Moving to offer more cost-effective European roaming plans to its customers, UK mobile operator Three today launched its new Euro Internet Pass, a new roaming plan that will deliver unlimited browsing data for £5 per day on its pay monthly tariffs.
Three’s Euro Internet Pass allows customers to connect to their favourite social networks, look-up directions, upload photos and browse the Web without having to worry about costly roaming charges when they travel abroad.
Because it is suited for browsing, Three says says that mobile streaming will not be as reliable as it is on domestic networks and that unlimited tethering plans are not transferred.
If you are a Three customer and you touch down in a European country, the company will text you a link that takes you to the Euro Internet Pass sign-up page. To activate it, switch off push notifications, turn on roaming and hit the link in the SMS to purchase the pass.
As soon as it is activated, you have until midnight that day until you have to activate it again. If you need to use it the minute you land, you can access http://mobile.three.co.uk/europass and buy it before you fly.
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Three’s link is free to access abroad, but if you visit any other websites without the pass activated you will be charged £1.28 per megabyte (and also in countries in which the plan is not available).
As of today, it is available in:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal (incl. Azores & Madeira), Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain (incl. Balearic & Canary Islands), Sweden, Vatican City, Monaco.
In May, we reported that roaming in Europe was to get lot cheaper for millions of EU citizens as new European Union price caps on mobile data roaming came into force. From 1 July 2012, EU mobile operators will be able to charge no more than 70 euro cents plus VAT per megabyte for data while their customers roam in other EU countries.
If you are visiting one of the above European countries for a two week holiday, the Euro Internet Pass may be an expensive option (over getting a local SIM or using a dedicated data service) but for a couple of days, this could come in very handy.
[Image Credit – Rock Cohen]
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