Foreign travel with your Business Mobiles

We have been told by the media, Ofcom, and from phone networks themselves that prices for international roaming call charges will drop.  Will there be a real change in the future or is it more of the same old story?

At the moment, financial departments of both large and small companies are looking for ways to reduce the costs of a business mobile and international roaming.

An important issue when making calls with business mobile phones in other countries is the information that is provided to companies and individual consumers.  How much are we going to be charged? Is it possible to utilize one's phone time overseas? What are other ways to save money?

Lets take a brief overview at what is on offer in the market place.

Orange ‘business customers’ can make UK calls to 28 countries from their minute bundle, similar offers are available on o2 and T-mobile.  Orange also offer ‘Business World Traveller’ which will give up to 50% off standard voice roaming rates and up to 25% off roaming data.

You can find a similar service provided by Vodafone called Passport.  You can also take advantage of reduced call charges when you call from another country.  At only 75p connection charge each call when in another country, you can call people while paying your regular UK fees.  You can talk to Vodafone about the service directly by dialing 5555 on your handset.

o2 have what’s called ‘International Traveller Service’ which allows customers to call from Europe to the UK for £0.30p per minute.  However, if you are calling from other parts of the world then the charges can vary from between £0.81p to £1.20 per minute. 

T-mobile also have competitive roaming offers.  T-mobile charge between £0.38p and £0.55p per minute to call the UK from Europe.  Receiving calls with T-mobile have recently fallen meaning the cost is between £0.13p to £0.20p for Europe.

Just tell us where you need to make your call to and we will set you up today.

If you are regularly visiting a country and using your business mobile phone to call the UK, one option is to buy a local SIM card.  In that case you have a local number for the country you are in.   Within certain countries it would not be possible because you will have to be a documented resident.

Other options include purchasing international PAYG/Prepaid SIM cards in the UK which offer roaming savings, in some cases up to a 50% to 60% reduction in call charges.

Networks are competing and the market for international roaming is becoming more and more competitive. I am positive that roaming call prices around the world will keep getting more and more competitive.  After all, the networks are in competition with one another which will drive prices down further. 

Finally, whilst the networks are bombarded with bad press for over charging on roaming I believe they are reacting in a positive way that will benefit business mobile users in the UK.