topic Re: is roaming or wifi beter in south africa in Roaming

is roaming or wifi beter in south africa

pauli — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 11:34:42 GMT

I'll be in South Africa for about 2 months. I have access to wifi, so is it possible to use that for free whatsapp calling? Will using wifi enable me to search the web for free? I am on an old plan of £1 per week.

Re: is roaming or wifi beter in south africa

Chris_B — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 12:39:16 GMT

@pauli Using Wi-Fi when abroad has nothing to do with EE.

Re: is roaming or wifi beter in south africa

Peter_W — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 15:06:21 GMT

Hey there @pauli.

As @Chris_B has mentioned, WiFi is independent of your service with EE, and if it's available you can use this to connect for services like WhatsApp.

You wouldn't be able to use this when away from the WiFi source though, and we don't offer roaming as standard in South Africa, so if you were looking to use your phone when out and about I'd recommend checking out our roaming pages.

Peter

Re: is roaming or wifi beter in south africa

XRaySpeX — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 15:18:02 GMT

@pauli wrote:
is it possible to use that for free whatsapp calling?

Yes, but only if the recipient also is on What'sApp.

WiFi wherever you can get it will tend to be more reliable than the mobile network but will only be free if its provider doen't charge for it.

Re: is roaming or wifi beter in south africa

bristolian — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 15:32:02 GMT

WiFi is a connection between a mobile device (tablet, phone or laptop) and a wireless broadband router, this provides the portable device with an internet connection which can be used for whatever you desire.

Roaming means using your phone on foreign mobile networks, which enable mobile data usage, voice calls & text messages.

Costs to use your EE mobile on South African mobile networks are at https://ee.co.uk/help/mobile/roaming/roaming-costs > South Africa

Re: is roaming or wifi beter in south africa

bristolian — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 19:16:39 GMT

@XRaySpeX wrote:

WiFi wherever you can get it will tend to be more reliable than the mobile network

I'm not sure that's always true. In the UK at least, public WiFi can often be less reliable than using the mobile network. Having to repeatedly reconnect to a new hotspot is a downside, as is the security.

Everything depends on each individual hotspot/router, and usage/traffic levels at the time.

Re: is roaming or wifi beter in south africa

XRaySpeX — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 12:02:43 GMT

@bristolian : "tend to"!