Avoid data charges when abroad

If you’ll be using your phone abroad this summer, Simon Jary’s tips will help you avoid expensive data charges

If you’ve read scare stories of massive mobile data roaming charges – where naïve users have racked up thousands of pounds on their mobile bills just by browsing the internet or downloading a few files or email attachments – then you might be worried about taking your phone abroad with you.

Recent reports suggest that the average smartphone user gets through nearly 500MB of data a month. With data roaming charges of £7.50/ MB outside Europe you can see how the bills can rapidly add up. Indeed, nearly 40 percent of us turn

off our phones when we go abroad, and a further 36 percent switching off data roaming.

(Roaming is the word used to describe using your mobile phone on another network for a short period, while still being billed by your existing provider. Your mobile phone number remains the same while roaming. When you are roaming on another network the temporary mobile phone company will bill your usual mobile phone company for calls you make while roaming on their network.)

New EU roaming charges

Data roaming charges will be abolished within the European Union by June 2017. The ban is preceded by a 14-month interim period, in which telecoms operators can still add reduced surcharges.

From April 2016 companies are able to add a surcharge of no more than:

• 3.5p (€0.05) extra per minute for calls • €0.02 extra per SMS sent • €0.05 extra per MB of data used

The cap should make EU roaming data 75 percent cheaper during this interim period. Calls charges are cut by around the same. Texting charges are reduced by two thirds.

Making a phone call in Europe once would have cost about 16.5p just to get connected, but now the price is just 4p. Data downloads – previously a maximum of 17.4p – will also now cost 4p.

However, uSwitch warns that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and mobile operators may look to recoup costs elsewhere. “This could

be a major win for consumers who have been especially vulnerable to roaming charges since the smartphone market exploded and mobile data consumption soared. Bill shock from holidaying in the EU affects more than nine million UK mobile users a year according to our research. But the major concern is if and how mobile operators will recover their costs because we all know there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

“If this regulation change isn’t properly managed, higher mobile phone bills for all may just prove to be the sting in the tail, with infrequent travellers drawing the short straw. If price rises do follow, consumers can show their disapproval by moving to another network,” says uSwitch.

Tesco Mobile’s normal charges are being scrapped soon for a limited time so its UK customers can enjoy a bill-shock-free holiday. From 23 May until 11.59pm – 3 September 2016, Tesco Mobile’s Home from Home scheme means it won’t apply roaming charges to its subscribers’ bills if they make or receive calls and texts or use their data plan in any of 31 countries. These countries are every EU member, as well as Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. This will mean that

calls and texts to EU numbers will cost just 4p per minute and only 1p per text. This is a breath of fresh air from a UK provider, with operators such as EE notoriously stingy when it comes to roaming packages. On the plus side, come June 2017, operators won’t be able to charge you anything extra in all EU countries.

O2 currently charges 17.2p per MB within the EU, and £6 per MB outside the EU. Within the EU mobile calls cost 16.5p per minute. Before travelling to Europe check you have O2 Travel on your Pay & Go account, you can check this by calling customer services on 4445. For the days that you use data in Europe, you will be charged £1.99 for a daily allowance of 50MB, which will automatically end at midnight UK time or stop when you reach your 50MB allowance (whichever comes first). To use more data, text MORETRAVEL to 21300 to reset your allowance for another £1.99/50MB. If you don’t have Pay & Go O2 Travel on your account, text TRAVELON to 21300 to activate; it can take up to 24 hours to be applied to your account. To opt out, text TRAVELOFF to 21300, you will then be charged O2’s standard roaming rates. This can take up to 24 hours to be applied to your account.

Making calls in the US to UK costs £1.10/ minute, and receiving calls 90p/minute. Sending texts is 40p per message. Data usage is capped to 50MB (£40) per month. O2’s Data Abroad Bolt On increases your standard data limit to 200MB for £120/month. You can get the Bolt On through My O2.

