[blush]

o2 released this yesterday I think but have so far not advertised the fact.

•Web Daily Europe is £1.50 per day for up to 15MB per day on your mobile in Europe.
•Use data without worrying about the cost – we won’t charge you more than £1.50/day and you can use up to 15MB/day
•For 15MB you should be able to keep up with your friends on Facebook and send some emails on your mobile but it’s not enough to watch you-tube videos or download music.
•Some examples are:
•Send/receive around 15,000 emails without attachments OR 30 emails with attachments
•OR visit 150 made-for-mobile web pages or 45 Rich content sites (lots of pictures like BBC, Sky News etc.)
•To opt-in send DATA to 2020, ideally before you go.

Link (http://www.o2international.co.uk/usingdataabroad/PayMonthly.aspx)

[Ben]

Ok good, so that's Vodafone, Orange, and O2 doing this now.

However I don't like that on O2 you have to a) opt in and b) you get capped!

Vodafone's automatic £2-per-day is the best so far, giving 25MB with £1/MB if you go over. But they'll text you first :)

[solo12002]

Well it looks like three might be going to do something to:

" At the start of July we reduced our roaming call prices in the EU. If you make a call it’s now dropped from 38.8p to 36.6p/m and 14.4p to 11.5p/m if you receive a phone call"

" In addition, for all devices, you’ll receive a text message when you arrive in the EU which lets you know the price for making calls, sending a text message or using data on your phone. In addition you’ll receive an alert, where you are, for every £2.50 that you spend on data"

" We’re currently looking at our data roaming packages and there’s still work to do. We haven’t yet been able to create a package that will give you guys better value but you’ll be the first to know when we do. After all, it’s really important to us that we focus on delivering you the best data experience (it’s what we’re built for!)"

http://blog.three.co.uk/2011/07/20/using-your-smartphone-abroad/#more-2459

[Ben]

Lets hope they do. Data roaming on my iPad has stayed firmly in the OFF position on my recent travelling endeavours.

Vodafone's 25MB for £2/day is really incredibly enabling, and you'd be amazed how much maps, twitter, and facebook you can get into that space. Only once did I get the warning that I was about to run out and be charged extra, and that may have had something to do with my DJing a party from my iPhone and needing to download a couple of extra songs! :D

Seriously, £2 for something that would otherwise cost over £50 on per-megabyte charging just makes the world of difference to how I've been able to use my iPhone in Europe.

[blush]

I have been in Lanzarote using the Web Daily Europe service for two weeks and had quite an interesting time.*

Initially the data usage shows at the standard rate of £3.06 a Mb and after about 24hrs the charge reverts to £1.50 a day. I queried this on the first day after seeing recent charges for about £30. I emailed O2 and the first reply denied the web daily Europe service existed and that I was confused and was talking about the PAYG web daily service in the UK which would not count outside the UK! I replied with the text from the O2 website and was credited £11 which actually made my bill for the month less than usual and an apology for the mistake the CS agent had made and the service did exist.*

Later in the holiday I had about eight meg left one day and updated four apps which I thought would only use a few mb. After the update I discovered I had used 46mb. The terms stated that after you use the 15mb you will receive a text to tell you that you will be charged at the standard rate but I received nothing so once again emailed CS who told me I would be charged £43 for the excess. But 30mb at £3 is more £90 so I kept quiet. The recent charges on the website at one point showed £130! I contacted O2 again quoting the terms and conditions about being informed and they have now let me off the excess charges and now say if I go over 15mb I will receive a text and move to the £5 for 50mb daily service which is not documented on the O2 website. All a bit random and CS not informed but I seem to be doing quite well out if it!*

The hotel I am at only has wifi around the reception so it has been nice to be able to use data out and about even if 15mb is a bit limiting.*
I must say though I have been using an old Nokia E51 and my iPhone and I can spent hours on the Nokia using very little and the iPhone uses way more data. This is even using a 3rd party browser which turns off images. I imagine the Nokia is using pages designed for wap.*

[Ben]

Gosh, what a mess! I have to say, Vodafone's offering 'just worked' without me lifting a finger. The first I knew about it was when I popped out the chunnel and got the first text!

Really is liberating having data abroad though, isn't it. So good this is happening.

[blush]

A smartphone without a data connection becomes quite a dump phone and I used to get really frustrated looking for a wifi hotspot especially when on a road trip and changing hotels every night. Quite a few hotel chains now provide free wifi but I remember a few years ago walking round town centres looking for wifi access where someone had not enabled any security.*

It does make me wonder what the iPhone does report back to Apple though as every time I send a text I get a notification that data is disabled. I have the gps turned off and push email so what and why it tries to communicate bugs me.*

Hopefully o2 will eventually brief everyone at customer services so they are all aware of the option and actually send out texts as the terms and conditions say they will. Hopefully Three will come up with something better as the current offering is not good.*

[Ben]

Yes, Three need to address the issue urgently IMHO.

I'm not sure why Messages.app always wants data; I think it might have something to do with MMS... but yes, it always asks, which is quite annoying.