Auditel Consultant:
Peter Harrison

Mobile data roaming costs – beware when traveling abroad!

29 Mar 2010 | Filed under: Communications

While traveling abroad, it might sound great to have mobile internet and email access on your Smartphone. But it can also be a huge shock when you receive your next mobile bill. In fact it almost certainly will be if you don’t switch data roaming off before you leave the UK. Current data roaming costs are frankly extortionate and can work out at up to £360 per hour (yes that’s correct). Charges for data roaming are unlimited and powerful data hungry Smartphones, such as the iPhone, can comfortably eat through 1MB per minute at a cost of up to £6/MB. We take this high data usage for granted while in the UK, as most tariffs include a relatively cheap unlimited use data package. But once abroad we are at the mercy of the dreaded roaming charges.

Although you can buy data roaming bolt-ons for use abroad, my advice is to go into your phone settings and switch data roaming to OFF, permanently! Remember you can still use WiFi hotspots to connect to the internet abroad, which will work out far cheaper than roaming on the local mobile network.

Edit: From July 1st, data roaming costs will at least be capped to £45 (50 Euros), but only within the EU. So travellers to the US and other parts of the World will still be hit by unlimited roaming charges.