Going to South Africa? Leave your smartphone at home

Written by Matt Pitt Saturday, 20 March 2010 10:45

England World Cup Blog

Like a large percentage of the UK population my mobile phone is one of the technologically advanced smartphone. I wouldn't be without it as I can access my email accounts, surf the net and manage my life and work through it if I want to.

As I am quite a heavy user I have an add-on to my tarrif which covers all data costs, otherwise I'd be stung every month with a three figure phone bill. However, my data transfer costs are not covered if i am outside of the UK and this is where many England supporters could become unstuck this summer whilst in South Africa.

I took my standard mobile phone on holiday to Lanzarote a couple of years ago and stupidly thought it was part of the EU because they are under Spanish rule but alas my geography let me down and they are not EU so therefore I was being charged a ridiculous amount for my calls and text messages and when I returned home my bill was almost £300. Bad times. But that is nothing compared to one German customer who reportedly downlaoded a television programme to his iPhone and was charged a staggering £41,000 for it!

As of July 1 mobile phone companies new laws come into force that means EU countries and Switzerland have to cap bills for downloading data, currently the amount is set at €50 per month and once that amount is reached it is up to the customer to contact their service provider and ask for an increase in the capped amount. However, this only applied to the 27 EU countries and does not cover countries such as the USA or South Africa.

The charges for data downloads in places like South Africa are extortionate and can cost upwards of £8 per megabyte of data, whcih would be the equivilent of a single email with a photograph attached. If the phone user wanted to download five music tracks and an accompying ten minute video clip they could see as much as £200 added to their bill.

If you are travelling to support the Three Lions in South Africa I urge you to contact your mobile phone company before setting foot on the plane to see what the charges are for data communication out in South Africa. I would also advise going through your smartphone's settings and turning off the features such as auto-pushing of emails, automatic roaming and other such features. Doing this should stop you from getting stung for hundreds of pounds when you return to Blightly.

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