UK wireless operator Three this week launched its “Feel At Home” service, which eliminates roaming charges in seven countries for calls and texts sent back to the UK. All Three customers who visit Australia, Hong Kong, Italy, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, or the Republic of Ireland can now call or text the UK — and access the internet for the same price they pay back home.
Of course, there are limitations: Three will not allow tethering or calls to premium service numbers, and will throttle data speeds if you use more than 25GB of data. Likewise, if you send more than 5,000 texts or use more than 3,000 voice minutes per month in any two months in a year, you may be blocked from using those services. If you exceed your tariff’s monthly limits, you’ll be charged, but Three promises that these costs will be slightly lower than roaming in other countries: airtime costs 20p per minute, texts are 7p to send, and data will be billed at 10p per megabyte.
The “Feel At Home” service only covers calls and texts made and sent to Britain. Contacting local numbers in other countries will be billed at the usual roaming rate.
Three also said that it hopes to increase the number of countries included by the “Feel at Home” plan.
Three triples its operating profit
Earlier this month, Three UK announced that it grew its operating profit to £86 million in the first half of 2013, a 231% or threefold increase on the first half of 2012. EBITDA margin grew from 11.8% in H1 2012 to 18.8% at the end of H1 2013, driven by growing customer numbers and effective cost management.
Three added 168,000 net new customers in Q2, bringing active customers to over 7.5 million — a 10 percent increase year-on-year. This growth largely came from high-value contract smartphone customers. Prepay customer numbers also grew in the face of an industry wide decline.
