Telephone Roaming

The international roaming is a service allowing the owners of GSM or UMTS cell phones to make and receive call phones, to receive or send SMS/MMS and to benefit from other mobile telephone services, while being abroad. This is possible because, while crossing the borders, we can use the mobile phone network of the host country, which will provide all the related services.

The European Parliament as well as the Council approved Regulation CE 717/2007 concerning the international roaming within EU, in June 2007. Consumers have then benefited from quiet a few price decreases thanks to the new “Eurorate”, which establishes a price ceiling (either subscriptions or for rechargeable cards) a telephone service provider can apply for the calls to and from another EU country. Remember that the Eurorate does not apply in case of SMS, MMS or other kind of communications, therefore it will be important to check the costs asking for all the relevant information.

The introduction of the Eurorate has been foreseen as compulsory and it has been progressively offered to all users, stating from a transitory period which ended on  30th August 2007.

The ERG (European Regulators’ Group), which is composed by all the European regulation authorities, has introduced some guidelines indicating all the different phases of this transitory period. All those having chosen a “special” roaming rate, they can use this rate unless they decide to change it. On the contrary, every other client is automatically transferred on the Eurorate. Therefore all consumers can be sure to use the Eurorate, unless they decide to freely choose a special rate. 

Important: The users that do not choose any special rate are automatically transferred to the Eurorate and every other rate choice should be expressly indicated by them.

The mobile phone operators are required to inform every single user about roaming and its rate while they are abroad, by sending them an SMS, free of charge, unless the consumer has expressly asked not to receive those messages anymore. A free number should be made available for consumers for any kind of assistance or further information. Before leaving, every consumer should ask for information about the roaming rate and about the rate applied in the country he is moving to, in order to be able to choose the most convenient one.

But how much does it cost to call from abroad?

The retail cost (including VAT) of the Eurorate, which is a cell phone service  a provider may apply to his clients on roaming within EU, may vary depending on each specific call, although it cannot exceed 58,8 euro cents per minute for the outbound calls and  28,8 euro cents for the inbound calls. These costs will progressively decrease to 55,2 euro cents and 51,6 euro cents for the outbound calls and to 26,4 euro cents and  22,8 euro cents for the inbound calls, between 30^th August 2008 and 30^th August 2009. The operators may offer different cost rates for specific periods of time during the day but these cannot be higher than the Eurorate. Important: the operators can only apply a European rate which does not overcome the price ceiling envisaged by the EU Regulation. In other terms, they can only offer more convenient rates for the consumers. 

In order to avoid bad surprises and to be unduly charged, we should always remember that: using a mobile phone abroad can be very expensive; we need to be aware of the fact that an extra international charge is applied, even when you receive a phone call. It is advisable to use a fixed phone when you wish to make a long call while you could use your cell phone for short calls or to send sms (after gaining information about the actual cost). Lastly, it is important not to make an excessive use of any additional service provided by your operator. In case of complaint, it should be sent  to your own service provider, as you have entered into agreement with this one, although you are using a different cell phone network while being abroad. In case of dispute, the operator is obliged to try and reach a conciliation agreement.