Come June 1 and Vodafone will scrap roaming charges for overseas calls, for a period of three months!

The new Vodafone offer can be availed by customers who sign up for the company's already-existing-for-some-time 'Passport' scheme, giving them the advantage of talking, and sending text messages and pictures to friends in more than 35 countries within the European Union, at the regular roaming rate applicable at home.

The offer implies that not only will the Vodafone contract and pay-as-you-go customers, subscribing to the free 'Passport' scheme, have to pay standard UK call-rates for making calls from anywhere within the EU, but also that there will be no charges for receiving incoming calls while they may be 'roaming.'

Till now, 'Passport' customers paid a 75p charge on their calls and texts messages overseas, included in their all-inclusive packages. But from June 1 up to end-August, fee has been scrapped. In case the Vodafone's 'experimental' move works out to an advantage, the company - which has 18 million customers in Britain - may either extend the offer or launch similar initiatives in future.

Moreover, the offer by Vodafone will coerce competitors to do away with roaming surcharges, as well as pre-empt new EU legislation pertaining to imposition of a stringent limits on the amount that European mobile operators charge for accessing one another's networks.