Vodafone $5 international roaming

[drivatruk]

Heading to Prague, Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest next month and wandered if anyone had roamed on Vodafone in the countries.
I am looking to hear how the service was as i use Google Maps heaps and hoping for ok data speeds.

Thanks

 

[Himeno]

I haven't used the $5 roaming yet. I only recently changed to post pay and had been using roaming on prepaid before, and turned it off for my recent trip to LA.

I asked about the option when I changed plans. They said that the "per day" is based on 24 hours from using the phone, not set to any timezone. ie, if something on the phone is used, that is covered by roaming, at 1030 CET (or 1930 AEST), then it is valid until that time the next day. I had been expecting it to be date based using Sydney time.

Also, they said that if someone at home calls you, that activates the $5/day.

 

[alieninperth]

If someone calls you, it is only activated if you answer the call. If you ignore it, it is not activated. I can also confirm the 24 hr period. I used my phone in both HKG and the UK within a 24 hr period and I was only charged one $5 fee. A word of warning though. I found voicemail difficult to listen to when overseas, you need to know the passcode.

 

[medhead]

I've only used it in France, belgium, turkey and UAE. $5 per 24 hours. Was good to avoid some 24 hour charges when travelling, if I got the timing right. Works well. Great service. Didn't know about the voice mail thing.

I've recommended some of my brothers friends from Europe look into it when travelling to australia later this year.

 

[Lemon_Party]

I've only used it in France, belgium, turkey and UAE. $5 per 24 hours. Was good to avoid some 24 hour charges when travelling, if I got the timing right. Works well. Great service. Didn't know about the voice mail thing.

I've recommended some of my brothers friends from Europe look into it when travelling to australia later this year.

Interesting about UAE, I was in transit in DXB in May and was charged standard (exorbitant) roaming rates, only place I've been that it hasn't been $5/day.

Worked great in Singapore, Japan, China, Italy & NZ for me. Most city locations I had 4g on a local carrier...

 

[kevinkhchan]

Not able to answer your exact question. Sorry.

However it was a mixed bag for me on my last O/S trip.

Speed was useless in Singapore. Not too bad in Helsinki but I ended up buying a month long unlimited data SIM (unfortunately limited to Finland only) which had amazing speeds. Was very fast in Amsterdam. Not too bad in Hong Kong.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

I have used it 100 times in SIN and always perfect - China / Indo / HK / Viet / England / USA / France / Italy / Spain / Germany ALL perfect - sorry I cannot answer re specific countries you asked - but IMHO the VF Red Roam best concept since sliced bread.

 

[Lemon_Party]

I have used it 100 times in SIN and always perfect - China / Indo / HK / Viet / England / USA / France / Italy / Spain / Germany ALL perfect - sorry I cannot answer re specific countries you asked - but IMHO the VF Red Roam best concept since sliced bread.

+1 - only complaint is that on longer trips it can get pricey - the convenience of using your own phone is great, but $100 for 3 weeks often puts a local sim card in a better position. I'd love a monthly cap, but I suppose can't have it all...

 

[ftm]

Heading to Prague, Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest next month and wandered if anyone had roamed on Vodafone in the countries.
I am looking to hear how the service was as i use Google Maps heaps and hoping for ok data speeds.

Thanks

I used it in Prague recently, and currently using it in Italy. No problems with speed, and Google Maps works just fine. We have been using it a lot too.... Finding the parking station in central Milan without it would have been fun! The only catch I found was that it uses your allowances as if you were at home. So if you have a low data cap, then you may end up using more and need the top up add on.

 

[777]

Ive recently switched to Vodafone for thos reason. Used it in bangkok, prague, paris and london. In the old days id carry around a separate ipad with a local sim. Much easier.

A few minor issues:

The service in paris was really slow. I assume that this is due to the local network partner but was really bad.

Why isnt Canada included? Heading there and the US next month and its bloody annoying!

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Why isnt Canada included?

Yes annoying - will be there also in Sept after USA and not having $5/day service going to be a PITA. For the record here is global map of countries covered:



Indeed 50 countries in total now covered:



And the they nuts and bolts:

 

[kevinkhchan]

+1 - only complaint is that on longer trips it can get pricey - the convenience of using your own phone is great, but $100 for 3 weeks often puts a local sim card in a better position. I'd love a monthly cap, but I suppose can't have it all...

Agreed. Hence the reason I ended up getting a local pre-paid SIM in Helsinki - we were there for over a week.

