England fans risk being caught offside by mobile bills of £5,500

Fans travelling with smartphones could be opening bills mounting up to more than £5,500 if they are not careful about their usage, according to a study by price comparison website uSwitch.com.

Mobile phone networks have been forced to cap roaming charges within eurozone countries at 35p per minute to make calls, 11p per minute to receive calls and 11p to send a standard text message, as well as a 50 euro cap on data, with these caps set to fall further from July 1.

But this is not the case for destinations outside the EU. Based on average costs across the five major networks, using a mobile phone in Ukraine to make and receive just two five-minute phone calls per day, listen to a two-minute voicemail message and send five text messages and one photo message would run up a daily bill of £35, according to uSwitch.

And with 1MB of mobile internet data in Ukraine costing an average of £6.10, a smartphone user could ring up a daily data bill of £228 with a modest amount of video streaming, emailing, browsing websites and using services like Skype to keep in touch, the website warned.

Altogether, fans could face a total daily phone bill of £262 for calls, texts and data usage.

Those fans visiting Ukraine for the nine days from June 11 when England play their pool matches could have to pay an extra £2,362 on top of their usual monthly phone bills.

And those who stay in Ukraine from the first pool match on June 11 until the final on July 1 face a total bill of over £5,500 – more than 11 times the £482 cost of a ticket to the final in the best seats, uSwitch said.

It recommended fans curb their mobile usage and take other steps such as buying a local SIM and using free Wi-Fi to avoid coming home to a huge bill.

USwitch.com technology expert Ernest Doku said: “Watching England might be priceless, but using your mobile phone abroad isn’t. Footie fans have to think ahead as using their phones while following England could add more than £5,000 to what is likely to be an already expensive trip.

“The first thing fans going to Ukraine – or indeed anyone taking a holiday outside the EU – should do is talk to their network. They may be able to advise a bundle, or at least let you know the costs involved with using your phone abroad.”