Orange has announced the launch of two new voice and data roaming offers, said to be designed to make it easier and cheaper for customers to stay in touch with family, friends and colleagues whilst travelling abroad within the EU.
The latest additions to the Orange Travel portfolio of roaming offers for both consumer and business customers will be available across the European network footprint from this summer, responding to customer demand for simple, transparent and cost-effective roaming services in line with its Orange Travel philosophy.
The new voice roaming offer, Favourite Countries, is the first service of its kind and will be of particular benefit to those that travel regularly abroad or those that live or operate on borders but will also have appeal to occasional roamers. Customers are charged an upfront monthly fee – EUR5 (EUR4.18 ex. VAT) in France for example and there are no hidden charges. Customers select a country or countries of their choice from a list of eligible countries and then benefit from discounted or national rates when calling anywhere in the EU from those countries.
Favourite Countries is expected to deliver price reductions of between 18 and 60% off the regulated Eurotariff (outgoing rates), regardless of the network that the customer is roaming on. As an example, customers of Orange France will be charged EUR0.37 per minute (EUR0.31 ex.VAT), instead of EUR0.59 (EUR0.49 ex.VAT) for outgoing calls (this is a 37% saving) when calling abroad in their favourite country.
The offer is available today in France and Romania and is being extended (subject to local adaptations) to the UK, Spain, Belgium, Slovakia and Switzerland across the summer and to Poland in September. The offer will be further extended across Orange's African and Middle Eastern operations under the name 'Pays Sans Frontières' by the end of 2008.