A European Commission survey* in February this year suggested that 94% of holidaymakers limit their internet use when travelling due to the high-cost of mobile roaming charges. Now that the European Union has introduced a cap on roaming charges when using a mobile phone abroad in the EU from July 2014, Airport Parking and Hotels (APH) has put together a table comparing the data roaming charges of all UK mobile networks. The research is available in the Know Before You Go section of the website at  www.aph.com/dataroaming and a second table highlighting the costs prior to the EU regulation coming into place, is also available at www.aph.com/data-roaming.

The research compares the data roaming charges of mobile networks in the UK including 3 Mobile, EE 4G, Orange, O2, T-Mobile, Tesco Mobile, Virgin and Vodafone highlighting the difference between the cost of using data in Europe prior to July 2014 and since the European Law has been enforced. It also lists the costs for worldwide roaming, data limit and the Travel Data Bundles available.

When travelling in Europe prior to the EU ruling, Orange was found to charge the least for using data abroad at a cost of 42p per MB for Pay As You Go customers, compared to 46p per MB with O2 and T-Mobile. However when comparing the cost of using data on a Pay Monthly package, Orange was found to charge the most at 70p per MB compared to 45p per MB with 3 Mobile, Tesco Mobile and Vodafone.

However after the new European Law was introduced in July, this has been reduced to 18p per MB with Orange, 19p per MB with both O2 and Tesco Mobile, and 19.8p per MB with 3 Mobile for Pay As You Go customers. For Pay Monthly customers, costs have also significantly reduced with Orange charging 19.8p per MB, 3 Mobile, Vodafone and O2 charging 19.6p per MB and Tesco charging 19p per MB.

For customers travelling outside of Europe, costs were also found to vary with 3 Mobile charging the least at £3 per MB for Pay As You Go customers and £3 per MB for Pay Monthly customers. Orange and Tesco Mobile charge the most at £8 per MB for both Pay As You Go and Pay Monthly customers. Vodafone on the other hand charges £3 per 5 MB for Pay Monthly customers but this is increased to £15 for every 5MB used thereafter. The network EE 4G only allows customers to access the internet by purchasing a data ad-on at a cost of £3 for 20MB in 24 hours for Pay As You Go and Pay Monthly customers travelling in Zone A** and £1 for 20MB in 24 hours for Pay As You Go customers travelling in Europe.

Each network also charges customers for a limited about of data usage each month, with O2 now charging £48 for 250MB of data per month when travelling in the EU and Tesco charging £40 for only 6.9MB when travelling outside of Europe. If customers exceed the 250MB limit available with O2, then this is increased to £3 per MB when travelling within the EU and £6 per MB when travelling outside of the EU. Virgin was also found to cap data usage at €50 (£40) if a Travel Bundle had not been purchased in advance, preventing customers from incurring extortionate bills.

For travellers looking to use data roaming regularly when abroad, the Travel Data Bundles are sometimes the most beneficial package with O2 offering 15MB of data for £1.99 in Europe for Pay Monthly customers and T-Mobile offering 20MB of data for 24-hours for £1.00.

Airport Parking and Hotels (APH) is the UK's award winning long stay airport parking operator and booking agency, after winning the Best Airport Parking Company for a fourth year running at the British Travel Awards 2013. This year APH also celebrates its 34th year as a retailer and operator of pre-booked airport parking and travel extras. APH offers parking at all major UK airports as well as airport hotels packaged with parking and airport lounges. APH is also a carbon balanced company and has, through support of the World Land Trust, helped purchase more than 1,000 acres of endangered rainforest.

For further information on Airport Parking and Hotels (APH),

visit www.aph.com or call 01342 859515.

Notes to Editors

*http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-152_en.htm

** Roaming Zone A countries are Armenia, Australia, China, Columbia Croatia, Ecuador, India, Israel, Macedonia, Martinique, Mexico, Peru, Russia and Turkey, USA.

Media Enquiries

Sarah Salord / Jessica Meins / McCluskey International / 020 8747 2170 / aph@mccluskey.co.uk