11 Aug International Roaming Alerts: The Extra’s You Need to Know
Going overseas and using Telstra International Roaming? Here is everything you need to know about Telstra’s International Roaming Data Alerts!
What are Telstra’s Roaming SMS Alerts?
From September last year, The Australian Communications and Media Authority’s (ACMA) Telecommunications Industry Standards require every Australian carrier to provide their customers with international roaming alerts to help reduce bill shock.
To comply with the new standard and to help customers manage roaming costs, Telstra implemented their roaming SMS alerts in early 2013.
These alerts include:
- A message containing the pricing for the country you are currently in and the details of the data usage alerts. This message is sent as soon as you connect to the roaming network in your destination country.
- Details of how much you have used of your data allowance (if you have a roaming data pack/ plan or roaming voice plan) or how much you have used on PAYG data.
While these SMS alerts are a great way to keep users aware of their usage while overseas, there are a few things you need to know about the alerts.
What You Need To Know
You will automatically be sent a SMS data alert:
| If You Are Using | And you have used |
|---|---|
| An International Roaming Casual Travellers Data Pack | 50%, 85% and 100% of your included data allowance. |
| An International Roaming Frequent Travellers Data Plan | 50%, 85% and 100% of your included data allowance. |
| An International Roaming Voice Plan | 50%, 85% and 100% of your included data allowance. |
| Pay As You Go Data (PAYG) | $100 of PAYG data. The alerts will be sent for every $100 use for Telstra Business and Consumer customers. |
Please Note: the Roaming data alerts are not available for users travelling to Hong Kong.
Is There A Cost For Receiving These Alerts?
No, these alerts are sent free of charge.
Are They Real-Time?
These alerts are not real-time.
The SMS alerts can be delayed up to 24 hours (the delay is determined by when the overseas network carrier delivers the message to you).
The alerts will not prevent you from using more data than what is included in your data allowance, which means you should not solely rely on these alerts to monitor your data usage.
What You Can Do To Help Monitor Your Roaming Data Usage
While Telstra’s roaming alerts do notify you of the amount of data you have used, data can be used very quickly. For example, a video skype call between two mobiles uses about 30MB per minute.
So, with the delay of the alert, unfortunately relying on Telstra’s International Roaming Data Usage Alerts is not enough.
All is not lost, as iOS, Android and Windows devices have built-in monitoring apps to keep you up to date with how much data you’ve used.
Using Built-In Data Monitoring Apps for iOS, Android and Window Devices
To activate the built-in data monitoring app on iOS 7 devices:
- Settings > Mobile
- Scroll down to Mobile Data Usage
- This will show you your Current Period and Current Period Roaming
- The Current Period Roaming will track your data usage when you’re overseas (NOTE: If you have used roaming data before, you will have to scroll to the bottom of the screen and tap Reset Statistics to begin the data usage meter from scratch).
For more information on data monitoring on iOS 7 devices, click here.
Android 4.0+
To activate the built-in data monitoring app on Android Ice-Cream Sandwich 4.0 devices follow this step by step guide.
Windows Phone 8.1
To activate the built-in data monitoring app on Window Phones 8.1 follow this step by step guide.
Note: For Android and Windows Phone devices, is important to remember to change your billing cycle to start on the date that you arrive in your international destination to accurately calculate your usage.
Using these built-in apps will help you monitor devices to prevent bill shock. Whether you have an Android, iOS or Windows device, you can monitor your roaming data usage.
What data monitoring app do you use to stay on top of your roaming data usage? Tell us about it by getting in touch.