Who is cheapest for EU mobile broadband roaming?

As April fast approaches, people's minds are turning towards their Easter and summer holidays. Until now, if you've been going abroad, that probably meant saying goodbye to your regular internet habits due to the ridiculous costs, unless you were using a café, or bargain hotel service. And while some will jump at the chance of leaving their laptop behind them for a week or so, many of us feel cut off at the knees!

Well, there has been some good news since last summer, with several UK mobile broadband suppliers introducing new deals that reduce the cost of roaming. Unfortunately, most of these only apply to the EU, where the European Parliament has had an almighty crack down on roaming rates. So, we had a trawl through the various mobile broadband internet service providers to see who is currently offering the best value for your European vacation.

Clearly out in front right now are Vodafone and T-Mobile. Both offer EU services equivalent to about 20p per MB, a long way ahead of the competition. Vodafone was miles out ahead on value in the segment of the market, but T-Mobile has reduced its prices and is now punching at the same weight. However, to get that price on T-Mobile you have to fork out £40 for a 200MB package. This means Vodafone still has the edge, as an 'up to' £4.99 deal will get you the same per MB price, so you can spend as little as you like.

Orange, O2 and Virgin Media have all introduced new bundles for EU roaming in the last month or so, and while they've all got different names, structures, logos etc, they basically work out as being about £1 per MB. Nothing suspicious there then. for a small spend, Orange offers the best value at £2 for 2MB. For Virgin your minimum spend is £10 for 10MB, while to get the £1 per MB deal with O2 you need to cough up £50 for 50MB. 

Bringing up the rear at the moment is 3 Mobile Broadband, which has dropped back in value as its rivals have introduced better deals over the last month (it was comfortably second best to Voda this time last year). Don't be surprised to see 3 strike back in the near future. Currently, it's £1.25 per MB for EU roaming, but you don't have to jump through any hoops or sign up to any packages to get that rate - it's standard. This makes it pretty appealing in its own right.

Well, we say 3 is bringing up the rear; that is, bringing up the rear if you exclude BT, which doesn't exactly do much to promote its mobile broadband offering - and even less its £7.50 per MB roaming price. Terrifying, and possibly against EU regulations, but that's what it says on the BT website.

We should say here that, while prices have come down, their still only good for the most basic interweb jobs - a quick check on a few websites, or looking at your email. for example, streaming a 30-minute TV show over broadband can use up 500MB. Even at 40p a MB, that's £200! 

For more information about roaming, both in the EU and further afield, check out our guide to using mobile broadband abroad.