roaming the word suggests travelling with a worry free, devil may care attitude but in the world of mobile phones, where roaming means using your device abroad, that approach is unwise making calls, downloading emails and browsing the internet when in another country can result in very large bills so how can you keep roaming costs down? the best option is to be with mobile operator three its customers can call and text uk numbers and use data in some countries at no extra cost to their uk price plans three is the only operator to offer this arrangement, which it calls feel at home three's feel at home covers 18 destinations in europe, australia, the united states, asia and the middle east  in september 2013, when three introduced feel at home, it covered seven destinations i said then that to be a game changer it needed to expand the service to more countries – and it has with spain and new zealand added earlier this month, it now applies in 18 countries in europe, the deal also covers france, italy, austria, switzerland, ireland, denmark, norway, sweden and finland elsewhere, it covers australia, the united states, hong kong, macau, indonesia, sri lanka and israel given that spain, france, italy and the us are among the most popular destinations for britons, three claims that about two thirds of its customers’ overseas trips are now covered by feel at home a word of warning three publicises feel at home by saying that it enables you to ‘use your phone abroad at no extra cost’ but to call or text non uk numbers – imagine you are in spain and you phone a restaurant in barcelona – you will be charged extra, at roaming rates however, these are much lower than other operators’ standard rates in some countries – for example, 156p per minute to call local numbers in the us, australia and new zealand there are some other caveats, too – one being you can’t ‘tether’ (use your phone to connect another device to the internet) check all details on threecouk/feelathome nonetheless, if you’re travelling to a feel at home country, using three is the most preferable option when travelling, operators’ bundles/ add ons usually offer better value than their standard rates  take roaming in new zealand on their standard rates for pay monthly customers, rival operators charge up to £150 a minute for making and receiving calls, 35p to 50p for sending a text, and up to £8 per megabyte of data usage in eu countries, roaming charges are much lower as they are capped on operators’ standard rates, you’ll pay about 18p or 19p per minute to make a call, 5p per minute to receive a call, 5p to 6p to send a text and 20p per megabyte of data if you’re not with three and are heading to a feel at home destination, operators’ bundles/ add ons usually offer better value than their standard rates – though it depends on your usage levels to give one example, vodafone lets you use your uk’s plan allowance for calls, texts and data for £3 a day in europe, and £5 a day in some countries further afield however, you will need to actively sign up to get this deal if you have an unlocked handset, you might consider investing in a local, country specific sim card: see 0044couk, uk2abroadcom or dataroamcouk for details otherwise, stick to using free wi fi in, for example, hotels and cafes, which will also enable you to chat for free if you have a skype or viber account stick to using free wi fi in, for example, hotels and cafes, which will enable you to chat for free if you have skype 
home europe
making calls and using the internet abroad results in very large bills . with three's feel at home lets visitors use their phones at no extra cost . it covers 18 countries including 10 in europe 