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Optus introduces flat fee global roaming charges

The telco has changed its global roaming charging structure and introduced a flat fee "Travel Pack" option.

Nic Healey Senior Editor / Australia
Nic Healey is a Senior Editor with CNET, based in the Australia office. His passions include bourbon, video games and boring strangers with photos of his cat.
Nic Healey

Optus has joined Vodafone in changing the way it charges for global roaming.

(Credit: Optus)

The telco has reduced its global roaming zones from five to just two. Zone One includes New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, Europe, the UK, the US, Canada and Asia. Zone Two, according to Optus, will contain Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.

Both prepaid and post-paid customers in Zone One will be charged AU$0.50 per text, AU$1 per minute for calls and AU$0.50 per 1MB of data. In Zone Two, the charges are AU$1 per text, AU$2 per call minute and AU$1.00 per 1MB.

However, Zone One travellers with post-paid accounts can also pay AU$10 per day for an Optus Travel Pack that allows for unlimited calls and texts and 30MB of data per day. There is no equivalent for Zone Two.

Vodafone's similar plan, announced back in July, is AU$5 per day, which then allows you to use your plans normal call, text and data allowances while overseas. However, it's currently only available in the US, the UK and New Zealand, and only on selected plans.