Vodafone's roaming mobile access

Vodafone said it was Europe's first mobile phone company to allow its next-generation mobile Internet customers to access the service in other countries around the continent.

The world's largest mobile phone group said roaming on its GPRS network, which is considered a stepping stone towards the highly anticipated third generation services, is available to customers in 12 countries to access certain other countries.

Vodafone, like other leading operators, aims to leverage the wide reach of its franchise when promoting the service to business travellers, who regularly use their phones in different countries. GPRS allows users to have "always on" access, only paying for the data they download.

"Vodafone intends to progressively expand GPRS roaming to cover other networks, including all remaining European Vodafone operators and partner networks by the end of the year," the company said in statement.