When Vodafone announced earlier this month it was moving Turkey to ‘Roam-further’ status, there was an outcry from thousands of affected customers. A petition was launched by those angry at having to pay a daily fee on top of their UK monthly plan while they were in Turkey and North Cyprus. Others threatened to ditch Vodafone as their mobile network provider.
It seems the UK telecoms giant has heeded customer feedback as it has now confirmed it is withdrawing the plans to make Turkey ‘Roam-further’.
Currently, Turkey is one of Vodafone’s 50 Roam-free destinations, which means customers can use their UK plan while abroad in these countries at no extra cost. The network also offers 60 other countries as Roam-further destinations, which means customers pay a daily fee of £6 to use their UK plan abroad. This can still result in significant savings when making mobile and landline calls and texts to the UK, and also online data usage when abroad.
However, Vodafone customers objected to paying more when they received text messages at the start of April informing them that Turkey was going to be moved from Roam-free to Roam-further. Britons, including those of Turkish and Turkish Cypriot heritage, took to social media to express their anger. An online petition quickly took hold, and has been signed by 965 people calling on Vodafone to reinstate Turkey on roam free tariff.
Among those signing the petition was Rukiye A. from the UK, who wrote, “I have four contracts with Vodafone for years and years. We travel to turkey few times a year. Roaming free was a perfect deal for us. Sadly I heard its changing. If it does I will have to cancel my four contacts. I hope it will change.”
Another British customer to sign the petition, Lorraine D., posted, “I go regularly to Turkey and Vodafone gave me free roaming if they don’t reverse will cancel my contract”, while Stuart B wrote, “I signed up with Vodafone because of the roam free destinations included Turkey and now they’re taking it away from me. Ridiculous when they actually have their own network there!”
Vodafone’s Jane Frapwell said, “I can confirm that Turkey will remain on the Roam-free list”
T-VINE contacted Vodafone to ask whether rumours it was going to do a U-turn on Turkey were true. Jane Frapwell, the Corporate Communications Manager, said, “I can confirm that Turkey will remain on the Roam-free list.”
Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina will still move to Roam-further, and will join a host of new countries under this deal, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. For the full lists of Roam-free and Roam-further, visit Vodafone.
