Vodafone puts 4G on $5-a-day international roaming

Vodafone will allow travelling customers on its Red plans to access 4G networks across the UK, Europe and New Zealand later this year.

Vodafone Australia will leverage the 4G networks of its Vodafone Group sister telcos across the three regions to allow Red customers to access 4G at no extra charge, the company said today.

Excess usage beyond the limits of the plan will be charged at Australian domestic rates, Vodafone added.

Vodafone customers on non-Red plans will continue to be charged $10.24 per megabyte of data.

The telco launched its Red roaming deal in July last year, which enabled customers on the plans travelling to the US, UK and NZ to avoid high roaming charges for an extra $5 per day. Roaming on the Red plans is now available across 40 countries.

The Red plans start from $50 (SIM-only) for 1.5GB data and unlimited local calls and text, and go up to $85 (SIM-only) for 5GB data and infinite talk and text.

When bundled with a handset, the plans start at $65 for 1.5GB data plus unlimited calls and text and go up to $100 for 5GB data and unlimited calls and text. Add-on data packs are available for an extra $10 per month for 1GB and 2.5GB for $20 per month.

The 4G roaming deal will be available by mid-year in the three countries with more to be added later, the telco said.

The issue of international roaming charges has been high on Australian telcos' priority lists in recent months, with Telstra late last year cutting pay-as-you-go fees for international mobile data roaming from $15.36 to $3 a megabyte.

It also started sending customers usage alerts once they hit 20MB of data while overseas.

Optus also late last year introduced new fees for international roaming, charging between 50 cents and $1 per megabyte for data usage.