We covered the story birefly last week, but we thought that this one would be good to reiterate. Vodafone are making a major play for holidaygoers this summer, abolishing roaming fees for phone and text entirely. It’s an excellent strategy for attracting new customers – a clear deciding factor for anyone thinking “I should get a phone for travel, but which one?”

It also raises some questions about roaming charges. Users have always known them to be electronic extortion, and in this increasingly connected world – where a laptop could hook up to a Chinese server via Mount Doom and back at no extra charge – it’s looking more and more like an antiquated cash grab kept in place by tradition. Now that major carrier is showing they can go without for a full quarter, there will be some serious questions when they turn it back on.