Roaming internet £5 a day!

[Jack]

Just got a text from vodafone telling me of this wonderful offer! £5 for 25MB per day (was £3 last year) when your not in your home country. And by the way the [swear filter] [swear filter] hit me for charges for about 6 days last year when I thought I had switched all the internet stuff off with a response along the lines of ‘well its not our phone, its your phone you should know’

IIRC O2 and T-Mobile are no better.

For something that’s normally included in my £30 a month package an extra £70 for a fortnights holiday is [swear filter] outrageous! IMO.

I’m assuming both my phone, vodafone, and my tablet, T-Mobile, are both locked so thoughts of buying a cheapo SIM to wherever I’m going doesn’t seem to be an answer.

Does anyone have the answer to cheap, not getting seriously ripped off, browsing overseas?

I am aware of Wi-Fi but that’s no good unless you're static somewhere.

Mr Angry
Leith
:devil:

[Allant1981]

I was the same when i went away, got hit with a £70 bill. Im with orange

[Lucius Apuleius]

Switched data roaming off on both tablet and phone before leaving. Also synchronising with all accounts. Never got hit for any charges:greengrin Bloody calls were still extortionate though.

[HH81]

How do you switch roaming off on the HTC disire hd? Just so I know when I go away.

[matty_f]

Don't talk to me about it! Bought a bundle before i went to france which I wrought would cover it (was out of the country for just 10 days), and came back to a 230 quid bill !

[Hibs Class]

How do you switch roaming off on the HTC disire hd? Just so I know when I go away.

Menu then settings, then wireless and networks, then mobile networks, then make sure data roaming isn't ticked.

[HH81]

Cheers It's off anyway.

[ArabHibee]

I'm gonna play devil's advocate here, do you really need access to internet when you're on your holibobs? When I was in Florida I turned my phone on once a day to check for messages at nightime and left the thing in the villa switched off during the day.

Go away and relax and forget about the real world for a week or 2.

You used to be able to do it as little as 2 to 3 years ago. Try it, you might enjoy it! :greengrin

[Jack]

I'm gonna play devil's advocate here, do you really need access to internet when you're on your holibobs? When I was in Florida I turned my phone on once a day to check for messages at nightime and left the thing in the villa switched off during the day.

Go away and relax and forget about the real world for a week or 2.

You used to be able to do it as little as 2 to 3 years ago. Try it, you might enjoy it! :greengrin

Pleased be assured its nothing to do with work!

We go on long walks and it wouldn't be the first time the built in sat nav meant we found our way home!

Also the tablet is a reading thingy for those hours spent on the beach, by the pool and stuff like that. And I'd be a liar if I didn't say browsing the forums.

[bingo70]

Don't think it's the networks being greedy here, the local networks where you're roaming probably charge them a fortune so naturally the costs are passed down to us.

Jack, why don't you do it old school and buy a map? or better still just keep going in for pints in various pubs until you find your way home, i'm sure you never just started going for walks on hollybobs when you got maps on your phone :wink:

[Jack]

Hey Bingo, how are you?

Maps? Phaffing nuisance I want to play with my techno toys but am frustrated by these high charges. All these great facilities of, for example. being able to search nearby but the roaming charge is likely to be more than the meal! It's a nonsense.


And as you'll find out soon enough the excitement of being lost in foreign lands fades as you get older ;-)

[bingo70]

Hey Bingo, how are you?

Maps? Phaffing nuisance I want to play with my techno toys but am frustrated by these high charges. All these great facilities of, for example. being able to search nearby but the roaming charge is likely to be more than the meal! It's a nonsense.


And as you'll find out soon enough the excitement of being lost in foreign lands fades as you get older ;-)

Top of the world mate, thanks.

I quite like going for walks on holiday as well, if i ever get lost though i ask a local, if they don't speak english it's no a problem, i just talk a lot louder and it seems to work a treat :agree:

Who needs gadgets eh

[Beefster]

When you go abroad, just buy a very, very cheap PAYG phone over there (the equivalent of a £20 job from Tescos). They normally come with a certain amount of credit and you can bin it at the end of the holiday. Better than spending hundreds of pounds because the mobile companies in this country are charlatans.

[bingo70]

When you go abroad, just buy a very, very cheap PAYG phone over there (the equivalent of a £20 job from Tescos). They normally come with a certain amount of credit and you can bin it at the end of the holiday. Better than spending hundreds of pounds because the mobile companies in this country are charlatans.

