Feature

T-Mobile Halves Business Roaming Charges

Networks & Network Services
T-Mobile has announced plans to reduce its roaming charges for business travellers by more than half. The discounts are only valid in countries where T-Mobile has network coverage in Europe and the States.
T-Mobile's data roaming charges will fall from £7.50/MB to £3/MB for business customers travelling in 10 countries, including Austria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, the UK and the USA

The new pricing, which will take effect from February 16th, applies to both sending and receiving data but does not apply to customers using Officlink, BlackBerry email, or the Sidekick. A similar package for consumers is later this year.

T-Mobile roaming head, Max Miller said customers can expect these prices to be further reduced as wholesale roaming rates shrink over the coming year.    

“Consumer and business voice roaming rates have already been simplified, and data was the next step,” Miller explained. “The lower data rates apply to all countries where T-Mobile has a presence, and any network in those countries, as we can get better rates in those locations. As the costs continue to come down at other overseas operators, we’ll continue to reduce prices for our customers.”

T-Mobile said it cut costs for business customers first because they make up the majority of its data users. Plans are afoot to offer a similar initiative to reduce data roaming rates for consumers in time for the summer holidays, according to the company.

Meanwhile O2's My Europe roaming price plan - the first service to remove charges when receiving calls abroad no matter which network a customer is on - now includes offers on voice and SMS across many more European countries.

The reach of the My Europe 'high roamer' service, offering discounts of up to 70% over standard voice roaming rates, has been extended significantly. It is available with immediate effect to O2 Germany subscribers in 19 countries and to customers of O2 UK in 31 European countries.

In the UK, the My Europe Extra 'high roamer' voice service now includes France, Germany, and Italy among 30 new countries in addition to the initial launch country of Spain, where the service has been available since October 2006.