Vodafone UK to offer free roaming calls and messages this summer

Much in line with the stipulated by the EU Parliament last month, European carriers are already starting to slash their roaming charges. Vodafone UK, for instance, launches an interesting three-month summer promotion.

Starting as of 1 June all Vodafone UK Pay-as-you-Go and Pay-Monthly customers that choose the Vodafone Passport plan will be able to call, text and send picture messages to friends and family back home from over 35 countries with no extra charges - just as if they were in the UK.

That means you can even use your free minutes and messages for communication while in roaming (as long as you are calling back to the UK of course).

Unfortunately, the promotion doesn't include wireless data traffic.

Experts say that the carriers will have a hard time implementing all the EU Parliament requirements, so a three month summer promotion is probably just what Vodafone UK will need to get their things straight. Perhaps it's unfortunate for them that they have to slash the prices that low exactly in the summer - the season most UK residents choose to travel abroad bringing potentially quite high roaming revenues.

Still, along with that, as of 15 May Vodafone UK Pay-as-you-Go customers on the Simply tariff will be able to opt for the new Vodafone International call plan. The new plan allows them to make overseas calls for as little as 5p per minute (calling from UK to landlines and mobile lines abroad).

Countries included in the Vodafone Passport summer promotion are as follows: Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Channel Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroes, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Isle of Man, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madeira, Malta, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Vatican City, New Zealand, Australia.