In August last year Three (the mobile network, not the number) decided to remove data roaming charges in 11 countries, the US, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Macau, Australia, Italy, Austria, Hong Kong, Sweden, Denmark and the Republic of Ireland as part of their ‘Feel At Home’ initiative.
The scheme allows you to web browse, call and text abroad for free, as long as the services are included in your contract bundle. So say if you get 1000 free texts and 500 minutes free calls, you’ll be able to use those abroad on Three with no additional costs.
If you’re lucky enough to have a contract that gives you everything, unlimited for a monthly fee, there are restrictions, allowing you use of a free 3000 minutes, 5000 texts and 25GB of data before normal charges apply. However, if any of your allowances run out, roaming does return at a rate of 20p/min for calls, 7p per text and 10p per MB for data.
Building on the success of Feel At Home, Three has extended the service to five more countries, France, Switzerland, Israel, Finland and Norway. Not the most popular holiday destinations but great for business travellers conducting business busily.
Rival network EE doesn’t offer the same service, but reportedly allows their customers to use 4G abroad in France and Spain, with plans to extend 4G data to the US, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
While it is a service that Three does not yet offer holidaymakers still have a tough choice to make regarding best roaming bonuses… if money’s tight the wise decision would be to forget about the fast 3G and go with Three’s data roaming options, as EE offer 4G speeds at £3 per 100MB, a real pain in the wallet.
However, if you appreciate the ultra speeds of 4G data then maybe I’d go with EE’s 4G anywhere approach. Tell us what you think about this one, would you rather have average speeds for a low price or pay up for that speed bonus on your holiday this Summer? Comments can be entered in the comments section below.