Data Roaming

Imagine the shock of getting back from vacation and opening your phone bill to find out that you now owe 250 pounds on top of your normal plan, as was reported to have happened to David from Glasgow in January 2011 in an article in the Guardian newspaper.

Using internet while abroad can be a sticky situation. In October 2010, a Nottingham student studying in Paris was hit with an 8,000 phone bill for using a dongle that he had bought in the UK, on the advice of an Orange retail associate who was apparently unaware that the data would not be capped while overseas. In an effort to save money by not using his mobile to call home, he instead went online to use the internet phone service Skype call home, unaware until his phone bill arrived of the costs of using the internet while abroad. ”It is an absolutely awful situation, both in the short term because of the £8,000 debt and in the long term because the potential damage to my credit rating could be disastrous.”

After contacting Orange about the bill, he was told by a shocked operator that there should be a £40 monthly limit on dongle usage. However, what he was not told in the shop when purchasing the dongle, and what Orange’s own operator did not seem to be aware of, was that this was only in the UK and did not apply to overseas use.

This is by no means the first case of a customer getting hit with a huge mobile broadband charge. In a few even more extreme cases, in 2008 a 46-year-old lawyer ran up a £4,900 bill after she used the BBC iPlayer service to catch up on an episode of The Apprentice while in France, while another traveller was hit with a £31,500 mobile phone bill after downloading a TV show, and it was only after months of negotiations with Vodafone that the bill was eventually cut to £229.

EU Legislation

It was because of stories like this that the EU instituted a 50 cap on mobile broadband charges that came into effect on March 1, 2011. But although the EU decided that mobile broadband charges should be capped, it only affected wholesale prices - at €1 per megabyte (MB), which means that while the retail price (paid by the consumer) should reflect this cost, it is up to the individual network operator to set the price. This has led to a wide disparity in charges.

For example, for mobile broadband use in Spain, network operator 3 charges £1.25 per MB outside of any monthly allowance, Orange wants £2.94, O2 charges £3 and Virgin Mobile £5, according to website moneysupermarket.com. Vodafone charges £9.99 for the first 50MB and £9.99 per 50MB thereafter. However most people don’t know what a megabyte of data is, which doesn’t help. So, as a rough guide, watching a two-hour movie uses approximately 800 MB, according to website broadband.org – therefore costing £4,000 with Virgin.

Another factor leading to customer confusion is the complicated nature of the information that mobile phone companies give to users, and the extensive fine print that gets overlooked by consumers. The Observer found the charges are also unclear and often buried in the small print of some mobile phone operators’ websites, making it very difficult for customers to work out what they might be expected to pay.

Moreover, this cap only applies to EU countries and as such when traveling to the rest of the world consumers using data roaming without checking are still liable to receive huge bills.

As the public has become more aware of this issue, many people have resorted to turning off their data roaming and not using their phones while abroad, although even this does not always work, as O2 customers have also reported receiving “shock bills“ upon returning home of 40 pounds for mobile internet, even when they were careful to turn off their data service on their smart phones.

However for many, turning off your phone while abroad isn’t always the most practical solution, especially when you need to get in touch with friends, colleagues, the office, or simply because once one becomes accustomed to using Google Maps to find your way, it is hard to go back (just try to get iPad users to leave their iPad at home! The bt olution for ther is to use iPad roaming sim).

So what can you do to protect yourself against getting stung with a huge phone bill? Luckily there are some companies that have come up with solutions to help consumers ensure that they are able to use their phones overseas, while not getting hit with hidden costs. Below is a guide to help prepare you for your next trip overseas and ways to ensure that you never get stuck with a “shock bill“.

Data Roaming

How does it work?

If you switch on a mobile device, like an iPhone or iPod, or laptop when travelling abroad, it will automatically attempt to connect with a GSM or 3G network. Snartphones are usually configured to actively seek out and connect with the most accessible network in the country that you are in. ’Most accessible’ does not however, mean ’most affordable’.

When there is a Data Roaming agreement between your home service provider and the network in the country you are visiting, the home network operator will allow your device to access internet. If the overseas operator does not have a 3G network, or if your home service provider has not yet signed a 3G network, you can only get access to basic mobile data services such as SMS, GRPS services and e-mail, but not 3G broadband services.

Whenever you use your mobile phone abroad for certain activities, your handset pulls the information it needs through network providers that are different from the one that you are signed to back home - this is Data Roaming.

The services that use Data Roaming when you use your phone abroad include things like:

- MMS: Sending and receiving multimedia messages while abroad with other clients on GSM/3G networks
- Push E-mail: Exchanging e-mails while abroad, on iPhone and iPad this feature is swiched on all the time
- Handset internet: Accessing internet services such as Web pages, Web 2.0 applications, downloads etc. whilst abroad directly from you iPad or Iphone.
- Mobile broadband: Connecting laptops via data cards or USB dongles to the internet, providing internet access while abroad.