We also found the VF service to be slow in Bali. Had to buy a local SIM which then had to be cut down as they did not have official support of the Micro-SIMs.

 

[Simo]

VF are the leader in the Australian market for International usage for your phone. $5 a day and free in NZ. Telstra has travel pass which is great but is a lot more expensive than VF $5 a day rate. I live in a Telstra only coverage area so I have no option.

 

[OATEK]

I recently used the $5 a day roaming in UK, France, Austria, Hungary, Greece and Hong Kong and it worked perfectly. I had very week in-room WiFi in two hotels, and used my phone as a hotspot and it worked extremely well, including for checking in. And at the end of the trip, despite some international calls, and the hotspot use I had used less than half my data allowance and paid nothing over the $5 extra per day.

 

[Simo]

I recently used the $5 a day roaming in UK, France, Austria, Hungary, Greece and Hong Kong and it worked perfectly. I had very week in-room WiFi in two hotels, and used my phone as a hotspot and it worked extremely well, including for checking in. And at the end of the trip, despite some international calls, and the hotspot use I had used less than half my data allowance and paid nothing over the $5 extra per day.

Your lucky.. I always go over my data when travelling with the family.

Little Miss 7 wanted a game for her IPad when OS and I forgot to turn it off and she found her Favourite YouTube videos and cost me about $30 in excess data. We went about 3gb over...

 

[hummel]

Yes annoying - will be there also in Sept after USA and not having $5/day service going to be a PITA. For the record here is global map of countries covered:

View attachment 75346

Indeed 50 countries in total now covered:

View attachment 75347

And the they nuts and bolts:

View attachment 75348

Thanks for the map CE. We use VF Red for China extensively - Have 1 phone there and 1 phone here in Aus. The rest of our business phones are on Telstra and while we'd love to use them OS there so called 'data packs' are just so expensive when comparing to VF.

The best part of VF for me is nothing is blocked in China when using the VF Phone.

 

[N860CR]

I've found that with my iPhone 6, even with data turned off and no incoming/outgoing calls, it basically activates the "day" as soon as you turn your phone on as you get off the plane. Not an issue if you intend to use it anyway, but there have been times when I haven't wanted the $5 charged (i.e. If you arrive/depart on a transfer) and I've been stung it

 

[travelislife]

I've found that with my iPhone 6, even with data turned off and no incoming/outgoing calls, it basically activates the "day" as soon as you turn your phone on as you get off the plane. Not an issue if you intend to use it anyway, but there have been times when I haven't wanted the $5 charged (i.e. If you arrive/depart on a transfer) and I've been stung it

Something not right on your phones settings there. I have a 6 and haven't had this issue at all. On a 2 week trip I might use it 2-3 times but the rest of the time just use wifi and it doesn't activate the roaming charge.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Another data point you need to keep in mind with VF Inter Roaming is perf speed. VF Australia have coverage agreements with carriers in all supported countries but said agreement does not nevessarily ensure will get max available speed of said partner carriers network.

For example - VF have supply agreement with China Unicom in China - and your phone will generally auto pick up CU network - but the 3 Chinese carriers - Mobile, Unicom and Telecom ALL have 4G network - and indeed your Australian VF will most times didplay 4G on phone - BUT - indeed VF agreement with Unicom is for supply of 3G service ONLY and not 4G. I would assume similar agreement is probably in place with many other carriers ion the various countries covered. No doubt these agreements are revisited, reviewed and updated continuously - but just bear that in mind.

When I arrive in China now I need to turn off 4G and choose Unicom rather than Auto Select carrier to get max performance.

 

[hummel]

Another data point you need to keep in mind with VF Inter Roaming is perf speed. VF Australia have coverage agreements with carriers in all supported countries but said agreement does not nevessarily ensure will get max available speed of said partner carriers network.

For example - VF have supply agreement with China Unicom in China - and your phone will generally auto pick up CU network - but the 3 Chinese carriers - Mobile, Unicom and Telecom ALL have 4G network - and indeed your Australian VF will most times didplay 4G on phone - BUT - indeed VF agreement with Unicom is for supply of 3G service ONLY and not 4G. I would assume similar agreement is probably in place with many other carriers ion the various countries covered. No doubt these agreements are revisited, reviewed and updated continuously - but just bear that in mind.

When I arrive in China now I need to turn off 4G and choose Unicom rather than Auto Select carrier to get max performance.

Well there's a bit of golden advice for my next trip! I never knew that!