Mobile networks here are a lot cheaper than abroad, which is why roaming charges are so much, the cost comes from the foreign network charging the uk network so much.

Rather than buying a new phone for £20 which probably won't have internet access you'd be better just getting a pay and go sim card from your current network, normally free as long as you put credit in it.

[Jack]

Mobile networks here are a lot cheaper than abroad, which is why roaming charges are so much, the cost comes from the foreign network charging the uk network so much.

Rather than buying a new phone for £20 which probably won't have internet access you'd be better just getting a pay and go sim card from your current network, normally free as long as you put credit in it.


I thought that was fair enough when you first mentioned it but on thinking again … the majority of these companies are global companies and the likes of Movie Star in Spain are part of some part of a company overhere. Vodafone-UK and Vodafone-ES are Vodafone!

[ArabHibee]

Pleased be assured its nothing to do with work!

We go on long walks and it wouldn't be the first time the built in sat nav meant we found our way home!

Also the tablet is a reading thingy for those hours spent on the beach, by the pool and stuff like that. And I'd be a liar if I didn't say browsing the forums.
Ever heard of books? They used to be quite popular, back in the day.:wink:

[Lucius Apuleius]

Ever heard of books? They used to be quite popular, back in the day.:wink:

Too heavy:wink: Actually just had an email war with Waterstones. They have stopped selling eBooks online outside the UK. Prats. They say it is for copyright reasons. Now, I have bough dozens upon dozens of books from them, most of them from here. They tell me I should have bought them before I left UK. My argument is they should have bloody told me. Anyway, WH Smith still sell them :greengrin

[ArabHibee]

Not the point Lucius. I'd rather carry a book onto an aeroplane than come back to £250 worth of charges on my mobile bill.

[Jack]

Not the point Lucius. I'd rather carry a book onto an aeroplane than come back to £250 worth of charges on my mobile bill.

and that's the very point I'm trying to get round!

[HibeeSince85]

The data costs have to be passed on by the networks as you are piggy backing on whichever country your in network, use wi-fi if really needed or go on holiday and chill out for 2 weeks without having to check the web.

Most Vodafone plans now include roaming data if you pay over £40 a month. And if your lower buy a bundle - the choice is there, me, when I'm on that plane data goes off and the holiday begins, facebook, .net can wait.

[Hibs Class]

The data costs have to be passed on by the networks as you are piggy backing on whichever country your in network, use wi-fi if really needed or go on holiday and chill out for 2 weeks without having to check the web.

Most Vodafone plans now include roaming data if you pay over £40 a month. And if your lower buy a bundle - the choice is there, me, when I'm on that plane data goes off and the holiday begins, facebook, .net can wait.

This is the bit that annoys me. All the infrastructure is in place (and I know it cost money to build and there is finite capacity) but I'd be hugely surprised if the charges applied for roaming were anything other than many times the actual cost to the mobile networks. It's just a licence to print money.

A good example would be call costs in Europe. A few years ago you'd have got whacked for call charges when travelling; nowadays you can use free minutes overseas. Data costs will eventually catch up. I hope.

[HibeeSince85]

This is the bit that annoys me. All the infrastructure is in place (and I know it cost money to build and there is finite capacity) but I'd be hugely surprised if the charges applied for roaming were anything other than many times the actual cost to the mobile networks. It's just a licence to print money.

A good example would be call costs in Europe. A few years ago you'd have got whacked for call charges when travelling; nowadays you can use free minutes overseas. Data costs will eventually catch up. I hope.

Probably not as soon as you hope, making calls and connecting to the web use 2 different processes so when abroad that is where you will see the prices rocket.

[Lucius Apuleius]

Not the point Lucius. I'd rather carry a book onto an aeroplane than come back to £250 worth of charges on my mobile bill.

Back to the original, girl. Switch it off. Automatic updates of Angry Birds as well!!!!

[Hibernia Na Eir]

reported in the news last week that they are to stop the ridiculous data charges being incurerd by the good Europeans.
And about time IMO.

[Calvin]

£5 for 25MB? I'm just back from Spain where O2 were wanting £3 for 1MB!

[bighairyfaeleith]

Cost me £35 for my internet while abroad for a week on the £5 a day deal, thought that was ok for a week but if I was away for two it would have stretched me a bit too far.

Came in handy being able to use google maps a couple of times though and I agree having internet access abroad is handy as I can't be without email etc although I did limit myself to just checking them once a day.