Making Calls in South Africa - SIM ONLY customer

Forum|Forum|4 months ago
April 25, 2026
3 replies
92 views

Can someone please explain whether we can make calls in South Africa (both to the UK but more importantly within SA but to UK registered mobiles) without taking out any extra add ons or doing anything at all.

The Roaming Beyond is about adding data - but that’s for internet browsing etc, not making calls. Right?

Can I make WhatsApp calls if I purchase extra data?

So when we land in SA will our phones work to make calls?

if the answer is yes, then Yay!

next question - at what cost. ??

MZone

Platinum  Contributor

Roaming charges in South Africa.

The table below displays how much you’ll be charged for any minutes, texts or data that you use.

Roaming	Pay monthly	Pay-as-you-go****
Calls to UK*	£2.40	£2.40
Calls to South Africa*	£2.40	£2.40
Calls received*	£2.40	£2.40
Texts to South Africa**	£0.60	£0.60
Texts to UK**	£0.60	£0.60
Picture message (MMS) sent**	£0.60	£0.60
Internet and Data (per MB)***	£1.50	£1.50

* Price per minute

** Please note: MMS charges vary. For further information, refer to Terms & Conditions. If you joined or upgraded on or before 20th June 2023 the MMS cost is £0.30 per message for Roaming within EU Bands 1 and 2.

*** Data is charged or deducted in one kilobyte (KB) increments and any part KB used will be rounded up to the nearest KB

**** The charges below will apply to all Pay-as-you-go customers starting from 1st October 2024. Find out more about the current charges here.

Prices shown include VAT where applicable.

I have no affiliation whatsoever with iD Mobile or any subsidiary companies. Comments posted are entirely of my own opinion. Did my comment help answer your question? If so, don't forget to mark the response as the Most Helpful Answer.

T

TheVivsterAuthor

New Contributor

So the phone will work automatically but will be very expensive to use.

will buying an add on (which is data only) reduce the charges applied? I seem to think I’ve seen something that says that

And if I have a data add on can I use the data to make WhatsApp calls? I think I can. Any help appreciated.

Gemma M

iD Mobile Employee

Hi @TheVivster,

If you purchase a data add-on, it will allow you to use mobile data abroad without incurring the higher standard pay-as-you-go roaming data charges. Just keep in mind that the add-on is data only, so it won’t reduce the cost of traditional calls or SMS.

If you stick to using apps like WhatsApp for messaging and calls, then you’ll only be using your data allowance and you won’t be charged separately for calls or texts (as long as you’re not using your standard minutes/SMS).

A couple of helpful tips:

You might want to set your bill cap to £0.00 to avoid any unexpected out-of-bundle charges
Make sure your phone doesn’t accidentally use standard calls/SMS instead of apps

If you’re planning to use a fair amount of data and want to keep costs as low as possible, it could also be worth considering a local SIM in your destination (for example, providers like MTN or Vodacom). These can sometimes work out cheaper for data compared to roaming add-ons.

Hope this helps and I hope that you have safe travels and enjoy your trip.

Regards,

Gemma M

The iD Mobile Social Media Team

Did my comment help answer your question? If so, don't forget to mark the response as the Most Helpful Answer.