And behold: Vodafone cuts transtasman roaming rate

Vodafone is highlighting a recent mobile data price cut to 50c a megabyte for those roaming in Australia (or $500 a gigabyte, compared to $20-$25 for those using mobile data in NZ).

While Telecom and 2degrees have cut prices too, the cheapest rates are only available to those on certain plans. 

Vodafone says its new rate applies to anyone, on any plan.

This afternoon, ICT Minister Amy Adams – and her counterpart across the Tasman, Senator Stephen Conroy – put forward seven options for regulating transtasman roaming.

Vodafone, like Telecom and 2degrees, has cut roaming rates several times since the combined Australia-NZ investigation into the roaming costs began.

The carrier has denied previous cuts were sparked by the threat of regulation. Ms Adams says there is clear cause and effect.

'The industry was a bit slow'
Vodafone manager Tom Chignell talked around the question when asked if cuts were in reaction to the regulatory threat, but did tell NBR ONLINE: "The industry was a bit slow at getting to data roaming pricing and what we need to do to build confidence in our customers to use the service.  We certainly hope Data Angel will achieve that."

Lastly, at 50 cents per megabyte, it's no problem to rack up a bill of several hundred dollars or more for a week using a smartphone in Sydney.

Where does Vodafone buy its coffee?

RAW DATA

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Media Release
23 August 2012
Roam with Vodafone in Australia for the price of a flat white

Vodafone NZ continues to lead the way in trans-Tasman roaming, providing some of the cheapest data roaming prices in the world – part of its ongoing commitment to offer the best value to customers heading to our most popular overseas destination.

Customers can roam with confidence on both sides of the Tasman, thanks to Vodafone’s industry-leading initiatives, including the lowest data roaming rates – just 50 cents per MB – to Australia. 

While other carriers have opted for different pricing models for different customers based on their monthly spend, Vodafone offers $0.50/MB to all customers.  This is over 50% less than the regulated capped rate in Europe.

Tom Chignell, General Manager, Vodafone Corporate Affairs, explains: “We’ve been working hard with our colleagues in Australia to make it easy for customers to roam with confidence on both sides of the Tasman.

“Vodafone led the market with One Rate in 2004, and we’ve continued to lower the price of trans-Tasman roaming services and introduce packages that provide customers with a compelling reason to use their mobile while roaming across the Tasman, in much the same way as they would at home.

“As an example, an average smartphone user on Vodafone’s domestic network uses less than 10MB per day. When roaming in Australia, that’s NZ$5 – or the price of a flat white!  And New Zealanders pay the same price for making calls when they’re roaming in Australia as they do for calls within New Zealand (exclusions apply) with Vodafone Traveller.

Tom continues: “Bill shock will soon become a thing of the past. Vodafone has released Data Angel to prevent New Zealand customers from unintentionally exceeding their data allowances. Very soon, this industry-leading innovation will be extended to customers who roam internationally: the service is currently being trialled and will be ready to launch over the next few months.”

To ensure customers can keep track of how much data they are using, Vodafone sends real time TXT notifications to customers’ mobiles when they reach 2MB, 5MB and 10MB data usage.