The costs of using your mobile phone abroad are set to fall over the next 12 months as network operators submit to pressure from the European Union to slash roaming charges. The roaming charges levied by Vodafone, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and 3 are among the highest in Europe, says John Greenwood in The Sunday Telegraph. Some networks charge up to £2 a minute to make calls from abroad. You also have to pay to receive calls from the UK. Incoming text messages are free, but it costs to send a text if you are overseas. Vodafone, O2 and T-Mobile have announced cuts, although they don’t take effect immediately.
The charges on O2 are steep – you could pay £1.49 a minute to call the UK from France. It’s promised to cut the roaming call charges to 35p a minute from July. Vodafone typically charges 75p a minute from France and says it will slash charges by at least 40% from next April. T-Mobile is cutting its charges next month, so you’ll pay 55p a minute instead of £1 to receive a call from the UK when you are in France. Orange typically charges 60p a minute.
Cut costs by finding out if your network operator is running any special deals on calls abroad. And if you often use your mobile abroad, you could buy a global or a local Sim card, says Miles Brignall in The Guardian.