European Union



'This site reflects the rules effective 15/June/2017. It will ultimately replace the old article with the previous rules.'

''They rules may be hard to read and comprehend. But it's very much recommended for you to understand the basic rules of EU roaming to make up your mind of which option is best for you.  '''While the new rules are clear and laid out on this site below, their exact implementation by the different providers remains still uncertain. This page will be regularily updated as soon as more details emerge in the course of 2017.'
 * For the old rules enforced until 15/June/2017 go to this site
 * For roaming SIM card offers for the EU until 15/June/2017 go to this article

EUROPEAN UNION - Rules and Implications
The good news: (most) roaming surcharges within the European Union (EU) and the wider European Economic Area (EEA) come to an end by June 15th, 2017; 

'''the bad news: some restrictions will still apply for data use and there are many strings attached. As the situation remains confusing for visitors and residents alike, this is your guidepost through this new era starting June 2017.'''

The European Commission combats roaming charges through different regulations, which apply throughout the European Economic Area (EEA). The EEA comprises the European Union (EU), Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Most information about EU roaming regulations refers to them covering only the EU, whereas in fact the whole of the wider EEA area is covered.

Looking back
Travellers to or within Europe have found an annoying situation up to June 2017: every country has still its own national phone system and mobile networks. This made mobile phone use in Europe cheap only if you were using a SIM card issued in the specific country you were visiting. Compared to that, intra-European roaming rates used to be excessively expensive, especially for data. "Bill shock" was not that uncommon. This has been a particular burden for travellers visiting multiple countries: to get a decent rate for data, one had to buy a new SIM card in every country visited. Many users became so afraid of high costs that they simply disabled mobile data or switched off their phone when abroad.

That’s why we started this Wiki some years ago. But there is really good news: from June 15th, 2017 almost all roaming surcharges will be scrapped all over the EU and EEA. The European Commission claims that compared to 10 years ago retail prices across calls, SMS and data are more than 80% lower, data roaming is now up to 91 % cheaper and the volume of the data roaming market has grown by 630%. However, this is only one side of the story.

Roam like (at) home
"Roam like (at) home" will be the guiding principle from June 2017 in all of the EU and EEA:

Net Neutrality
At the same time the EU commits to strict net neutrality: no blocking or throttling of online content, applications and services. All traffic will be treated equally. This means that there can be no paid prioritisation of traffic in the internet access service. However providers are allowed a reasonable day-to-day traffic management according to justified technical requirements.

Validity Area
EU roaming regulations are valid in all EU member states, including their EU territories outside Europe, and in the countries of the wider European Economic Area (EEA). These countries are shown in green on the map, are listed on the column on the right or collected in our EU category.

Off the map are the Canary Islands as a part of Spain, Madeira and the Azores as a part of Portugal in the Atlantic Ocean and some French Overseas Departments in the Caribbean, South America and the Indian Ocean, which are part of the EU and consequently where EU roaming regulations equally apply. As prices are not regulated and much more expensive outside, it's worth noting the areas in red: Switzerland is the most notable exception in Central Europe. In Eastern Europe, Russia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine are not part. In the Balkans, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia are outside. And there a small red dots between France and Spain (for Andorra), France (for Monaco) and Italy (for San Marino) where you can be charged much higher too. Finally, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are excluded territories as well as the northern part of Cyprus and all of Turkey Remember, that the United Kingdom intends to leave the EU, so that its status and that of Gibraltar may then change too, but this hasn't been decided yet. Some providers include countries like Switzerland in their EU zone, but others don't and as they are not required to, this can't be generalized.  As this zoning creates many borders, where red meets green, remember when staying close to an red area, you should always:
 * when roaming: make a manual network selection
 * when using your home network: disable data roaming

Major Shortcomings
There are some principal restrictions, limitations and strings attached to these rules you should be very much aware of:

Geographical borders
EU rules only apply to all SIM cards issued in the EU and EEA by an EU/EEA provider, not to any other provider or any SIM card issued outside. And they only apply to calls and texts from one EU/EEA country to the same or another and data use. Not to calling/texting in from outside of the EU or to calling/texting out from inside the EU/EEA. There are still huge gaps shown in red on the map above. Note, that there are steep borders where roaming outside may become more than 1000 times more expensive than within. So shock bills can still occur.

Alternate options
All EU providers are required to offer an option to make your tariff or plan compliant to the new regulated EU rules. They can also offer different plans or bundles, that can be cheaper or more expensive depending on your own consumption. For instance they can offer you special allowances for roaming on top of your domestic bundle instead of being taken from it. These further offers don't need to obey EU rules. But you must agree to opt-out of EU rules before by choosing a different plan.

