The abolition of roaming in EU countries has its pitfalls, which are better known in advance
The cost of calls, SMS messages and mobile internet will be the same as in the country where the card was purchased. However, as Deutsche Welle notes, there are several pitfalls to be aware of so that the mobile phone bill does not end up being more than the cost of the vacation itself.
Since June 15, 2017, roaming has been abolished in all 28 EU member states and in three non-EU countries – Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland. The new rules apply to both prepaid SIM cards that allow top-ups and cards tied to a contract.
The danger lies in the fact that some countries that have abolished roaming border those where the new rules do not apply. For example, if you go to Switzerland with a German SIM card, which has not joined the agreement, or travel to Monaco for a day while vacationing in the south of France, you will have to pay extra for mobile services.
The abolition of roaming does not apply at sea, so when going on a cruise, it is worth remembering that uploading photos to Facebook on board a white liner can cost a pretty penny. On ships, cellular communication works via satellite. The phone automatically connects to the only available network. Viewing one page on the internet using satellite communication can cost from 20 to 40 euros, WDR correspondents found. And if a smartphone automatically downloads emails or installs updates, it can cost from one thousand to two thousand euros. The same applies to ferries and airplanes.
When traveling within the European Union and in countries that have joined the roaming abolition agreement, you can call, send SMS messages and use mobile internet without extra charges. However, there are exceptions. In some cases, mobile operators have the right to charge subscribers additional fees – for example, to combat abuse.
Thus, residents of EU countries are prohibited from permanently using a SIM card purchased abroad with a more favorable tariff in their home region. In such cases, after four months, mobile operators are allowed to issue a warning to the subscriber and increase the cost of mobile communication for them.
This fair use policy also applies to data downloads via mobile internet. Mobile operators may set a limit on the amount of data that the subscriber pays for at the home tariff and charge an additional fee when this limit is exceeded.
This rule applies even if the subscriber's home tariff does not include data limits. So if you download movies via mobile internet on vacation or constantly use the Google Maps navigation service to find attractions, your mobile phone bill can quickly grow. Problems may also arise for owners of prepaid SIM cards that do not have limits on data usage or number of calls.
Even calls to subscribers of your own network, if they are also abroad, can lead to additional expenses while traveling. For many operators, such calls are free in the home region. However, while traveling, a separate fee may be charged for them.
To regulate subscribers' additional expenses, the EU introduced limits on wholesale tariffs at which operators provide services to each other. Thus, for providing mobile internet services to a partner operator, a mobile company cannot charge more than 7.70 euros per gigabyte. Over time, this threshold will decrease: from January 1, 2022, it should be 2.50 euros per gigabyte. For phone calls and messages, this upper limit is 3.2 cents per minute and 1 cent per SMS message.
To avoid additional costs, it is also necessary to remember that, despite the abolition of roaming, international calls – for example, from one EU country to another – still remain expensive.