Optus (www.optus.com.au) announced that it would replace its five geographical roaming zones by two in September and also reduce rates in those zones.

From November, it will also offer a $10.00/day ‘travel pack’, which gives customers unlimited texts and calls as well as 30 MB of data when travelling in NZ, the Pacific Islands, the UK and Europe, Asia, the US and Canada.

Without a ‘travel pack’, users will be charged $1/minute to make and receive calls, $0.50 for a MB of data and $0.50 per SMS in the above countries (also referred to as Zone 1 countries).

In Africa, the Middle East and Latin America (Zone 2 countries) the charges are $2.00/minute to make and receive calls, $1.00 per MB of data and also $1.00 per SMS. No ‘travel packs’ for Zone 2 will be offered yet.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

Carl Moser