Cost of data abroad – VoIP could be solution

The rise of VoIP phones may be set to continue after the news that mobile phone company 3 has disabled its subscribers from using data roaming in countries where the network is not present.

Subscribers will be able to contact 3 if they want the ability to download data in the countries, but the move has been taken to avoid situations where people accidentally run up a bill of thousands of pounds.

Using VoIP phones or using VoIP with a laptop on holiday would allow people to make cheap calls without the worry of huge bills.

The chief executive of 3 UK, Kevin Russell, said: "Because of the huge disparity between what we charge on our own networks and the costs charged by many networks for wholesale roaming across Europe, which we are forced to pass on to the customer, we have decided to make a data-roaming bar the default of our contract mobile broadband customers."

By using VoIP to make and receive calls via a non-mobile broadband connection when abroad, users can chat for a long time and download any data that is required without the huge costs that using roaming mobile-broadband would incur.