Deutsche Telecom just made traveling in Europe a whole lot easier by announcing a new flat rate data plan for the European Union. The new plans will be available starting March 1, 2011 in Germany and will extend across much of Europe by July. The “Travel & Surf” plans will start with a 10MB day pass for EUR 1.95 or a 50MB day pass for EUR 4.95 Europe’s first data roaming flat rate will cost EUR 14.95 for one week of unlimited web browsing and data usage. Additional allotments of data can be purchased directly from the handset.
Hidden roaming data charges will be avoided with a data connection wizard that detects your location and your data connection options. The service sends you an SMS when you travel to your destination and lets you buy a data plan via SMS or your web browser. If you ignore this option and open your browser, you will be sent to a default landing age. This landing page prompts you to choose a plan before you begin to accrue exorbitant data roaming charges. The full details about this new flat rate plan are available on the second page.