European Roaming Unions

Looking back

Travellers to or within Europe found an annoying situation up to June 2017: every country have 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 exactly why we started this wiki some years ago.

Since 15th June 2017, a European Union regulation (Regulation (EU) 2015/2120) has banned roaming surcharges within the European Economic Area (EEA). Most EU legislation, including this regulation, applies to the wider EEA, which comprises all EU member states and their EU territories as well as the countries of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

EU principles

Roam like (at) home

"Roam like (at) home" is the guiding principle for roaming now in all of the EU and EEA:

Net Neutrality

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 prioritization of traffic in the internet access service. This applies to roaming too, as any roaming traffic must not be depriorized. However providers are allowed a reasonable day-to-day traffic management according to justified technical requirements.

EU Roaming Rates

Pricing

The EU agreed on bringing roaming fees to an end so that prices for roaming are the same as domestic (with a few exceptions):

Roaming		since 2017
voice calls	incoming	free
voice calls	outgoing	at domestic price
texts (SMS)	incoming	free
texts (SMS)	outgoing	at domestic price
data	at domestic price (some limitations may apply)

Incoming in this table 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. At domestic price, the domestic retail price is applied.

From 2017 most roaming charges have been banned on all EU/EEA providers for the region. Under the regulated tariff every EU provider is required to charge the same rate domestic as well as abroad when roaming within the EU/EEA for calls, texts and data.

Wholesale Caps

In the same year the European Commission 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 from out of the country.

Roaming	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
voice calls	€0.032 per minute
texts (SMS)	€0.01 per SMS
data (per GB)	€7.70	€6.00	€4.50	€3.50	€3.00	€2.50

These prices are net rates without VAT. Voice and SMS rates are already below domestic retail prices. For data a gradual reduction scheme has been introduced until 2022.

Validity Area

European Union roaming regulations are valid in all EU member states, including their EU territories outside Europe, in the countries of the wider European Economic Area (EEA) and in the UK (until 2021). The relevant EU and EEA countries are shown in green on the map and specified on the column on the right:

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 where EU roaming regulations equally apply.

Countries shaded in red are not part of the scheme and hence, providers are not obliged to extend their free roaming to these countries. 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 North Macedonia are outside. And there a small red dots between France and Spain (for Andorra) and within France (for Monaco) where you can be charged much higher too. Finally, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are excluded territories as well as the northern part of Cyprus and all of Turkey

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

For the special situation in the United Kingdom and its overseas territory Gibraltar refer to the update below:

Following a referendum in favour of leaving the European Union held in 2016, the United Kingdom has left the EU at the end of January 2020. Every UK provider implemented EU roaming rules without surcharges in 2017 and will stick to these rules at least for a set transitional period until 31st December 2020.

What happens in 2021 is still unclear and depends on future agreements between the EU and the UK. The UK government has issued a guidance warning that the guarantee of free mobile roaming across the EU, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein will end on 1 January 2021, the end of the Brexit transition period.

As it looks now, from 2021 you will need to carefully check your UK provider about roaming in the EU/EEA and you can't rely on continental providers anymore to roam without surcharges in the UK and Gibraltar. Without a new agreement in place, you can expect UK providers to stay with some of the previous rules as they compete over roaming, but may as well depart from some of them as they are not legally required to. It can also be expected that some continental providers will regroup the UK and Gibraltar similar to Switzerland with high surcharges, while others with close ties to the UK will remain the UK in their surcharge-free group.

Shortcomings and restrictions

There are some principal restrictions and strings attached to these basic rules you should be aware of:

Roaming Availability

The regulations do not require all providers to offer roaming service for those who travel within the EU/EEA. The roaming regulations are only for those providers and plans who chose to offer roaming. It's thus not uncommon for some to not include roaming to prepaid plans: check the guides of the individual countries to see which providers to avoid, if roaming in another country is required.

