Three Abolishes Roaming Charges For Data, Calls And Texts To UK In 7 Countries

Three customers are now able to use their UK data, voice and text allowances when calling or sending messages back home without incurring any extra charges in seven countries around the world.

The ‘Feel At Home’ service will be activated automatically whenever a customer enters Austria, Australia, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Republic of Ireland or Sweden, countries which have a network owned by Three’s parent Hutchison Whampoa, and the company is working on adding more countries to the list.

The offer applies to any pay monthly, SIM only, pay as you go, mobile broadband or business tariff, but only applies to texts and calls to the UK, with calls to local numbers charged at normal roaming rates.

Three roaming

However customers will be able to use Three-to-Three minutes to other users in the same Feel At Home country and there is never a charge for receiving calls. If allowances are exceeded, calls, texts and data are charged at lower roaming rates of 20p per minute, 7p per text and 10p per MB, while users can also activate normal UK add-ons if they use My3.

There are some restrictions however. If users consume 25GB of data, 5,000 texts or 3,000 minutes per month in any two months of the year, they may be blocked from the service, while tethering is not allowed but VPN connections are.

Three’s move comes at a time when its UK rivals are slowly moving to conform to EU regulations aimed at lowering the cost of using a mobile phone abroad. Vodafone lets customers use their UK tariff in the UK for £3 a day, while O2 has responded by dramatically increasing the amount it charges for roaming outside the EU.

Three has also promised not to charge its customers any extra for its 4G service when it launches later this year. This compares favourably with EE, O2 and Vodafone, all of whom charge a £5 premium for LTE.

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