Three UK Expand Inclusive Global Mobile Roaming to 92 Countries UPDATE
Mobile operator Three UK has revealed that they’re preparing to launch a new “Go Roam Around the World Extra” service, which will enable customers to access their UK allowances (Fair Usage Policy applicable) in “92 new destinations” and all for an additional daily roaming charge of £7.
At present Three UK offers two roaming add-ons – £2 per day for Go Roam in Europe or £5 for the Go Roam Around the World destinations. Customers who take one of their ‘Value‘ or ‘Complete‘ plans benefit from the inclusion of up to 28 or 56 days worth of roaming passes, respectively (currently valid in at least 71 of their worldwide Go Roam destinations). The new ‘Extra’ service will reach 163 countries.
The good news, as spotted by one of ISPreview’s readers (credits to Ai.123), is that the operator will be introducing a new Go Roam Around the World Extra service from 26th June 2024, which adds “92 new destinations” to their world roaming add-on. “And if you joined or upgraded to a Pay Monthly plan on or after 1 October 2021, you’ll be able to use your UK allowances in any of those destinations,” says Three (applicable to those who have inclusive world roaming on their plans).
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Naturally, there’s also a Fair Usage Policy (FUP) involved with the new roaming tier, which limits customers to using up to 12GB (GigaBytes) of mobile broadband data (3G, 4G and 5G), 3,000 minutes and 5,000 texts per billing month. But when you run out of passes, the usual daily roaming charge will normally apply.
Three UK Statement
Go Roam Around the World Extra launches on 26 June! This new band in our Go Roam product allows you to access your UK allowance* in 92 new destinations for a daily roaming charge of £7. If you are travelling before 26 June in an affected destination, you will be notified via the text you receive when you land. If you joined/upgraded before 1.10.21 we won’t apply this daily roaming charge and you will continue to pay the £/p per MB, minute, text rates.
The new feature makes for a useful safety net, particularly if you already have one of the relevant plans and do a fair bit of travelling outside the UK, although occasional travellers may find that picking a destination specific plan from one of the many travel SIM / eSIM companies (Holafly, Airalo etc.), or even buying a local SIM when you arrive at your destination, is likely to be both much more flexible (allowances) and cost-effective – particularly if you plan to use a lot of data.
The 92 New Destinations
Albania
Andorra
Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba (Netherlands Antilles)
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Bermuda
Bonaire (Netherlands Antilles)
Bosnia and Herzegovina
British Virgin Islands
Brunei
Burkina Faso
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Cayman Islands
China
Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
Curacao (Netherlands Antilles)
Cyprus, North (Turkey)
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
Faroe Islands
Gabon
Georgia
Ghana
Greenland
Grenada
Guinea
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
India
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kosovo
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Liberia
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Mexico
Moldova
Montenegro
Montserrat
Morocco
Myanmar
Niger
Nigeria
North Macedonia
Oman
Pakistan
Paraguay
Qatar
Rwanda
Saba (Netherlands Antilles)
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sint Eustatius (Netherlands Antilles)
Sint Maarten (Netherlands Antilles)
South Africa
South Korea
Suriname
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Thailand
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turks and Caicos Islands
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Uzbekistan
Zambia
UPDATE 25th June 2024
Three UK has put out their official press release on this today, which confirms what we’ve already written. It also notes that, for customers who want unlimited data while abroad, a Data Passport may be the answer. Available in 89 destinations worldwide for just £5 valid for 24 hours, the Data Passport can be purchased ahead of travelling.
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Mark Gardiner, Director of Consumer at Three UK, said:
“International Travel is hugely important for many of our customers especially as we enter the Summer. This significant growth of our Go Roam offering will ensure that customers can now visit even more countries and continue to use their phone hassle free. This experience is further improved on our Three You Way plans or through our Roaming Add-Ons.”
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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£7 a day! This is day light robbery!!! How they get away charging this is beyond me. I was recently in Argentina and the O2 “free” roaming was rubbish as it severely slowed down. Bought a local SIM with 15GB, unlimited minutes and messages and free WhatsApp and Facebook for 30 days for £3. Seriously man these companies should really be shamed. I don’t really understand either why eSIM has not taken over and made things much more simple to buy…
I agree. £7/day will get you in many destination ….
