The price of data services abroad can be frustrating for anyone, especially frequent travellers, but Virgin Media has decided to ease the frustration of using Internet abroad by introducing travel passes.

Currently, Virgin customers whether on pay-as-you-go or contract are required to pay a £5 fee for every megabyte of Internet usage overseas. With the new travel passes all users can benefit from a much lower, capped rate.

The passes are available in a one-day option for £10, three days for £15, seven days for £30, or a 30 day pass for £60. Each travel pass has a data cap equivalent to the cost, so a £10 pass will provide 10MB of usage.

Passes can be arranged via text containing short codes to specified numbers, can also be used for data services on handsets, and are applicable to EU countries only.

Jonathan Kini, director of mobile at Virgin Media, says the passes were implemented in order to simplify and improve the company’s broadband services abroad.

“Virgin Media customers never have to worry about accessing the Internet while they’re abroad,” he said. “Whether it’s searching for the best pizzeria in Rome on your mobile or uploading photos onto Facebook with a laptop and mobile broadband, customers now have control over what they spend on holiday.”

Virgin’s announcement comes as a Nottingham University student was given an £8000 bill from Orange for his overseas Internet usage.

William Harrison claims he wasn’t informed of the dangers of exceeding your data usage overseas when he purchased his dongle with 3GB data limit at the Orange store in order to keep in touch while completing an internship in France.

Daily Skype calls caused Harrison to exceed his limit, ultimately leading to the shocking bill.

Orange has offered to halve the bill, but Harrison’s story proves that users need to be extremely careful when logging on overseas.

By Taylor Turner