Vodafone expands $5 Roam Like Home to 34 European countries

Vodafone Australia has added Europe to its list of countries where roaming will be capped at $5 a day on its Vodafone Red plans.

The second roll out of countries comes after launching the Vodafone Red plans in August, with Roam Like Home initially offered in New Zealand, the US and UK.

All Vodafone Red 24-month plans include unlimited calls to standard national numbers and mobiles and unlimited SMS to local and international numbers. The $65 a month plan includes 1.5GB of data, $80 a month will give you 2.5GB and $100 will give you 5GB of data.

The opt-in Roam Like Home option allows you to use your phone as if you were using it in Australia, so long as you stay within your monthly allowance or you'll be charge as per Vodafone's usual roaming rates.

But the "infinite" nature of the plans means that you could standard national calls or SMS anywhere in the country you are visiting, or back in Australia, with the daily price capping at $5 – and only on the days you actually use your service.

The 34 European countries include Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey

Roaming telcos

Optus and Telstra announced their international roaming options soon after Vodafone announced Roam Like Home.

Though not yet offered globally, Vodafone is differentiating their Roam Like Home option with the plan's "infinite" options, and noting that with data, it does not require the user to buy extra data packs.

"Buying a data pack and then trying to monitor your usage is messy and customers say they find it complicated, so we decided to simplify roaming by allowing our customers to use their plan overseas just as they would at home. Our customers love it," said Vodafone Australia CEO Bill Morrow.

He added that Vodafone Australia is still working to add more countries as quickly as they can, leveraging the international presence of Vodafone Group, which owns 50% of Vodafone Hutchison Australia, in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the US.

"Vodafone has a real competitive advantage due to our international network, which means we can offer customers something none of the other providers can," he said.

"One thing's for sure, our customers love to travel and we want to make sure we move with them."

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