Vodafone has just announced its inclusive roaming deal for new and upgrading customers to its Red and Red Value contracts, which offers unlimited calls, texts and picture messages, and a monthly data allowance of up to 4GB within 40 countries. For old, PAYG, SIM-only and mobile broadband customers, Vodafone charges 17.4p per MB in the EU; for the rest of the world it’s £3 for each MB up to 5MB, then £15 for every 5MB after that. With Vodafone EuroTraveller you can take your UK minutes, texts and data with you anywhere in its Europe Zone for £3 extra a day. To opt in call 5555 free from your Vodafone mobile or text ADD to 40506 (if you text from abroad, Vodafone will just charge you for a standard text).

You’re automatically opted into a monthly spend limit of £42.50 (ex. VAT) both in its Europe Zone and Rest of World Zone. Outside of Europe with the Vodafone WorldTraveller you can take your UK minutes, texts and data with you anywhere in its WorldTraveller Zone for £5 extra a day. To opt in, call 5555 free from your Vodafone mobile or text ADD to 40508. Be warned: a smartphone can eat 25MB of data pretty quickly. Making calls in the US to UK costs £1.35/minute, and receiving calls £1/ minute. Sending texts is 35p per message.

Orange charges 17.5p/MB within the EU, but the highest rest-of-the-world rate is £8 per MB. Orange lets you add an EU 50MB Daily rate for £3/day; or

£5 for 100MB in the EU. Calling to Europe, Ireland and the Channel Islands and back to the UK costs 18.8p, and 4.9p to receive calls. Texts cost 5.9p to make, but are free to receive. You can get unlimited calls and texts while in selected European countries for £2/day. Making calls in the US to UK costs £1.20/minute, and as does receiving calls. Sending texts is 50p per message. For the US, Orange has a Zone A Roaming Data Bundle of 20MB for £3 per day; or £5 for 100MB.

3 (Three) phone roaming charges detailed here. 3 (Three) sadly isn’t free. But it looks cheaper than the others in some countries as it charges just 10p per MB in France and the US. Mostly though it’s near the now standard sub-20p rate at 19.8p in the EU, and £3 per MB outside the EU. Watch out though as prices fluctuate quite wildly according to its website. See Three’s destination charges page.

3’s roaming charges really do depend on which country you’re in. France, for example, is a Feel At Home destination, which means you can use your device there at no extra cost. Calls and texts back to the UK and using data will come out of your existing Pay Monthly allowance, if you have one. If you’ve gone over your allowance, you’ll pay special lower roaming rates. In France that’s 10p per MB. 3’s Feel At Home destinations include: Australia; Austria; Denmark; Finland; France; Hong Kong; Indonesia; Israel; Italy; Macau; New Zealand;

Norway; Ireland; Spain; Sri Lanka; Sweden; Switzerland; and the USA. If you’ve gone over or don’t have an allowance calling a UK number from the one of these destinations costs 13.8p/minute. Sending a text costs 4.3p but receiving is free.

With 3’s Euro Internet Pass Add-on you can get all-you-caneat data for £5 a day. The Euro Internet Pass was designed for browsing, so streaming video or audio content and connecting over a Virtual Private Network (VPN) won’t be as good as it is on 3’s UK network. Also, using your phone as a Personal Hotspot, calls and texts aren’t included. Euro Internet Pass is only available if you’ve got a Pay Monthly contract and you can only use it in certain countries.

Using your EE phone abroad: It’s a little more complicated with EE. If you’re on a 4GEE or T-Mobile plan you can’t use your data abroad unless you buy an add-on or Booster. If you try to use the internet on your EE phone or tablet when you’re abroad, you’re directed to a screen where you can buy roaming data add-ons. With EE you have to buy a roaming add-on before you can use the internet while you’re away. EE has so many roaming add-on options it’s confusing. A Euro Data Roaming

Add-On costs £3 for 50MB, £5 for 100MB, £12 for 200MB and £25 for 500MB. It all depends on where you are, with EE. If you’re in Japan an add-on costs £60 for 50MB. A paltry 10MB costs £12.

As you can see web browsing for a few hours a day over the course of a week could cost you dear.

Picture messages

Opening an email that includes a picture taken by a 5Mp camera or downloading a three-minute video from YouTube takes about 2MB of data. Vodafone estimates that 20 mobile-friendly web pages uses about 1MB – but remember that the majority of websites are not mobile friendly. .