Geographical Limitations

EU rules only apply to all SIM cards issued in the EU and EEA shown on the map above in green by a terrestrial EU or EEA provider, not to any other provider or any SIM card issued outside this green area. They only apply to calls and texts made from one EU/EEA country to the same or another and data use, not to calling/texting in from outside the EU/EEA or to calling/texting out from inside the EU/EEA.

There are still gaps shown in red on the map above with steep borders where roaming outside may become more than 1000 times more expensive than within. So shock bills can still occur when you connect to the "wrong" networks outside.

Maritime or Aircraft Networks

This regulation doesn't apply to networks employed on cruise or ferry ships or in aircraft 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.

International calls and texts from home country

There is an odd distinction between calling from your home country abroad and calling when roaming. This EU regulation is only about roaming. So all IDD (or cross-country) calls and texts from the home country (of the SIM card) even to another EU/EEA country are not covered by the legislation. The EU haven't had a mandate for this back then.

This anomaly has made most international calls more expensive than when roaming with the same SIM card abroad for calls to the home country. This exclusion only concerns calls or texts to anywhere from the home country where the SIM card was issued. In reverse, for roaming calls and SMS this means that such calls and SMS are cheaper when made roaming in the EU/EEA than made from the home country, not least as they will be deducted from your domestic allowance.

Effective 15th May 2019 the EU is now slowly closing this gap by another regulation. All foreign calls and texts from the home country (of the SIM card) in the EU/EEA to a different EU/EEA country are now capped in price. A foreign call must not cost more than 19 cents per minute and a SMS not more than 6 cents. This is added by the local VAT or sales tax. So the maximum price is set at around 21-23c per min and 7-8c per SMS taxes included. These prices are planned to be gradually decreased within the next couple of years to become equal with domestic and roaming rates. For the time being, they still remain considerably higher, but the worst excess is capped at least.

Luckily it doesn't concern data use: for internet you are either at home or roaming as soon as you log on to the foreign mobile network.

Fair Use Policy (FUP)

The providers have implemented a so-called "FUP" (Fair Use Policy) against "misuse" or "abuse" of the rules. This can affect you in three different ways:

time-based FUP: The regulations apply to occasional roaming during holidays or business trips, not to permanent roaming in another country. The provider has the right to monitor your usage and when your roaming usage overtakes domestic use within 4 months, a regulated surcharge may be added.
volume-based FUP: There are further restrictions for data use on some networks. Open (or unlimited) data packages will be capped for roaming. On some large packages only a part of the included data volume may be given out at the domestic rate for roaming.

derogation: When a provider is able to prove that the required roaming rates are not economically viable, a derogation from the rules can be requested from the regulator. Thus still surcharges can be applied.

Further exclusions

All roaming calls and texts are considered "off-net" as a different network is employed for transmission. That's why on-net discounts between users of the same network don't apply while roaming.

Any calls and texts to premium and special service numbers are not included. Freephone (or toll-free) numbers called through a roaming network may be charged too.

Implications

All incoming calls and texts are free. For voice, SMS and data each you are on a domestic tariff in either one of the three options:

you may be on the base plan, in which every minute of voice call, sent SMS or MB is charged. Here the same domestic rate is applied in the roaming country.
you may have a finite package of ## minutes, ## SMS or ## MB/GB data for domestic use. Here the roaming consumption comes out of this domestic package. On cheap data bundles with prices below €4 per GB (or any ratio of this) some limitations may be applied that only a defined maximum of data needs to be given out from this package.
you may have a "flatrate" or unlimited allowance for voice calls, SMS or data in your home country. All roaming calls and SMS are taken from this plan. What data is concerned, roaming data use will be taken from this flatrate up to a certain FUP cap that must be clearly indicated by the provider.
this also applies to free bonuses for various purposes or zero-rated offers for certain messengers, social media or streaming.

All remaining surcharges, if applied for overuse, misuse or extended use, are regulated and must not exceed the set ceiling of the capped wholesale prices (plus tax).

