The roaming welcome SMS: what each line is telling you

Three obligations behind one text

What looks like one welcome message comes from three separate articles of Regulation (EU) 2022/612. Article 13 requires the pricing information for calls and texts as soon as you enter another country. Article 14 requires the tariff information for data, and it is triggered later: the first time you start a data session in that country, which is why it can arrive as a pop-up, an email or a second text. Article 15 requires the information on how to reach emergency services.

BEREC, the body of EU telecom regulators, insists that these are two different moments: your phone can connect to a foreign network and only start using data hours later, if at all, and you have to be informed both times. If you cross into another country the next day, the whole cycle starts again.

Line by line, inside the EU

• Home prices apply: the confirmation that you pay what you pay at home.
• Fair use: the limit your plan has, if any, and the surcharge beyond it, in the currency of your bill and with VAT.
• Any surcharge a national regulator has allowed your operator to apply to keep its domestic prices sustainable.
• A free number to call or text for more detailed prices.
• The risk of higher charges for special numbers, with a link to a page that explains which ones.
• 112 is free, with a link to a page on other ways to reach emergency services in that country.
• Where the country uses an app for public warnings, a note that alerts can be received through it.

Most of the time the useful part is the first line. If it says home prices and you were expecting that, carry on; if it shows a price list, stop before the maps and photos start syncing.

Outside the EU, and on ships and planes

Outside the EU there are no home prices to confirm, so the message gives the actual roaming prices that apply to you in that country. The same applies when your phone joins the satellite-linked network of a ship or a plane: the law requires the pricing message there too, because those networks are outside the price caps.

There is one more line to look for outside the EU. Your operator's spending cap on data, normally close to 50 euros a month, only works where the foreign network lets it see your usage in real time. Where it cannot, Article 14(8) requires a free text on arrival saying that information on your consumption and the guarantee not to exceed your limit are not available. If you get that message, there is no automatic brake: we explain what to do in the roaming data cut-off outside the EU.

Can you switch it off

Partly. Each pricing message must give you an easy, free way to say you no longer want it, and you can ask for it again at any time, also for free. The data tariff message works the same way. Customers with disabilities can ask to receive the basic pricing information by voice call instead, at no cost.

What you cannot switch off is the emergency information: BEREC states that there is no opt-out for the message about emergency communications and public warning apps. And choosing a special roaming tariff does not take you out of the system either; BEREC says personalised information should reach customers on alternative tariffs too. The only devices left out are machine-to-machine ones, which connect without a person using them.

When no message arrives

First, check which line it would come from. Each line in a dual SIM phone has its own operator, and only a line with a number can receive texts. A data-only eSIM has no number and no SMS, so it will not send you a welcome text; the one you get comes from the operator of your usual line, and it arrives even if you keep data roaming off on that line, because the pricing message is triggered when you enter the country, not when you use data.

If nothing arrives on your usual line either, the likely reasons are simple: you opted out at some point, the phone has not registered on a network yet, or the line is from outside the EU, where these rules do not oblige the operator. You can still call the free number your operator designates for roaming prices, or check its app. Our guide to questions to ask your operator lists what to ask.

Keep it until the bill arrives

The welcome message is the operator telling you, in writing, what it will charge. If the bill does not match, it is your best evidence, so take a screenshot instead of deleting it. Our guide to a huge roaming bill explains how to use it in a complaint.

Be wary of copies. Real welcome messages give information and links to your own operator's pages; a text that asks you to pay, confirm card details or install something to keep roaming is not part of what the regulation describes, and our guide to scam texts while travelling shows the usual patterns. If you use a data eSIM such as Snoozim's for the trip, the welcome text from your usual line still matters: it tells you what that line would charge if it ever used data abroad.