€50 cap on roaming charges imposed today by EU
By S Hunt, 1st July 2010
Scores of holiday makers could be finding a mammoth mobile phone
bill waiting for them when they return from abroad this summer.
Uswitch.com, an independent price comparison and switching
service, warns of a dangerous naivety among UK travellers with
respect to potential charges that can be incurred by using their
mobile phones on foreign soil. They report that over two thirds of
those intending to use their mobile phone while abroad do not to
check to see how much it will cost them before setting off.
Even though the majority of travellers are aware of the steep
cost of making calls home from abroad, many are oblivious to the
fact that merely switching your mobile phone on abroad and
consequently signing on to a local network can leave you open to
unexpected charges .
Indeed, even those holiday-goers who do not make any calls when
overseas often carelessly leave their mobile phones switched on,
which means they will be charged for receiving calls, being left a
voice mail or picking up voice mail.
The research also showed that a massive 73% of British tourists
leave themselves open to these charges by using other functions on
their mobiles phones such as cameras and alarm clocks.
Those who use their phones to surf the internet or check their
emails while abroad may be hit particularly hard - especially those
who frequent sites which continually fetch information from the
internet in order to automatically update.
Uswitch estimates that around 6% of British holidaymakers plan
to use their phones in this manner, and Matthew Wheeler, their
communications expert, advises them to "try to avoid visiting sites
that are heavy on the visuals" - the cost of surfing is
proportional the amount of data downloaded.
The EU has imposed a €50 cap on charges for surfing the internet
but this does not cover those travelling beyond Europe.
The general advice from Uswitch is to contact your mobile
network before you leave home so that you know exactly what you are
letting yourself in for.
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