UK carrier, Three, are not afraid of upsetting the apple cart and in this respect, they are not so unlike T-Mobile US or Sprint in the United States of America: as the smallest network, they tend to be the most aggressive when it comes to pricing, allowances and general value for money. Three are rolling out their 4G LTE network across the United Kingdom and for some time now have also offered a very competitive international roaming agreement for British customers. Essentially, on many Three contracts, customers can use their handset abroad in a number of countries as though they were at home. Three does not offer this “at home” service for all countries, and where you have access to data, it is typically throttled – but free is free.
The other UK carriers have been relatively slow to respond and their offerings have not tended to be so favorable. Today, the news is that the largest UK carrier, at the moment, EE, have announced a new roaming deal to save customers money. The new deal is called the Euro Pass and for £3 a day, provides customers with unlimited calls, text messages and 100 MB of data (3G or 4G LTE depending on the country) a day, across thirty-nine European countries and just in time for the August holiday season. The new Euro Pass deals are available to all customers and costs £4 a day, unless the customer is already on the 4GEE Extra plan, in which case it costs £3. After customers have used the first 100 MB, EE make another 400 MB of data available but at a reduced speed. EE have said that customers cannot go over their allowances, which will avoid a nasty shock upon their return to the UK and the arrival of the next bill. Furthermore, the daily allowance of 100 MB of high-speed data and 400 MB of slower data is completely separate to the customer’s normal data allowance, which is reserved for UK use.
If customers want to use the new deal, they need to text either “EUROPASS” (4GEE Extra plan holders) or “EURODATA” to number 150 and the daily deal starts. EE have said that the Euro Pass only comes into effect when a customer uses their device overseas, so one doesn’t need to remove it when arriving back home. And finally; we welcome EE’s announcement today, which reduces the cost of using our (British) mobile ‘phones when roaming into Europe. The European Union is moving towards abolishing roaming charges completely, which will of course, reduce the cost still further. However, for the time being, those holidaymakers or business travellers heading to Europe can benefit from a much better deal than before.