Three Lets Customers Use UK Call, Text And Data Allowances In Spain and New Zealand

Three customers travelling in Spain and New Zealand from April 1 will be able to use their call, texts and data allowances as though they were in the UK after the two countries were added to the operator’s Feel At Home service.

Calls and texts to UK numbers can be made at no additional cost, while those to non-British numbers will be charged at reduced roaming rates. Three customers will also benefit from a 12 percent discount on a prepaid hotel booked through Expedia UK before April 6.

Feel At Home was launched last year and now covers 18 countries across the world, including France, Switzerland, Israel, Finland, Norway, USA, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Macau, Australia, Italy, Austria, Hong Kong, Sweden, Denmark and Republic of Ireland.

Three Feel At Home

“Feel at Home is unique to Three and offers freedom from unfair roaming charges,” says Three CEO Dave Dyson. “It is already hugely popular with more than a million of our customers enjoying its benefits since launch. Adding France last year and Spain in 2015 means the two most popular destinations with British holiday makers will be covered.

“Currently, 49 percent of our customers’ overseas trips are to Feel At Home destinations.  With the addition of Spain and New Zealand, I expect that to rise to about 65 percent.”

Dyson has previously said that Three customers were using 53 times more data abroad than they did before Feel At  Home was introduced, adding it had been it had been cited by a third of customers as being an important factor in staying or joining the operator.

The operator is working on adding more countries to the service, with Germany mentioned as a possibility, but has warned some nations were out of reach because of prohibitive wholesale charges which makes launching a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in some countries a cheaper option.

The European Union is working to eliminate roaming charges entirely across member states, with the European Parliament recently approving the Telecoms Single Market Regulation, which could result in charges being scrapped by December 2015.

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