Three has launched a new offer called 'Feel at Home', which allows Three customers travelling to the Republic of Ireland, Australia, Italy, Austria, Hong Kong, Sweden and Denmark to use their UK price plan to text, call and use data without incurring international roaming charges. Three claims that this makes roaming more simple for customers, encourages them to enjoy the mobile internet while they’re abroad and prevents bill shock on their return.
"By abolishing expensive roaming charges in select countries we are allowing our customers to get even more value from their minutes, texts and data abroad by removing the fear associated with staying in touch while travelling,” said Thomas Malleschitz, marketing director at Three.
While the list of countries may seem random, these are the places where Three's parent company, Hutchison Whampoa, operates mobile networks under the Three brand. However, the customers can roam on to any networks in these countries – not just Three operations. The company said that it also plans to roll out the Feel at Home service in other countries where Hutchison Whampoa does not currently operate in the next two months.
The news comes amid uncertainty about the European Union's plans to slash wholesale mobile roaming charges, which are paid by mobile operators to route calls and data traffic through foreign networks. EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes had previously suggested a cap of 3 cents per minute for voice calls and 1.5 cents per megabyte of data within the European Union, but in a draft proposal for the future of European telecoms, the Commissioner made no mention of these caps.
Source: The Telegraph
