Vodafone simplifies business calling from overseas

Business users working abroad could benefit from new plans from Vodafone UK to standardise and simplify its call costs and travel zones.

The changes are designed to help make it easier for customers not on one of the firm's specific roaming price plans to understand call costs when working overseas.

There are now three zones under which charges fall, rather than six, covering Europe, US/Canada and the rest of the world.

Vodafone will also offer a standard price per minute rate, irrespective of the network on which the phone is roaming, and the choice of preferred and non-preferred networks has been removed to ensure the same pricing across networks when overseas.

Rosie Shergill, international and roaming product manager at Vodafone, explained that the changes had been made to help make it easier for customers to understand what they are being charged for when they call from overseas.

"As a result of feedback from our business customers we have removed preferred and non-preferred networks so they do not have to worry about which network they are roaming on and the price they will be charged, as it is now one rate per zone," she said.

The call rate for Europe is now 33p per minute and covers over 30 countries including Albania, Croatia, Iceland, Norway, Slovakia and Sweden. Receiving calls costs 15p per minute.

Calls from the US and Canada will cost 90p per minute to dial and 75p to receive, while the rest of the world will be £1.40 to dial and £1 to receive.