Vodafone reveals free pan-European data roaming

30 Jun 2011

Vodafone said today customers will be able to use data roaming to surf, tweet and social network for free on their smartphones from anywhere in Europe this summer.

For July and August, Vodafone is removing the roaming premium for data so customers will only pay their domestic rate and no roaming charges.

The company said customers do not need to opt in to avail of free smartphone data roaming.

Vodafone customers roaming in 27 European countries will pay only what they pay at home for data.

This means that if they have a domestic data bundle, or if data is included in their plan, using the internet on their phone will be free.

Customers who pay a daily service charge will pay just 99c per day for data roaming in July and August.

“Through this summer’s data roaming campaign, we want to give real value and help our customers feel confident about using smartphone data when they travel in the EU,” said Stefano Gastaut, Vodafone’s consumer director.

Vodafone said using the internet on a phone in the rest of the world remains unchanged and costs €4.99 per day for 10MB. Any additional usage is charged at €3.63 per MB.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com