Foreign calls and texts
There is a weird destinction between calling from your home country abroad and calling when roaming. The EU regulation is only about roaming. So all IDD (or foreign) calls and texts from the home country (of the SIM card) even to another EU country are not covered by the legislation. The EU doesn't have a mandate for this.

This absurd situation makes some foreign calls much more expensive than using the same SIM abroad roaming for vice versa calls. This gap only concerns calls or texts to anywhere abroad from the home country where the SIM was issued. Luckily, it doesn't concern data use: for internet you are either at home or roaming as soon as you log onto the foreign mobile network.

Maritime or aircraft networks
This regulation doesn't apply to networks employed on cruise or ferry ships or in aircrafts using satellite links, even when these vehicles are cruising or flying within the EU or EEA.

Bear in mind that these networks are usually charged very high typically around €16 to €25 per MB data or incoming calls at €2 to €7 per min and should be avoided at all costs.

EU Roaming Rates
The EU finally agreed on bringing roaming fees to an end in June 2017 with a few exceptions, so that prices for roaming are the same as domestic: Incoming means being called or texted while staying in a roaming country, also called passive roaming. Outgoing means calling or texting from a roaming country, known as active roaming.

Effective June 15th 2017 most roaming charges are banned on all EU providers for the entire union. Under the regulated tariff every EU provider needs to charge the same rate domestic and abroad when roaming within the EU for calls and texts and most data.

All users of EU issued SIM cards are automatically adopted to new roaming scheme from June 2017. This applies to prepaid as well as ongoing postpaid contracts, no matter how roaming was priced before. There will be no changes what domestic rates are concerned. You may choose to opt-out and switch to a different plan for roaming too, if your provider offers it to you. Some may be even pushy about this for reasons explained below.

Implications for voice (call) users
For voice all roaming surcharges are scrapped from now on without limitations.

Incoming or passive roaming (that's when you are called abroad by someone else) is free from now on.

Outgoing calls within the roaming country, to your EU home country or to another EU country are charged at the domestic rate only. Again, all calls from your home country (ar rather home country of the SIM) calling IDD abroad are not considered roaming calls, but foreign calls. They can be charged much higher as they are not regulated under the EU rules.
 * If you have a domestic all-net flatrate for voice to all lines in your home EU country (not only an on-net flatrate), the roaming call will be "free" on this flatrate.
 * If you have a certain allowance of ## minutes airtime to all domestic lines in your home EU country (not only on-net), the roaming call will be debited from this domestic allowance.
 * If you call on a standard (default, pay-as-you-go) rate of ## cents per minute domestic, the roaming call will be charged at the same domestic per-minute rate.

Implications for text (SMS) users
For text / SMS all roaming surcharges are scrapped without limitations from now on.

Incoming or passive roaming (that's when you are texted abroad by someone else) is free for a long time now.

Outgoing SMS within the roaming country, to your EU home country or to another EU country are charged at the domestic SMS rate only. Again, all SMS from your home country (or rather home country of the SIM) texted abroad are not considered roaming SMS, but foreign SMS. They can be charged much higher as they are not regulated under the EU rules.
 * If you have a domestic all-net flatrate for SMS to all mobiles in your home EU country (not only on-net flatrate), the roaming SMS will be "free" on this flatrate.
 * If you have a certain allowance of ## texts to all mobiles in your home EU country (not only on-net), the roaming SMS will be debited from this domestic allowance.
 * If you text on a standard (default, pay-as-you-go rae) of ## cents per SMS domestically, the roaming SMS will be charged at the same domestic per-SMS rate.

Implications for data / mobile internet users
Now things become a bit more complicated.....
 * If you have a domestic "unlimited" data flatrate in your home EU country, data use will be "free" on this flatrate up to a certain volume that must be indicated by the provider.
 * If you have a certain allowance of ## MB or GB in a bundle for your home EU country, roaming data consumption will be debited from this domestic allowance. On certain cheap data bundles with prices below €4 per GB (or any ratio of this) some restrictions may apply that only a defined max. of data needs to be given out at the domestic rate. This mostly applies to cheap EU countries and must be stated by the provider.
 * If you surf on a standard (default, pay-as-you-go) rate of ## cents per MB in your country, the same rate will be charged for roaming in another EU/EEA country.