Implementation

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 these five measures employed in some countries by operators to bypass increased roaming expenses:

they terminate or don't offer roaming or data roaming at all on some plans. Then the EU regulation doesn't apply, but the plan or tariff must be clearly marked as for domestic use only.
they employ a FUP from the rules specified below. Thus in e.g. in Poland on average 10% or in Austria 25% of the domestic allowance needs to be given out for roaming to be still called "roam like at home".
they apply for a derogation from the rules at the regulator because of financial losses, so that surcharges can be added or the rules can be suspended for a while.
they use "technical restraints" like depriorisation, long latency, no 4G/LTE roaming, dropped calls, preferred "partner" networks only or other restrictions to make roaming less attractive.
they may request for more information or documents that only residents of the country they operate in are supposed to possess (e.g. national ID card, tax number, debit/credit card with a local billing address) before enabling roaming. This reduces the risk of visitors to their country simply buying their SIM cards only to then use it more outside these operators' home countries. Sometimes, these requirements become enshrined into relevant national laws.

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 gaps within Europe are still wide. 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 countries, 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). For prepaid data 1GB is commonly sold in at €10 in Germany, while you can get it for less than the equivalent of €0.40 in Poland.

That's why the danger is quite real, that users may try to take a SIM card from a "cheap country" to be used in a more expensive country and thereby clearly undercut national pricing. Therefore, the EU has put in some "safeguards" (for the providers) against "permanent roaming" what they consider "abusive behaviour".

Abuse and Fair Use Policy (FUP)

Here the wording already gets ambiguous. The providers and the EU try to prevent what they claim possible "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 rational 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 put in place by the EU to protect providers from losing revenues:

Stable links: to avoid "permanent roaming" outside a provider's home country, providers may require customers to show evidence of "stable links" to the provider's home country. These are usually documents or ID numbers that only residents of that country can possess (e.g. tax identification number, residence permit, local bank statement with a billing address). If a customer can't provide them, they may get small surcharges applied (at a max.of €9.40 per GB) or have their roaming privileges disabled. The wording of these rules leave a lot of room for interpretation. They will be employed by an operator only after having monitored a SIM card for at least 2 to 4 months and roaming period or consumption exceed domestic use in this period. However, some operators may require certain pieces of evidence of "stable links" from the customer as part of the registration/activation process when the customer purchases a SIM card.

Limits for data: on so-called "open data packages" the providers may implement some restrictions. This applies only to flatrates with unlimited data sold in few EU countries or data bundles with very cheap data or large amounts at a sales price below €4.60 per GB (or any similiar ratio). For these offers, a provider is allowed to limit the volume of data to be given out at domestic rates for roaming to a certain quota. This limitation must be clearly stated before selling the plan or package by the operator.

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. A derogation from the rules applies to most providers in the Baltic States and Finland. Still, they are only allowed to charge as much just to cover their expenses at a max. of €9.40 per GB for roaming.

Assessment and recommendations

Given the different strategies of the providers to undermine the roaming regulation and more safeguards in place by the regulation to deny its principle, one may wonder what remains of the "Roam like at Home" promise. This depends on the provider, the country where the SIM is bought, the price tag for data, and how stringent any "abusive behaviour" will be prevented and penalized. In cheap countries or for a cheap plan a much stricter approach can be expected than for pricey plans or expensive countries where "Roam like at Home" will be generally adopted without any restrictions.

A few months into the new policy it looks as there will remain differences according to where the SIM card has been issued and bought, because this fact defines the domestic and hence the roaming rates:

Complying countries: in major EU countries like the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Croatia, Cyprus, Malta and Greece there is a general adoption of the principle without any limitations or FUPs on almost all prepaid plans offered.

Restrictive countries: in some countries with cheap or unlimited rates like France, Italy, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Czech Rep., Bulgaria, Slovenia, Ireland, Romania, Slovakia, Iceland and Hungary where there are limitations in place mostly on large data packages, that are only given out up to a specified volume at the domestic rate (called FUP) and on some plans roaming may be blocked completely or offered for a surcharge. In addition, some providers may effectively limit the use of roaming features to customers who have provided evidence of their "stable links" to the countries in which these providers operate in.

