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Vodafone gives business users flat-rate data roaming

The mobile giant will offer business users a flat-rate day fee from the beginning of July.

By Maggie Holland, 14 Mar 2007 at 14:16

Vodafone today announced that business users who need to surf the web and check e-mails while traveling in Europe will be able to connect to its network for a flat-rate of just €12 a day from the beginning of July.

The new data roaming tariff, which is part of Vodafone's drive to add greater clarity to prices and make fees easier to understand, will be available to users with mobile-enabled laptops, which is good news for consumers as well as corporate users.

This new rate replaces the current per megabyte tariff and enables customers to send or receive up to 50MB of data during a the period paid for. After than consumption has been exhausted standard per-megabyte rates apply during the 24-hour period.

Following the success of the mobile giant's voice roaming tariff, Vodafone Passport, which has attracted the attention of more than 12 million customers, and the use of daily data tariffs in some countries last year, Vodafone is now looking to cast the net of benefits out to a wider audience.

"We are now applying the same principles of value and simplicity for customers who need to access their corporate intranets, business e-mail or surf the web when they are abroad," said Arun Sarin, Vodafone's chief executive.

"With high speed 3G networks already deployed in many European markets, ongoing investment in new technologies to increase download speeds and clear, effective tariffs, Vodafone should be the network of choice for those seeking to use their laptops when travelling."

Users roaming to a network other than Vodafone's will still have to pay the standard megabyte charges.

However, Vodafone has also announced plans to try and make it more cost effective for such users.

From July 1 2007, the mobile giant plans to enter into reciprocal wholesale arrangements with other European operators based on a lower wholesale data roaming charging model.

For small sessions of up to a maximum of 200 Kb of data, the charge applied will be a maximum of €0.50 and for sessions that exceed that data volume, the rate will be €0.50 per MB.