Mobile Internet Abroad

How does using mobile internet abroad work?

When you are abroad and using a mobile device to connect to the internet, the connection is established by the overseas provider’s network, back through to your home operator’s network, allowing for data to be exchanged between the two.

So unless you have an adequate Data Roaming contract, when you connect to the internet abroad you can expect to pay for: signalling networks fees; costs for the international transit of the data; the wholesale charge for using the connection on the visited operator’s network; costs for connecting to the internet from the home network; the home operator’s retail costs. And sometimes even taxes, such as VAT! So it makes since to get a Data Roaming sim contract you can trust!

Data Roaming Charges

How much to pay?

Service providers measure the usage of mobile internet services in megabytes(mB) or kilobytes(kB), and Data Roaming charges and tariffs can differ widely. It is important therefore to have an idea of the sort of costs that are associated with your data downloads, and how much data is downloaded when you use Data abroad on iphone roaming, iPad roaming. For example, an e-mail without any attachments usually consists of between 10 and 60kB. An ordinary website can be around 100kBs and 200kBs or even more, depending on how much of the content consists of images so this process can end up costing a tidy sum unless you have a SIM that enables reasonable mobile internet rates.

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Pre-paid or post-paid data roaming sim?

What is the difference?

• - Pre-paid: For pre-paid data roaming, in addition to the initial authentication start- up fee, the data transfer has to be exchanged in real time between both service operators by using a platform called CAMEL (Customized Applications for Mobile network Enhanced Logic), thus with this system, the roaming customer’s account is prevented from going overdrawn.
• - Post-paid: With post-paid roaming, when the client turn on the phone, the overseas network operator checks in real time if the home network operator authenticates the client and authorises the service for use abroad. It should be noted that the full details on sent & received SMS & MMS, and the amount of internet usage for each session are usually sent to the home mobile service provider with some delay.

Are there any Data Roaming Pitfalls?

• - Smartphones: Even if you don't make phone calls while abroad, modern Smartphones, like iPhone, blackerry or iPad have many different applications that draw in data just by being switched on - RSS-readers and so on, which continually use up more and more of your download traffic. Even in roaming.
• - Data Roaming: iPhone in roaming will continue to update and draw data if you don't switch off your data roaming – if your phone is on, then even if you aren’t using it data will still be automatically updating (as a friend of mine found out after a trip to Boston with his iPhone cost 160 without him using it). Switch it off before you travel by going into "Settings" and updating it.
• - Laptops: When using your laptop, it will request to automatically update Windows, antivirus programs, Skype, web browsers etc. Wait until you get back to your home country to update these programs to avoid wasting money.

How to Avoid High Data Roaming Charges?

The best option for avoiding shocking bills is to buy a package specifically designed for your needs before you travel. RoamingSims.com is in contact with a few selected data roaming SIM card providers, and will be updating our SIM cards comparison service shortly to give you more information about these providers, including all the features and services that they deliver.

Cheap Data Roaming Providers

Some of the services offered by the providers include:

• - Mobile Data SIM Cards that have flat-fee roaming and pay as you go data roaming. Making them perfect for use overseas with Smartphones, and with more basic mobile models.
• - Blackberry Roaming SIM Cards designed specifically for the US market, that will allow affordable roaming in most European Countries and the US on a Blackberry. The Data Roaming tariffs are expected to be in the region of £1.50 - £3.00 per Megabyte.
• - iPad and Iphone Roaming SIM Cards for iPad and iPhone, which have been designed with the portability of these devices in mind. The sophisticated data-accessing capabilities of these devices allow them to be used in place of a conventional laptop when you are travelling. For this reason we are aiming to give you the very best rates possible to allow high data delivery.

We are dedicated to finding the most convenient and affordable moble Data tariffs to give you the best deals. We help you stop worrying about your mobile rates so you can relax and enjoy your holiday!

Data Roaming Tariffs

Which type is best for me?

There are an array of charges and tariffs available on the market, and is important to have an understanding of what these are in order to select the services that are most suitable for your needs. The different types of tariffs include:

• - Standard Tariffs: best suited for those who enjoy occasional roaming and want low data usage. For many users, a default tariff for Data Roaming can be perfectly suitable. With this kind of tariff, the customer is charged according to the amount of SMS or MMS sent & received, and how much data was downloaded & uploaded.
• - Special Tariff: best suited for...This tariff is a fixed monthly fee, that allows custom settings to enable the user to get the most out of their mobile internet abroad contract.
• - Daily internet Bundles: best for infrequent roamer who requires a high data volume usage on particular days. This tariff is set up for a specific data usage limit at a fixed fee. It is mostly used for a single day of data roaming.
• - Monthly internet bundles: best suited for...This tariff is a set at a fixed monthly fee. This includes a certain amount of data that can be used within a month while roaming.