Vodafone first in Europe for high-speed roaming

LONDON: Vodafone Group Plc said on Monday it was Europe's first mobile phone

company to allow its next-generation mobile Internet customers to access the

service in other countries around the continent.

The world's largest mobile phone group said roaming on its GPRS (general

packet radio service) network, which is considered a stepping stone towards the

highly anticipated third generation services, is available to customers in 12

countries to access certain other countries.

Vodafone, like other leading operators, aims to leverage the wide reach of

its franchise when promoting the service to business travellers, who regularly

use their phones in different countries. GPRS allows users to have "always

on" access, only paying for the data they download.

The Britain-based company said its customers in Belgium, France, Germany,

Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland

and Britain would be able to access their services in a "growing number of

destinations when travelling in Europe".

"Vodafone intends to progressively expand GPRS roaming to cover other

networks, including all remaining European Vodafone operators and partner

networks by the end of the year," the company said in statement.

The ability to roam in a country depends upon whether agreements have been

signed between the Vodafone subsidiary there and the user's Vodafone operator at

home. Shares in Vodafone were around 1.7 per cent higher on Monday, in line with

gains among other European cell phone groups.