATHA531]

The competition is so fierce in the UK that they're all handing out free sim cards....I passed by a T Mobile store just this past June and an employee was outside handing out free sim cards.....when I got on the train from Victoria to Heathrow and later on when I returned to London via Eurostar, there were people handing out free lebara sim cards although they required a 5 quid top up...O2 has it prominently mentioned on its web site they will post free sim cards.....I just wonder if they're ever going to be able to go back and charge for them...

Meanwhile we're now into August and there's been no annoucement one way or another what vodafone will be doing.

To top it all off, Ms. Redding, the eu minister in charge of telecommunications, has made it quite clear that her ultimate goal is no roaming charges to receive calls anywhere in the eu. It is obvious that day is coming.

[ygeffens]

Is this free-incoming action available on all vodafone cards?
I mean, if I buy one on ebay, will I (as a non UK resident) be able to use it, top it up, ... ?

Thanks
Yves

[inquisitor]

Originally Posted by ygeffens

Is this free-incoming action available on all vodafone cards?

Yes, to all British Vodafone prepaid SIMs ("pay as you go" or "PAYG") after you have activated the Passport option by texting "PASSPORT" to 2345. On that ocassion you should also text "BONUS BANK" to 2345 and you'll get 10% bonus for every topup.

I mean, if I buy one on ebay, will I (as a non UK resident) be able to use it, top it up, ... ?

Yes, that works, however topping up is not that convenient, as Vodafone accepts only British credit cards on their website. I found this online shop where they sell Vodafone topup vouchers below nominal value, but I first had to ask if they accept me, since they are actually closed to new customers. If you refer to this forum, they may accept you.

But keep in mind, that Vodafone's Passport promotion will end on August, 31st!