Tips to slash the cost of calls (from) abroad

1. Check to see when roaming costs are charged

In the 28 EU countries and a few additional regions no roaming costs are charged: in these countries you can make and receive calls, text and surf as if you were in Belgium. Important remark: when you call abroad from Belgium this is an international call and as a result you are calling at international rates, even within the EU. A few examples to illustrate:

• You’re calling to Italy from Italy: this is a national call, with roaming in the EU.
  There are no roaming charges.
• You’re calling to Belgium from Italy: a roaming call within the EU.
  There are no roaming charges.
• You’re calling to Italy from Belgium: an international call.
  The call is charged at international rates.

2. Choose an adapted scheme

Do you frequently travel to non-EU countries or do you regularly call abroad from Belgium (within or outside the European Union) then you are paying roaming costs or calling at international rates. To call at the most advantageous rate it is important to know the zone of the country you are in. The zones for international calls are the same as those for roaming. There are six zones in all: zone EU, zone Best Destinations and zones 3, 4, 5 and 6. If you know which zone you’re in then you can choose the most beneficial tariff scheme. For example, the Shape Intense package allows you to make unlimited calls and send unlimited text messages to countries in the EU. If you also want to call, text and surf outside the EU, the Shape Traveller package is what you want. This package not only gives you unlimited calls and texts to countries in the EU, but also 3GB of mobile data and 3,000 call minutes per month in and to the Best Destinations zone.

3. Monitor your usage and keep the costs in check

The My Orange app enables you and your staff to monitor usage, even abroad. The free app stores information on outgoing calls and texts in Europe, incoming calls in Europe, the data volume included in the bundle and the out-of-bundle surfing charges incurred abroad.

Moreover, thanks to the free Travel Data Control service in the Customer Zone, you can always keep your staff’s data charges under control:

• Limit: you can set a maximum amount for roaming staff outside the included data volume. As standard this limit is set at €50.
• Notification: your employees will receive free text notifications once they reach 80% and 100% of their available data limit.
• Automatic blocking: when abroad the data connection is blocked automatically as soon as the limit has been exceeded. You will then have to wait until the start of the next billing period or you can raise the limit for your current invoice in the Customer Zone.