O2 UK First to Introduce Cheaper Mobile Internet EU Roaming Rates

Telecoms operator O2 UK (Telefonica) has become the country’s first mobile network to announced cheaper prices for using your mobile phone or Mobile Broadband connection while roaming abroad within the EU, which reflects Europe’s new roaming regulation for voice, text (sms) messages and data charges (New EU Roaming Rules).

At present O2’s Pay and Go (pay-as-you-go) customers would have to pay about £3 per MegaByte (MB) of data consumed, whilst contract customers have a number of different bundled solutions. This will now be reduced for both PAYG and Contract customers via a new O2Travel package, which offers 25MB Per Day for £1.99 and international rates from 29p per minute to make a call (8p to receive a call). Contract customers will be charged a one-off 50p per call, with minutes then taken from their existing tariff.

The operator claims that mobile internet usage whilst on holiday is growing at more than 100% a year and that 60% of customers who use the mobile internet in the UK also use it whilst abroad, with Facebook, Google and BBC News being the most popular websites. France and Spain were unsurprisingly found to be the most popular countries for customers calling back to the UK.

Sally Cowdry, Marketing & Consumer Director for O2 UK, said:

“We know people want to able to relax and enjoy their holidays without worrying about complicated phone charges. With simple charges and a generous 25MB data bundle, O2 Travel provides a great way for our customers to keep in touch and share their holiday moments with family and friends without having to worry about the costs.”

O2 has yet to update its website with the changes, although this is planned for 21st May 2012. The new O2 Travel package itself is timed to launch with the new regulation from 1st July 2012; the other operators are also likely to announce their own new roaming data charges before that date.