You may be leaving our shores, but you definitely won’t be leaving your phone behind. Stay in touch with everyone at home when you choose the Vodacom roaming option that’s right for you. You’ll get best-value, predictable rates for SMS, calls and data that won’t leave you with an unexpected bill.

No surprises

Before you even pack your passport, you can check exactly what you’ll pay when roaming at your destination. Just go to the International roaming rates page on the Vodacom website, choose your price plan and destination, and it will show your network options. You can choose between networks to see which is cheapest - if possible, always choose a Vodacom/Vodafone network.

How to activate roaming

• Contract customers: Seven days before you leave, call 082 1940 free from a Vodacom phone or SMS IRM to 31051. (You may be required to pay a deposit.)
• Prepaid customers: Activate any time before you leave SA by SMSing TRAVELON to 123 or calling 082 1940. (Deactivate by SMSing TRAVELOFF to 123 when you're back or +2782123 if you're still away.)
• Top Up customers: Roaming is activated by default.

Travel Saver

Vodacom's Travel Saver is ideal if you're taking your tablet, phone and/or dongle with you. You'll be charged a fixed low rate per MB of data, per minute of making and receiving calls, and per SMS. When you activate Travel Saver and use data, make calls and send SMSes, you’ll pay R30 per day. If you don’t using roaming services on any day, you won’t be charged.

Travel Saver is supported in over 180 countries, divided into two price zones:

• Zone 1 includes France, the US and Mozambique. This zone has the lowest rates.
  • R2.50 per minute to make and receive calls
  • R2 per MB of data
• Zone 2 includes Namibia, Mauritius and Thailand. Rates vary in these countries.

To get an accurate calculation of how much you'll pay in the country you'll be visiting, use the roaming rates calculator.

How to activate

• Check that roaming is active on your phone by SMSing 'Roamstatus' to 123.
• SMS 'Save' to 123. You may be prompted to SMS 'Save' to 31050. 
• Or log into VodaPay  and choosing Services -> Calling Services.
• Or you can activate it through the VodaPay App. Go to My Services -> Manage Services -> Calling Services to activate.
• To deactivate Travel Saver, SMS 'Saveoff' to 123 or 31050.  

SMS Roamer

This is the most affordable way to roam! And it's the simplest to activate, too. If you’re sure you won’t need to use voice calls or data while you’re overseas, then activate SMS Roamer. It will disable call and data functions on your phone (you will of course still be able to access WiFi networks). With SMS Roamer, you can send SMSs for R2.75, and receive SMSs for free while you're travelling.

How to activate

• Simply SMS 'ROAMON' to 123 before you leave, and 'ROAMOFF' to 123 when you return.

Africa Roaming 

Africa Roaming enables you to automatically qualify for reduced rates when you roam on selected Vodacom partner networks in Africa. There's no need to activate Africa Roaming - as long as you have roaming activated on your phone, you'll be automatically charged these rates. 

Partner networks include: 

• Vodacom Lesotho
• Vodacom Mozambique
• Vodacom Tanzania
• Vodacom DRC
• Vodafone Ghana
• Kenya Safaricom

Africa Roaming rates:

• R2.90 per minute for local calls in the country you’re visiting
• R5 per minute for calls back to South Africa or to other countries 
• R2.90 per minute for receiving calls
• R1.50 for every SMS you send
• R5 per MB of data used 

Data Roaming

Data Roaming allows you to access discounted rates on Vodacom and Vodafone partner networks. Where available, you can roam on super-fast LTE, perfect for streaming entertainment content or just keeping up with your emails from the office. It’s automatically available when roaming on an LTE-enabled network, on an LTE phone. (LTE is also known as 4G.) To help you stay in control of your spend, we'll automatically SMS you when your bill hits R2000, and at every R2000 increment. 

Data roaming costs

*Super-Saver data rates - You automatically qualify for a reduced rate at R17.50/MB when you roam on selected Vodafone partner networks. 

** Automatic rate when you roam on selected partner networks in Africa.