RIP off Roaming charged in Middle East

[browgars]

Why does Vodafone not partner with a local provider in Middle East such as Mobily or Zain? The charges for roaming are ridiculous so I switch my phone off and buy a local sim in another phone. Very inconvenient! Come on Vodafone stop boasting about how good you are and do something about it!

[donnyguy]

Vodafone do offer roam further in Qatar but then it seems to be pretty much standard prices in the Middle East. It's worth pointing out that none of the UK providers offer special roaming rates for that part of the world.

Your idea of buying a local sim is the best one if you're spending quite a bit of time out there. Otherwise you'd be restricting youself to wi-fi only. 

But reflecting, it wasn't the too distant past that people used to buy local sims when travelling in Europe. At least those days are behind us (for) now.

[browgars]

Thanks but my question is if almost the whole of the rest of the World is now covered with Roam further why isn’t the Middle East when local SIM prices are so cheap? I’m very grateful that for £5 per day I can use my phone as normal in Argentina for example as I did for several weeks last year but as I travel widely and rarely to same location  having to buy local SIMs and another unlocked phone is a hassle. Vodafone loses the £5 per day I would be willing to spend but I suppose that’s not enough. £3 per MB of data is laughable these days!

[jeffkinn]

Historically there has been too much fraud for the UK networks to be able to partner with ME networks. That's the reason.

[browgars]

Interesting. Does that mean it will never happen? Meantime I’ve found another solution a  hotspot thing called Skyroam from Germany which gives me 500MB of 4g  and then unlimited 2g after that for 8 Euros per day.  500MB on Vodafone roaming would cost £1500 per day. That’s why I call it a rip off! If Skyroam can do it I’m sure Vodafone could if they wanted to 😀

[jeffkinn]

Who knows.

That Skyroam is an interesting proposition but there are some notable absences from it's ME coverage. The UAE/Dubai & Abu Dhabi isn't covered for instance.

[browgars]

Yes that’s a bit of a nuisance but Oman, Saudi, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait etc are so it’s better than nothing. Beats me why this can’t be sorted out when local SIMs are as cheap as chips here. Works well in Saudi where I am at present. The whole reason I started this chain is that Vodafone emailed me boasting how good their worldwide coverage is. It might work but I’m not paying them £2k for 2 weeks using my phone 😳

[jeffkinn]

Nobody would. 

Their worldwide coverage is good but it isn't eveywhere unfortunately.

[Getafix]

Are we not making an assumption here? It could be possible that the Middle East Cariers are prohibiting it by not agreeing to rates that could allow Roam Further. 

[jeffkinn]

Entirely possible of course.

I know that fraud was the reason that Vodafone didn't allow PAYG roaming in the UAE when Pay Monthly could roam. But it's an ever changing market and environment and the network will never comment on a business decision.