Local SIM cards or even an Local eSIM should be compulsory for Three UK customers 🙂
Is it 71+92 destinations (so 163)?
Ta.
£7 a day only without the ATWE add on right?
Three has no place in the British market, it’s ethics are well below par. Looking forward to the CMA rejecting the bizarre and anti competitive merger.
Huh?
What nonsense is this? LOL.
Remember when Three used to offer roaming around the world for free as part of your contract
If you go with Smarty which is owned by Three you still get EU roaming included in the cost and you will pay less per month for your SIM also.
when!?
@Raymond yea I’m with smarty £15 for unlimited but you only get 12GB data for roaming that sucks
@Ta back in like 2018 it was definitely a thing and included a list of countries in Europe and around the world, it was free on PAYG or if you had Go Roam included
Isle of Man
Republic of Ireland
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Gibraltar
Greece
Guernsey
Hungary
Iceland
Italy
Jersey
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain†
Portugal
Romania
Sweden
Switzerland
Hong Kong
Indonesia
Israel
Macau
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Vietnam
United States of America
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
El Salvador
Guatemala
Nicaragua
Panama
Peru
Uruguay
Australia
New Zealand
Three still offer free roaming to a list of global countries via pay as you go sims via 30 day bundles. What would be more useful is knowing if the new countries will be included in this approach too.
Yes, available with all payg plans BUT GTWE will not be included. Would be great if it was, would get a payg sim in a jiffy.
It is lot cheaper to get local sim in most places eg for just about £3/month you can get 1.5Gb daily in India. So you can afford 3 different network sims and get complete coverage for £10 a month, while Three is charging £7 a day for less than 1Gb a day. Compare that to 4.5Gb a day in about example.
Ever since Brexit, the UK government has failed to uphold the legislative function that used to prevent operators from making excessive profits on roaming. Despite their promises that nothing would change, it’s evident that everything has indeed changed.
Well majority of you guys wanted this exit, everything was promised from blah blah better this and that. I’m not gonna start on politics here, however everything they promised has failed. I’m happy that I am in EU, at least for now.. UK is DONE with many things now. With comms as well.
I still have the inclusive free (no £7 day) Go Roam 71 countries account which they still honour. Just waiting to see how they deal with that and this new deal
Good for you. Three unilaterally revoked our contracts which included global roaming quoting some obscure contract clause allowing them to do so. Their counter offer doubled the monthly cost with no roaming allowance. Like Vodafone they decided to screw their customers simply because they could as they were no subject to EU regulations and both govt & Ofcom washed their hands of the whole sorry mess. Now with O2 and very satisfied.
I am a Three sim only customer on a contract that started circa 2009, so free European roaming still.
In Turkey for 7 days so it would cost me £49…no thanks, paid £15 for a worldsim eSim unlimited data for 30 days.
May dump Three for Smarty
And yet you overpaid for that price. I can suggest mobimatter, take a look at them. A lot better pricing than others on the market.
Best going local sim, I’ve looked at both options you both provided and it costs over £40 for either 60gb or unlimited. I can get unlimited data, calls and texts for €20 via nos.pt.
The only issue is that it’s not esim. I can apply for one tho at the store
£7 a day is daylight robbery as others have suggested. I am surprised this website is lauding it as a great deal. Local SIM’s or a pre loaded SIM from companies like Worldsim is Simcorner is far better value.
56 day passes per year are included.
That is the deal. It’s a good deal.
PA FlexiRoam Global also v good.
Given it can cost £3 per MB for places like India and Turkey, or £6 per MB for Pakistan paying £7 per day seems like a fairly decent offering. Hoping SMARTY launch something similar otherwise this might tempt me back to the parent network.
@PCoghlan “Three unilaterally revoked our contracts”
Should have sued them.
I’m with 3 and have unlimited data,calls and texts and pay for go roam in my monthly contract,so I was told I could use my unlimited data while on holiday but I’m now being told I only have 12 GB for the whole holiday so what is the point in me paying for go roam on my monthly contract????