How to Activate International Roaming on Vodacom

Do you wish to learn how to activate international roaming on Vodacom. Vodacom enjoys the lion’s share of the mobile communications scene in South Africa. As one of the company’s clients, you may find yourself having to go abroad. Perhaps you are going on a visit to the US or elsewhere. Or maybe you are a Zimbabwean living and working in South Africa and preparing to go back home for the holidays. In that case, you may wish to activate international roaming to stay in touch while abroad.

Vodacom Roaming Activation Steps

The following is how to activate international roaming on Vodacom;

1. Vodacom contract customers can activate roaming by sending an SMS with the text IRM to 31050. Roaming can also be activated by calling the Vodacom Customer Care number 082 135.
2. Meanwhile, Vodacom Prepaid customers can activate roaming by sending an SMS with the text TRAVELON to 123. Roaming can also be turned on by calling the Vodacom Customer Care number 082 135.

Vodacom roaming activation number

The Vodacom roaming activation number is 082 135. That’s the Vodacom Customer Care number. It’s what you call to speak to a Vodacom Agent. Tell them to activate international roaming on your SIM and they will do it.

Vodacom Africa Roaming

Vodacom has a facility that’s referred to as Africa roaming. Under this scheme, charges are reduced when roaming on Vodacom sister networks. Remember that the company also has a presence in Lesotho, Mozambique, Tanzania, the DRC, Kenya and Ghana.

So, if you are going to any of these countries, you should make sure that your phone is roaming on the Vodacom network. That way, you will enjoy lower roaming charges.

You can make sure that you are on the Vodacom network by manually choosing the network on your phone. Unfortunately, Zimbabwe is not part of this deal. There is no Vodacom in that country. That’s a pity because tens of thousands of Zimbabweans living in South Africa are on Vodacom. And they visit home regularly.

How much is Vodacom international roaming?

That’s how to activate international roaming on Vodacom. But how much does roaming cost? One thing to note is that roaming is not cheap. In fact, it can be very expensive.

One reason for this is that you will be paying not only for making calls, but also when you receive calls. So, that tends to be rather expensive. In the table below, we give the example of Vodacom international roaming charges for Zimbabwe.

Country	Operator	Local calls	International calls	Receive call	Data	Send SMS
Zimbabwe	Econet	R6/min	R16.50/min	R6/min	R5/MB	R2.75/SMS
	NetOne	R6	R6	R6	N/A	R2.75
	Telecel	R6	R6	R6	R5	R2.75

Should I turn on roaming?

Those are the Vodacom roaming charges for this particular example. Now, to put things in perspective, it can cost as little as R0.79 per minute for calls in South Africa from Vodacom to any network.

By comparison, Roaming is very expensive. We have previously covered MTN roaming activation and we noted the same issue. Roaming is not cheap.

That’s something that you need to keep in mind as you learn how to activate international roaming on Vodacom. It’s not cheap. But there are instances where you will be forced to switch roaming on.

Maybe you are expecting important work related calls. It would be logical to have roaming on as you visit other countries. Or perhaps you will only be visiting for a few days. In that case, roaming won’t be a drain.

But if you are going to be visiting another country for an extended period, it will be better to buy a local SIM and to notify everyone of your new contact details. Otherwise the charges will be a bit too much.

Summary: How to activate Vodacom international roaming

In this article, we focused on showing you how to turn on Vodacom international roaming. We noted that roaming is sometimes necessary, though it can be expensive.

Leave a comment below if you require further information. You can also post questions to the SA Broadband forum. We have a team that’s ready to help you with the right answers.