Salt Changes Roaming and International Call Rates

From June 10, 2022, Swiss telecom service provider Salt is rezoning the regions it uses to price mobile roaming and international phone calls. Salt now divides the world into four zones which it names Europe, Travel, World, and Far. These zones are used for roaming and for international phone calls. Up until now, Salt used six different regions titled A, B, C, D, E, and F for roaming, and numbered 1 to 6 for calls to other countries from Switzerland.

The prices themselves are remaining unchanged, but Salt is launching new bundles to match the new regions. The rates charged for many countries are remaining the same, but prices for calling or roaming in a number of countries are going down or getting higher.

New Europe zone

For all of the countries included in new Europe region, the prices are the same as they were previously. These include 21 of the 27 EU member countries, plus Great Britain and Norway. EU countries which are not included in Salt’s Europe region are Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovenia.  

Customers can choose between three different data packs: 1.5 gigabytes for 24.95 francs; 3 gigabytes for 34.95 francs; 12 gigabytes for 99.95 francs. The bundles remain valid for 12 months. Using data roaming at standard rates – without getting a bundle – is still expensive, with each megabyte costing 2.95 francs. Making calls while roaming at standard rates is also expensive, costing between 1.19 and 4.99 francs per minute.

Balkan countries and the US now much more expensive

The new Travel region includes many popular travel destinations. For many of these countries, Salt used to apply the same rates as it did for nearby countries like France and Germany. The cost of calling the following countries or using roaming there is now much higher than it was previously: Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Turkey, and the US (including Alaska and Hawaii). It is interesting that Salt is now charging much higher prices for some EU countries than for others.

The price increases are substantial. The standard price for using data while roaming is going up by 408 percent. But using data or making calls at standard rates is never a good idea, as they are always overpriced. The prices of data roaming bundles for the countries mentioned above are going up by 43 to 60 percent.

Table 1: Price changes (Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Turkey, the US)

Other Balkan countries and eastern European countries

The new World zone includes countries like Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, the Philippines, Serbia and Kosovo, South Korea, Ukraine, Vietnam. Many other countries across most continents are also included in this region. For some countries (see table 2), phone calls are becoming massively more expensive. Data roaming, on the other hand, is now slightly cheaper.

Table 2: Price changes (Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo, Ukraine)

Thailand, South Africa, and Brazil now much cheaper

Some popular holiday destinations like Brazil, India, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, and Thailand are now in the new Travel region. For these countries, the prices are now dramatically lower than they were before.

Previously, one gigabyte of roaming data for these countries cost 150 to 200 francs. With the new data roaming bundles, the price is between 12 and 26 francs. That is a 90-percent price reduction.

Table 3: Price changes (Brazil, India, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand)

* Calculated per gigabyte

Salt’s product jungle

Unfortunately, Salt’s product offering is still a jungle when it comes to mobile roaming. For each of the four zones, Salt offers a call option, a data option, and three different data bundles. Customers must be particularly cautious when using the call and data options. After you activate an option, it is automatically renewed and billed to you every month, until you terminate it. That is not very customer friendly for holidaymakers. Customers should also pay attention to the fact that options expire on the ninth day of every month.

Salt customers who need to use data while roaming in other countries should use Salt’s data packs instead. These bundles are valid for twelve months. You pay once when you get the bundle, and it is not automatically renewed, so you do not risk being billed on an ongoing basis like you do with the data options.

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