Vodafone has taken a firm but small step towards cutting roaming charges for data users. The new arrangements are modeled on the existing ‘Passport’ arrangement for voice roaming, whereby users may opt in to a tariff plan which allows them to have roaming access at “home” rates for a fixed fee (either per day or through a monthly contract).

 

Vodafone will inevitably trumpet the generosity of its offer, and users will almost as inevitably complain that the new deal does not abolish roaming charges altogether. In fact, there is a sense in which Vodafone is making a virtue of an impending necessity, since regulatory pressures are pushing data roaming charges downwards, and a price reduction initiative from other large groups is highly probable.

 

The details of the offer are relatively straightforward. Opt in, pay a fixed daily rate, and your consumption of data while roaming is charged on the same basis as if you were at home. If you roam often enough, there’s a monthly tariff add-on instead of the daily add-on, which can save you more money.

 

Some of the details about the rollout (some countries in time for Christmas, others during the course of next year) and footprint of the new service (not the same as the Passport voice roaming offer, but all European countries where there is either a Vodafone group member or a partner network) seem complex.

 

The charges and the bundle allowances are not the same in all countries, which makes it look even more confusing. But most users won’t see this, and will surely welcome the opportunity to pay less.

 

Vodafone has quite rightly pointed out that this offer allows it to build on unmet demand for data roaming. Lots of customers switch off data when they travel, because they don’t know how much they are going to end up paying for allowing their applications to carry on working in the background. Now, instead of getting nothing from these people, Vodafone will at least get the daily or monthly fee.