Above shows price of calls when in roaming in Italy on pre-pay.

Europe : Pure Pricing, the UK’s leading mobile pricing specialists, has shown that 3’s new roaming service “3 Like Home” is one of the most competitive roaming offers in the UK.  Analysis by Pure Pricing shows 3 saving customers up to £6.50 on two short calls compared to the other UK networks.

3 recently announced a new roaming proposition which effectively extends its network to other 3 networks worldwide; customers are charged as though they are at home for services such as calls and texts; pricing benefits include “free to receive” and “use your inclusive minutes when roaming”.  The offer is currently limited to countries where 3 has a network, which includes Italy, a key holiday destination for UK customers.

Jo Lynch, director of Pure Pricing said, “We are seeing an increasing number of roaming propositions in the market such as 3 Like Home, O2’s Chosen Country – Spain, O2 My Europe and Vodafone’s Passport which are reducing the uncertainty and the overall costs associated with roaming.  However, there still tends to be restrictions applied to such offers, for example the country and / or networks where the offers are available, which may continue to cause some confusion for customers.”

Pure Pricing also raised disadvantages with the 3 offer - the limited 3 footprint means that customers roaming to other key holiday destinations such as Spain and France will find 3’s standard pricing one of the more expensive options available.  And, like the Vodafone Passport offer, customers must remain on the preferred network for the discounted pricing to apply.

Further details on the Pure Pricing analysis of the 3 offer including the pros and cons of roaming propositions available and the other network’s price for two short calls when roaming are attached to the e-mail.