3 introduces new roaming policies

3 Group, the operator owned by Hutchison Whampoa, is hoping to take the sting out of international roaming with a new policy that lets customers make and receive calls while traveling and pay the same as if they were on their home network.

The policy applies only to countries where 3 operates, including Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Sweden, and the U.K. Customers in the U.K. can already benefit from the policy, which will be rolled out in the other markets in the future.

U.K. contract customers can use their included minutes while traveling to call U.K. numbers. There is no charge for incoming calls.

Pre-pay customers or contract customers who have run out of included minutes, pay £0.20 ($0.39) per minute for voice calls and £0.10 for a text message.

Because the policy means that customers essentially take their calling plans with them, local calls cost like international calls. For example, if a 3 U.K. customer is in Austria, a call to an Austrian number would cost the same as a long-distance call from the U.K. to Austria.

The policy is somewhat similar to Vodafone Group’s Passport offering. Passport customers pay according to their home pricing plan while roaming in certain markets, but they also must pay an additional connection fee for every call. For example, a U.K. customer pays £0.75 per call in addition to their domestic rate while roaming. Vodafone also charges customers to receive calls while roaming, often a flat fee of around £0.75, while 3 doesn’t.

Operators have begun offering such services since the European Commission began examining ways to force operators to lower their international roaming rates, which often amount to more than €1.50 ($1.94) per minute. Last year, the Commission proposed new regulation that would require operators to lower their charges.

Some operators have made other moves to cut roaming fees in hopes of encouraging the Commission not to go through with the proposal. For instance, most operators have eliminated roaming across the border of Ireland and Northern Ireland and some have also eliminated roaming charges between Ireland and all of the U.K.