Advice guide: mobile broadband roaming for the World Cup in South Africa

If you're lucky enough to be heading off to South Africa for the World Cup (or unlucky enough to have booked a holiday there, not realising the World Cup was happening at the same time), you may be thinking about using your mobile broadband abroad on the trip. Whether via a laptop or smartphone, you need to be aware that using mobile broadband in South Africa can be an extremely expensive undertaking.

Firstly, the good news - both 3 Mobile Broadband and Vodafone have reduced their South Africa roaming rates for the period of the World Cup. Unfortunately, for many people, even these reduced rates will be prohibitively expensive for a lot of people. Even within the EU data roaming is very expensive, and all these two companies have reduced their South Africa prices to their EU rates.

The 3 deal is simple, with prices cut to £1.25 per MB. The Vodafone offer is slightly more complicated: on its Passport deal, you pay a terrifying £14.99 for the first MB of data you download, but then the next 24MB are free, giving you 25MB for £15. My remedial maths thinks this adds up to anything below 12MB being cheaper with 3, but beyond that up to the 25MB Voda is better.

If you are with another network, it is possible they may still reduce their rates in the same way. Alternatively, it may be worth contacting your own provider, and explaining your situation - they may price match in a gesture of good will to try and keep you as a customer long term. If they won't budge on price, you could be looking at up to £8 per MB for data roaming in South Africa.

South Africa World Cup 2010 data roaming: the possible costs

So what does £1.25 per MB mean in real terms? In truth, it can be quite a lot for some tasks, and hardly anything at all for others! 

If you just want to check your email or look at a few websites, and maybe pop on Facebook or Messenger, you can get quite a bit for your MB. Current estimates put checking email at about 1-10MB per 100 emails, although look out for people sending you big attachments. Similarly, instant messaging services should only set you back up to 1MB per hour, although look out for things like embedded video that may push the price up.

You should be a little more wary of surfing websites, as many have embedded content that can eat up your data allowance, such as videos and streaming music. It's estimated web browsing can use up to 25MB per hour, so choose your sites carefully. Many websites have mobile versions, which are much more basic - it's worth bookmarking those before you go. If you look for .mobi addresses, or search for mobile sites, you should find plenty to meet your browsing needs.

While I'm sure you'll want to immediately upload your pics of Lampard knocking in the winning penalty against Germany, make sure you reduce them to a very low quality first. You can always upload the larger files later, when you get home.

The things you really want to avoid are downloading and streaming music, but more importantly video and TV. While it would be great to watch the replays of the matches on your laptop, for example, just one hour of video streaming could use 500MB of data - at £8 per MB, that's £4,000! And yes, people have come back from holidays with bills of more than £10,000. Don't be the next.

Many of these costs will be reduced on smartphones, as they often compress images and websites automatically - some mobile broadband dongle deals do the same. However, keep a close eye on your usage calculator regardless. If you really have to download something to watch or listen to, try to use a public Wi-Fi spot, internet cafe or hotel. These range wildly in price, from free services in some hotels to those that will cost an awful lot more - make sure you're aware of the costs before committing.

For more information on the prices of data, check out our Mobile Broadband Usage Guide.

Preparing for your broadband roaming trip to South Africa

Whether its via a laptop, netbook or smartphone, you need to make sure you can actually use them abroad before you go. Any smartphone should be fine, as you only need a dual-band handset to get a mobile signal in South Africa. But has your phone been unlocked for you to be able to use it abroad? The same goes for your mobile broadband deal. A quick call to customer services for your mobile provider should get that cleared up.

Also, any roaming you do abroad - whether data, calls or texts - isn't included in your UK tariff - it is all extras. Anything you spend roaming will be added to you bill as an extra expense, not taken off of your allowance for the month. While some mobile providers may cut you off at a certain spending point, or send you a warning, don't rely on it - there is often no obligation on them to do so. However, there will be an obligation on you to pay the bill.

Finally, make sure EVERYONE travelling is fully aware of the consequences. If you're travelling as a family, for example, make sure the kids know that popping onto the laptop fro an hour of streaming TV when you've popped out to dinner isn't on the menu! If necessary, you should password protect your laptop or smartphone to make sure there's not a horror bill waiting for you when you get home.