Truphone says it has unveiled a new pricing structure that means roaming charges have vanished completely for its customers.
From anywhere in the world, Truphone says its customers can call countries in its 'Tru Zone', on their mobile, at the low rates of only 3p per minute to landlines and 15p per minute to mobiles. The 40 countries in the Tru Zone together account for 60% of the world's mobile phones and include most EU countries, Australia, Japan and Russia. Calls to some countries – including China, Hong Kong, USA and Canada – will cost even less, says Truphone, at just 3p per minute to both landlines and mobiles.
According to Truphone, at current prices, a 10 minute call home from a European ski holiday to a UK landline on Vodafone's International Call Saver option (which attracts a monthly £2.50 charge just to be on it) will cost £3.80, while the same call with Truphone costs 30 pence. For those calling home from the USA, a 10 minute call on the same Vodafone tariff will currently cost £11.00, while the same call with Truphone still costs just 30 pence.
"People don't know how much they'll be charged to make a mobile call to friends abroad or to call back home from holiday. But they do know it's expensive," explained James Tagg, Truphone's CEO. "So we've abolished roaming charges to make it the same low price to call, wherever you are in the world."
"Wi-Fi and the internet, which we use to carry our customers' calls, is everywhere. Holidaymakers, expats, migrant workers, business people, anyone with friends, family or colleagues in a different country… they can all now sidestep high roaming fees. People should be hanging up on roaming charges, not be hung up on them," he said.
Truphone says it has also stopped roaming charges for receiving mobile calls abroad, something that routinely catches out travellers who don't realise that they pay a high price for inbound calls. Receiving a call abroad costs absolutely nothing with Truphone – yet the same person in the US with Vodafone's International Call Saver option is currently charged 75 pence per minute to answer a call from home. The same customer is only marginally better off accepting an inbound call in Europe, where accepting an inbound call costs 19 pence per minute.
Because it routes calls over Wi-Fi and the internet, Truphone's tariff structure relates solely to the destination being called, and whether that destination is a landline or a mobile. Where the call is made from becomes irrelevant, making roaming charges redundant, it states.
Truphone-to-Truphone calls also remain free, no matter where in the world the two parties are.