EU roaming fair use: how much data your operator must let you use

Which plans can be capped at all

The details are in a Commission implementing regulation that every operator in the EU and EEA has to follow. It only allows a fair use volume on what it calls open data bundles, and there are two kinds: plans with unlimited data, and plans whose price per GB, worked out as the monthly price without VAT divided by the GB included, is lower than the regulated wholesale cap that operators charge each other for roaming data.

BEREC, the body that brings together EU telecom regulators, adds a case people often miss: a plan that slows you down instead of cutting you off once the allowance is used up counts as unlimited for this purpose. If your plan is none of these, there is no extra roaming cap: whatever you can use at home, you can use abroad.

The minimum your operator has to respect

For an open bundle, the roaming allowance must be at least twice the volume you get by dividing the monthly price, without VAT, by that wholesale cap. Two things follow. The more you pay, the larger the minimum. And because the regulation lowers the cap step by step, the same plan gives a larger minimum as the years go by.

If the minimum works out larger than your plan’s own allowance, you keep the full allowance abroad. If it is smaller, the operator may stop at the minimum and add a surcharge for the rest, up to your domestic allowance. Prepaid works differently: the minimum is your remaining credit divided by the cap, and you can top up while you are away. Our roaming calculator does the sum with the current cap and your country’s VAT.

What happens when you reach it

Your operator has to send you a message when the fair use volume is used up, saying what the surcharge will be. You are not cut off: you can keep using data, with that surcharge added to the domestic price. The surcharge cannot be higher than the regulated wholesale cap plus VAT, which keeps it far below typical roaming prices outside the EU.

If you would rather not pay anything extra, the message is your cue to switch to Wi-Fi or another data plan for the rest of the trip. And the data cut-off still applies to charges on top of your plan: by default the operator stops data once they reach a limit close to €50 excluding VAT in the billing period, after warning you at 80%, unless you confirm that you want to carry on.

The four-month check on long stays

The other half of a fair use policy is about time, not volume. An operator may look at a window of at least four months. If, in that window, you spent more days abroad than at home and also used more abroad than at home, it can warn you. You then have 14 days, and if the pattern does not change it can start adding the regulated surcharges.

Several details work in your favour. Any day your phone logs on to your home network, even briefly, counts as a day at home, and days with the phone switched off are not counted at all. More time at home or more use at home is enough on its own to keep you in the clear. Operators may also flag a SIM that sits unused at home for long periods and is used mostly abroad, or several SIMs used one after another while roaming.

Where to find your own allowance

• The welcome message you get when you arrive in another EU country: it has to sum up your fair use policy and any surcharge beyond it.
• The roaming section of your contract, or the tariff conditions on your operator’s website, usually under EU or Europe roaming.
• Your operator’s customer service, which can tell you the roaming volume for your exact plan.

If you only know what you pay each month, our fair use calculator gives you the legal minimum for your country. Your operator may offer more than that, but never less, so if the contract shows a lower figure for an unlimited or very cheap plan, it is worth asking why.

If the numbers don’t add up

Operators have to notify their fair use policy to the national telecom regulator, which can check that it complies and order changes. If you think you have been capped below the minimum, or surcharged after months spent mostly at home, complain to your operator first and keep the messages it sent you. If that fails, take it to the regulator; in roaming disputes, evidence that you live in your home country or have stable ties there is taken into account.

Outside the EU and EEA none of this applies: there is no fair use minimum, and the price per MB is whatever your tariff says. For those trips, check what your plan includes before you leave or use a local data plan, and size it with a data calculator so you do not pay for gigabytes you will not use.