Withdrawing countries: in a few countries with very low rates like Poland, Denmark, Finland, Liechtenstein and the Baltic States (Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia) most operators have been granted derogation. They have opted out of the scheme and many of their plans don't offer international roaming at all. On the rest of their plans they continue to charge extra for roaming, but at lower rates than before, offering usual roaming add-on packs or per-MB surcharges.

As a reminder, these do not refer to the countries where you plan to roam, but the countries where the relevant providers operate in. Moreover, countries are classified above based on the normal practices of most providers operating under their respective jurisdictions. Thus, these lists should not be misconstrued as official national roaming policies. That's why each EU and EEA country is still covered separately and a section about roaming has been added to each of them and to most providers. Check those out as there are some exceptions to the general trends described above which you can use to your advantage.

Generally you can expect international EU data roaming rates in 2019 between €2.75 per GB based on the given FUP up to €5.50 per GB based on the excess rate for "misuse" as long as you have activated a domestic data package before. These are similar to domestic rates in expensive EU countries, but quite higher than domestic rates in cheap EU countries.

This scattered picture leads to the following general recommendations for roamers in the EU/EEA:

It's no longer essential to buy a SIM card for every EU/EEA country you are visiting, but instead buy one for all.
It's mandatory to activate a domestic package for EU data roaming to get a decent rate like it is for domestic data use as the per-MB default rate is often charged excessively.

When you come from outside the EU roaming zone, it's advisable to buy a new SIM card at the first port of entry valid for all countries. In the green or complying countries you can take almost all plans, in the yellow or restrictive countries you should be more picky about which one to choose and in the red or withdrawing countries you may not find any option at all or will still face roaming surcharges abroad.
When you live within the roaming zone, first check your home provider about conditions or look around in your home country for other offers. It really depends on where you live. EU countries with cheap domestic rates don't necessarily offer cheap roaming rates for the EU.
In the green (= complying) countries you have the most universal implementation of the roaming principles at domestic rates, but their prices are among the highest in Europe. So for staying in a much cheaper EU country for a while, it might still be advisable to buy a local SIM card there for domestic use.
In the red (= withdrawing) countries you have a general opt-out from the scheme. You won't be offered roaming at all or only at surcharges. These countries used to be among the cheapest in the area. That's why it's only advisable or even possible there to buy a SIM card for domestic use and better look for a roaming SIM for other EU countries somewhere else.

More information

If you have more questions about the EU roaming rules, first check here:

This Wiki does not endorse to break the rules as this regulation is a major step forward in the fight against excessive roaming charges, but it falls short of its promise to simply "roam like at home" for everyone in Europe. We are monitoring the implementation closely to tell whether it's going to be a success story and really the end of roaming charges in most of Europe or a failure with broken promises.

Update 2018

One year into the new regulation there are still some operators and even countries not complying to the rules. Nevertheless BEREC (the EU head regulator) has released its first report showing the success of the new rules. In summer 2017 roaming data use quadrupled (4x) throughout the area compared to the previous summer. Both wholesale and retail prices sank considerably and "abuse" doesn't seem such a big issue. Yet, huge differences between countries based on their domestic pricing remain valid. ARPU (Average revenue per user) differs between €2 and €30 while data use per subscriber and month from 500 MB in Greece to 14 GB in Finland.

Outlook

On this Wiki, cheaper or better solutions for domestic or roaming data use are continued to be featured, even if their consistent use may be considered "abusive behaviour" in light of this regulation.

A comprehensive "Roam at home" wiki in German language is just being compiled this summer with some verified offers. You can easily read this sister wiki with an translator tool e.g. for Google Chrome. A synopsis of the best offers we have found will eventually be presented on this wiki here in a special article in autumn 2018.