Foreign travel with your Business Mobiles

We have been told by the media, Ofcom, and from phone networks themselves that prices for international roaming call charges will drop.  Are there real changes on the horizon or have we heard this too often?

The way the economy is now, the financial directors of companies big and small are scrambling to find ways to cut costs on a business mobile and international calling.

As businesses and consumers, we're often in the dark when we're left to use our business mobile phones overseas.  How much is this going to cost us? Is it possible to utilize one's phone time overseas? Are there any alternatives and ways of saving money?

Let's take a quick look at what is available to you in the marketplace.

Orange business customers  cane call from the UK to 28 other countries from their minute bundle. This offer is comparable to those of o2 and T-mobile.  Business World Traveller offered by Orange, will provide 25% off on roaming data and 50% off on standard voice roaming charges.

Vodafone have a similar service called ‘Passport’.  When travelling abroad, the charges will be reduced.  At only 75p connection charge each call when in another country, you can call people while paying your regular UK fees.  Get your Vodafone sevice today call 5555 and recieve a free Vodafone handset.

o2 have what’s called ‘International Traveller Service’ which allows customers to call from Europe to the UK for £0.30p per minute.  However, if you are calling from other parts of the world then the charges can vary from between £0.81p to £1.20 per minute. 

T-mobile also have competitive roaming offers.  T-mobile charge between £0.38p and £0.55p per minute to call the UK from Europe.  Receiving calls with T-mobile have recently fallen meaning the cost is between £0.13p to £0.20p for Europe.

Depending on your tariff and network, you can often tack on bundles of international minutes for use in a certain country.

If you are regularly visiting a country and using your business mobile phone to call the UK, one option is to buy a local SIM card.  You would then have a local number for the country you are visiting.  Because in some countries you must be a registered inhabitant this may not be possible.

Other options include purchasing international PAYG/Prepaid SIM cards in the UK which offer roaming savings, in some cases up to a 50% to 60% reduction in call charges.

The networks are vying for our business and the International roaming market is one area that competition is really starting to warm up. I feel optimistic that the cost of roaming worldwide will continue to become more competitive.  With the networks competing with one another for business this will drive the prices down further. 

Finally, whilst the networks are bombarded with bad press for over charging on roaming I believe they are reacting in a positive way that will benefit business mobile users in the UK.