maxroam. vodafone – Terence Eden’s Blog https://shkspr.mobi/blog Regular nonsense about tech and its effects 🙃 Thu, 07 Aug 2025 08:01:02 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/cropped-avatar-32x32.jpeg maxroam. vodafone – Terence Eden’s Blog https://shkspr.mobi/blog 32 32 <![CDATA[Roaming Costs in Africa]]> https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2011/08/roaming-costs-in-africa/ https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2011/08/roaming-costs-in-africa/#comments Sun, 07 Aug 2011 07:31:59 +0000 http://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=4261 As I've mentioned, I'm off to Africa.

I was wondering what the rates are going to be for roaming. I could get a local SIM - but as I'm only there for a few days, it seems a bit pointless - no one will have the number & I'll lose any credit at the end of the trip.

So, how do the various roaming SIMs stack up against my Vodafone SIM?

TruPhone's list of prices is very simple

Country Make a call Receiving a call Send a text Data
Kenya, Nigeria,
South Africa		 120p a min 78p a min 36p 600p per MB

GiffGaff's list of prices now include data roaming. Again, a simple tariff.

Country Make a call Receiving a call Send a text Data
Kenya, Nigeria,
South Africa		 100p a min 100p a min 30p 500p per MB

MaxRoam's prices are slightly more complicated

Country Make a call Receiving a call Send a text Data
Kenya 351p a min 140p a min 43p 780p per MB
Nigeria & South Africa 263p a min 140p a min 43p 780p per MB

Vodafone's price plans for roaming are very competitive.

Country Make a call Receiving a call Send a text Data
South Africa 80p a min 75p a min 35p 500p a day for 25MB
Kenya and Nigeria 165p a min 130p a min 35p 500p a day for 25MB

Conclusion

Stone the crows! It looks like my domestic Vodafone SIM might just be the cheapest way to roam in Africa!

MaxRoam has some really innovative features - but the costs are insanely high.

TruSIM is good in UK, USA, and Australia, but not so good elsewhere. While the rates are marginally cheaper in Kenya and Nigeria, the data costs really are prohibitive.

The new MVNO GiffGaff has some great prices - and the cheapest SMS price.

But, overall, it has to be Vodafone. Not least because of the pricing model for data. A fiver for 25MB is much more generous than the other providers - and using email or GTalk will be much cheaper than SMS. While the costs are marginally higher in Kenya and Nigeria - I'll be spending the majority of my time in South Africa. Crucially, I get to keep my number - so I'm not out of contact.

Have I missed something? Are there any better roaming deals?

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