Before long, Vodafone customers can cross the Dutch border with Germany (and back) while being on the phone without experiencing a dropped call and without extra costs. This ‘international handover’ is already in place at several border-crossings with Germany, e.g. in the province of Limburg, near Aachen, Roermond and Kerkrade. Vodafone is currently completing the roll-out, enabling such handovers in the entire border region with Germany in the next few weeks.
Taking a call across the border into Germany comes at no extra charges. The call charges are determined by the network that is used to set up the call. A similar process is being planned for the border region with Belgium. When finalized, Vodafone customers will be able to cross the Belgium border too, without having their mobile phone call disconnected.
At the border-crossing
As a rule, shortly after crossing the border the signal with the (home) network fades and the call is disconnected. You have to wait until your handset has registered itself onto the network abroad before you can set up a new call. From now on, the German Vodafone network is able to take over the connection during your call without interruption. Naturally, this also works the other way round, when you enter the Netherlands coming from Germany.
How it works
At the moment you can already cross the border while calling, if you have set up a 2G or 3G voice connection on the Vodafone network; it doesn’t work yet with a 4G voice connection (VoLTE). At many border locations your 4G voice connection is transferred to the Vodafone 3G or 2G network – before the signal is lost – still enabling you to cross the border without losing the call. It doesn’t work everywhere yet, but Vodafone is currently optimising this at (busy) border-crossings to seamlessly ‘hand over’ as many calls as possible across the border.
Roaming in Germany
If you disconnect the call manually when abroad (by hanging up or due to insufficient coverage of the German network), the device will automatically register itself onto the German network and start to ‘roam’. When you are in Germany and you set up a new call there (‘roaming’) you can take this call ‘with you’ when you cross the border into the Netherlands. As long as the connection remains, it will be registered as a roaming call on the German Vodafone network, even if you already are in the Netherlands. Not until you disconnect the call, will your phone register itself onto the Vodafone NL network and stop roaming on the German network.
No additional costs
Taking a call with you across the border comes at no extra costs. Your call charges are determined by the network that is used to set up the call. A call that starts on the Vodafone NL network is being charged as a national call, whether you are in the Netherlands or in Germany. A call that is set up on the German Vodafone network is charged as a roaming call, whether you are in the Netherlands or in Germany.