A man and two passengers ride on a scooter past a shop displaying the Vodafone logo on its shutter in Jammu
A man and two passengers ride on a scooter past a shop displaying the Vodafone logo on its shutter in Jammu. Reuters Reuters

Telecom giant Vodafone will cut the roaming charges for its pre- and post-paid subscribers to $1 per megabyte for a one-minute call. The new rate, which takes effect on March 23, would cut the 20 different call rates of Vodafone covering 200 different countries.

Among the countries covered are Fiji, Vietnam, India and Canada.

It also offers a $5 per day roaming pack applicable in 46 countries outside the 200 but is available only to post-paid plan subscribers under its Roam Like Home plan. The 46 countries include the UK, most of Europe, New Zealand, the U.S. and 6 Asian nations.

In mid-2013, Vodafone offered Red plans with Rome Like Home features priced at $65, $80 and $100.

Commenting on the new rates, ITWire pointed out that at 1,024 megabytes per gigabyte, A$1,024 is still quite costly but still cheaper than the $3 per MB or $3,000 per GB offered by some carriers. But it only applies if the phone owner uses full data allowance.

In comparison, Telstra's new roaming rates, which take effect on March 24, would range from $1.50 to $5 per minute for voice calls and $29 per 100 MB for a 30-day data pack.