Rogers introduces Roam Like Home for European travellers

Rogers Communications has given Canadian mobile users the green light to go data crazy abroad by implementing its “Roam Like Home” policy across 35 European countries. As of Wednesday, 15^th April, customers on the Share Everything tariff will be able to gain unlimited access to data, minutes and texts for a one off payment of $10 per day.

According to Ovum’s WCIS database, Rogers is the largest wireless carrier in Canada, with roughly 9.5million customers and a market share of 33.3%. Roughly 2.25m of those customers are on LTE contracts, and their data usage limits will be carried over into international roaming as part of the Roam Like Home extension to European territories if they’re on the specified tariffs, according to Rogers.

Additionally, customers will be able to accrue no more than $100 of roaming charges on the tariff, which will bring peace of mind to roamers who have previously been stung by excessive international usage fees, in what is becoming increasingly known as “bill shock”. The Citizens Advice charity in the UK claims more than 130,000 citizens contacted it in 2013 with requests for support managing unexpectedly high bills as a consequence of roaming. In some, albeit very rare, cases mobile users arrived home to bills of more than £10,000, according to The Guardian.

A recent survey conducted by Nielsen and cited by Rogers suggests that 60 per cent of Canadians aren’t using their phones abroad as they do at home, with nine out of 10 respondents indicating that a distinct lack of clarity from the service provider means they’re hesitant about using phones or tablets abroad. The survey interviewed 827 Canadians who have travelled to Europe in the last three years or will do so in the next 12 months.

Guy Laurence, CEO of Rogers Communications, reckons Canadians were actually frightened of roaming – thankfully Rogers has come to the rescue of said panicked users.

“Canadians used to be afraid to use their device when travelling – it was just too complicated and they were worried about their bills,” he said. “Six months ago we fixed this with a unique technology called ROAM LIKE HOME and over a million of our customers are enrolled to use it. They are now using their phone in the U.S. just like they would at home. Given how much customers love ROAM LIKE HOME in the U.S. it made sense to expend it so now our customers can use it in over 35 countries.”