Top 10 Tips for avoiding data roaming charges abroad

1. Use Wi-Fi This one’s the first tip for a good reason. Where possible only browse or download when using your phone’s Wi-Fi connection. Users are not billed for data downloaded over Wi-Fi. The only charge might be if a particular Wi-Fi hotspot charges for access, and you should be informed of that before you can start using the connection.

2. Mind your email It’s okay to check your email, as attachments aren’t downloaded until you tell the phone to do so by selecting that attachment. That said, the text in the email is downloaded, so long lists of messages may indeed start to cost more than you’d expect. If you can, think about Tip 1 again, and check email when you’re connected to Wi-Fi whenever possible.

3. Check your settings Don’t panic. Android phone users should disable data roaming at Settings > Mobile Networks. Next, go to Settings > Data usage, and tap on the three dots on the top-right of the screen, then select ‘Restrict background data’. Apps that you aren’t currently using will not be allowed to use any data.

You also don’t want your apps to automatically update while you’re using mobile data abroad. They should update only when you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network, but go to the Play Store app to ensure that the Auto-update apps setting is set to Wi-Fi only. 4. Get a data bundle You may be able to sign up to a flat-rate or capped data package (aka Bolt On or Add On), where you pay a fixed amount each month for using the mobile internet. Contact your network operator

to find out what they offer. These can be hard to get your head around. Make sure to check they work for your travel destination.

5. Go to mobile-friendly websites only An increasing number of websites now have specific sites where their pages are specially optimised for mobile phone, thus making them lighter on the megabytes.

Most mobile websites have a very similar address to the desktop (or ‘fat’) site. Try replacing the ‘www’ with ‘m’ or ‘mobile’; or replace the ‘.co.uk’ or ‘.com’ with ‘.mobi’, as with Microsoft’s mobile site.

6. Switch SIM card Another way to avoid high roaming charges is to switch your SIM cards. UK company Dataroam (tinyurl.com/guumyjd) has a range of pay-as-yougo and 30-day plans that it claims could save users “up to 90 percent” on international roaming charges, with pre-paid data SIMs starting at £19.99. But first the smartphone needs to be “unlocked” from its home network.

(Most UK phone networks lock their smartphones to prevent consumers using alternative SIMs, and so force people to pay their high rates.) You can ask your network carrier to unlock your phone, but this isn’t always an easy request, as you might have guessed. Alternatively, there are plenty of small local independent mobile phone stores and online unlocking specialists who can unlock your handset for you. Unlocking your phone shouldn’t cause any problems either in the UK or abroad.

7. Set up a MiFi If a phone can’t be unlocked you could create your own personal (secure and fast) Wi-Fi hotspot with a MiFi device, which will allow you to run up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices from that point – ideal for group or family trips abroad.

A MiFi is a wireless modem that emits a Wi-Fi signal that devices can connect to, ensuring access to the web for more than one person.

Dataroam sells a MiFi for £89.99 that uses one of the company’s data SIMs that work out much cheaper than standard network rates abroad. Set up the MiFi as a wireless hotspot, tell your friends/ family the password, and you’re up and running. Mobile Wi-Fi and MiFi deals

8. Compress data There’s an app for that, right? Correct. The Onavo Extend iPhone app (there’s also an Android Onavo app) promises to give you the ability to do up to five times more with your current data plan without additional fees.

Onavo Extend also provides a breakdown of your mobile data usage, showing you how much data is being consumed by each app and so allowing you to make better informed data usage choices. Onavo Extend compresses your data so that you can do more with your mobile device. It also reduces roaming charges by providing a leaner version of the web.

9. Download maps offline When you’re away from home you actually need data more than you do normally, so the high

data charges are doubly frustrating. Step off the plane/train/automobile and the first thing we want/need to do is fire up maps and GPS on our smartphones. The trick is to download city or area maps before you leave home. Android users benefit from Google’s own Google Maps service. They can predownload maps covering a 10-mile radius. Android users need to enable the ‘Download map area’ feature via the Labs tab in the Google Maps app. Also check that any travelguide apps – for example, Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, DK Eyewitness, and Time Out guides – you’ve downloaded include offline maps.

10. Relax Unless it’s a busy business trip, just switch your iPhone or smartphone off for a while. Do you really need to check email morning, noon and night, access Facebook, look at Twitter, check the football scores? (Okay, you probably need to check the football scores...)