Wholesale caps
In early 2017 the European Commission finally agreed to new wholesale caps. This has been a prerequisite for "roam like at home" to take effect. These caps are the maximum rates that providers in Europe can charge each other for the roaming customers of a different network.

These prices are net rates without VAT. Voice and data rates are already below domestic retail prices. For data a gradual reduction scheme was introduced that will be checked for consistency after two years. This designation was very disputed as smaller providers are afraid to sell roaming data now below their revenues, while big network alliances can benefit from heavy reductions of own or partner networks. Critics fear a further consolidation of the telco market in Europe as a consquence.

How will the providers react?
While voice and text will be given out mostly "unlimited" without surcharges, the operators are much stingy with data. This applies especially to the "cheap" EU countries where they are afraid of losing earnings when they sell roaming data at domestic rates. In the more expensive countries and plans these extra fees can be easily absorbed by the retail price.

There are basically following measures how operators try to bypass increased roaming expenses from the start which have been employed in some countries:
 * they raise prices and say it's because of roaming
 * they terminate or don't offer roaming or data roaming on a plan. Then the EU regulation doesn't apply, but the plan or tariff must be clearly marked as domestic only.
 * they "outsource" some allowances as bonuses or benefits rather than included in the plan, not to be given out without surcharges. But this will be contested by national regulators.
 * they use "technical restraints" like depriorisation, long latency, no 4G/LTE roaming, dropped calls, preferred "partner" networks only or other measures to make roaming less attractive.

Why is it so hard to bring the European providers together?
The regulation concerns 28+3 national markets with different rules, licences, fees and costs. The differences within Europe are still steep. For example, consumers in Latvia spent in 2014 on average €3.70 a month and Irish consumers an average of €23.80 per month for using their mobile phones.

Europeans have different travel habits across the EU, and there are also different network costs in visited countries. Consumer retail offers vary widely between states. In 2016 the cheapest monthly deals offering 1GB of data, 600 minutes of calls and 225 SMS ranged from €60 in Hungary to €8 in Estonia (excl. VAT). While 1GB is commonly sold on prepaid at €10 in Germany, you can get it for less than the equivalent of €0.40 in Poland. So the danger is real, that users may try to take a SIM card from a "cheap" country to be used in a more expensive country. This would clearly undercut national pricing. Therefore, the EU has put in some "safeguards" against "permanent roaming" what they consider "abusive behaviour".

Abuse and Fair Use Policy
Here the wording already gets tricky. The providers and the EU try to prevent what they claim "abuse" or "misuse" of the regulations by some consumers. The users argue that while they might disobey some T&Cs, they act quite in line with a logical economical behaviour by preferring the cheapest offer available in one market and bring it to another.

There are essentially 3 different so-called "safeguards" or "FUPs" in the regulation to protect providers from losing revenues:
 * Stable links: to avoid "permanent roaming" in another country, a provider can demand from its clients to show "stable links" to the home country of the SIM. If he/she can't prove them, he/she might get roaming discontinued after 4 months, but will be reset after one year. The wording of these rules leave a lot of room for interpretation and they will be applied by any provider only in extreme cases.
 * Limits for data: on so-called "open data packages" the provider may implement some restrictions. These plans are either real flatrates with unlimited data sold in very few countries or data bundles with very cheap data at a price below €4 per GB. For these offers, a provider is allowed to limit the volume of data to be given out at the domestic rate for roaming to a certain quota. This maximum share must be clearly stated before selling the plan or package.
 * Derogation: when a provider can prove to the national regulator that the EU regulation is not economically viable and will severely affect its business, under certain conditions it may be exempt from the regulation for a period of time.

More information
If you have questions about the roaming regulation, check here:
 * http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/document.cfm?doc_id=44068
 * http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/document.cfm?doc_id=40673
 * https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/frequently-asked-questions-roam-home
 * http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-17-885_en.htm

'This Wiki does clearly not endorse to break the rules as this regulation is a major step forward in our fight against excessive roaming charges. But it clearly comes short of its promise to "roam like at home".'

''That's why we keep covering all EU countries seperately and will add a section about roaming to each of them. We will continue to feature cheaper or better solutions for domestic or roaming data use, even if their consistent use may be considered as "abusive behaviour" in light of the regulation.''

''This old article with recommended roaming SIM cards for Europe is going to be taken off as they don't make any sense anymore past June 15th. If you still want to get some information from this section, you can still access it through here for a while. Eventually, when the situation becomes clearer in the course of this summer a new article with roaming suggestions may be added.'' .