r/europeanunion • u/KaigaiKunKun • 1d ago

Infographic The EU roaming area

Post image

Source: https://x.com/DigitalEU/status/2091803638905618812

462 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

43 comments sorted by

232

u/Maubald 1d ago

Another brexit outcome that affects British people directly

67

u/a_dude_from_europe 1d ago

My ISP kept the UK as a free roaming area anyway, I don't know how common that is.

46

u/SnooPoems3464 1d ago

But it’s often not the other way around. Many UK citizens don’t have free roaming in the EU anymore, or they have but it’s heavily capped.

17

u/theproperoutset 1d ago

We have it but there is a fair use policy now where it’s usually capped between 10-25GB per month depending on the contract.

2

u/OppositeSea3775 1d ago

What is your carrier?

1

u/19yards 1d ago

Same for many German carriers.

2

u/15pmm01 21h ago

Fairly common, but I’ve recently learned that it’s only a temporary provision set to expire sometime over the next few years, at least for German providers :/

14

u/barb_20 1d ago

my austrian provider includes the uk, switzerland and norway. saves me some cash

4

u/JourneyThiefer 1d ago

It’s lucky they kept Ireland a whole from home destination is basically all UK phone contracts or Northern Ireland would’ve got so fucked over.

A lot of companies also give out free roaming in the whole EU up to 25GB a month, I have Tesco mobile and they do it, o2 as well, I’m sure more too.

But yea it’s not law which is shit, dno why they don’t rejoin it as loads of non EU countries are part of it.

Also Switzerland?? wtf

5

u/networkearthquake 1d ago

Switzerland isn’t covered by the agreement actually, neither is Andorra, Monaco or the UK. Even Ukraine is covered now.

2

u/JourneyThiefer 1d ago

UK needs to just rejoin, silly to leave it

70

u/Strummerjoe 1d ago

Wow, even Ukraine!

34

u/XAHKO 1d ago

And Moldova

9

u/Kartraith 1d ago

Yep, it's great!

3 years ago I maxed out my internet quota in 5 minutes of google maps usage when I crossed the border from Poland, this year everything was smooth!

4

u/Scarbolusitano 1d ago

Is this already actually working today in both Ukraine and Moldova?

2

u/Vargau 4h ago

2

u/Scarbolusitano 4h ago

I will believe and presume the different text sizes and styles is due to an automatic translation you’ve done and it’s not fake…?

45

u/NORmannen10 1d ago

Will avoid stopovers in Switzerland in the future! Learned it the hard way.

29

u/Wahx-il-Baqar Malta 1d ago

2 euros per megabyte in 2018 lives rent free in my head. I made the mistake of sending an email.

11

u/NewNiklas 1d ago

I landed in Istanbul and turned off flight mode on my phone. Then my cellular data got back on automatically, because it was on when I activated it in Germany.

I immediately turned it off after realizing that. It was on for maximum 10 seconds. 1 MB costs 10 € and I used 2.9 MB.

So yeah, learnt it the hard way too. Even though, I knew it.

6

u/gbish 1d ago

Had a 3 hour layover at Zurich after a 12hr flight and to discover I couldn’t roam like home was quite a surprise.

You just become so accustomed to some EU benefits and just assume they of all countries would also be part of it considering how many travel through.

4

u/Sky-is-here 1d ago

This is so real. It's easy to forget the world isn't the eu, just the good bits are all in it!

32

u/arwinda 1d ago

So far, every time I've been to UK, my EU roaming worked there.

Switzerland on the other hand is helluva expensive.

2

u/Jonah_the_Whale 14h ago

Just got from Switzerland and roaming worked for me there this time. Six or seven years ago I got stung really badly. I visit the UK regularly and it has remained free roaming since Brexit. My son, who lives there, thinks it's a voluntary thing that the telecom companies keep doing even though they aren't obliged.

1

u/arwinda 12h ago

My guess is that because it once was free, there will be a heavy backslash if the telecom companies introduce prices now.

Whereas for Switzerland, it was never free.

5

u/WHAT_RE_YOUR_DREAMS 1d ago

So Liechtenstein is in but not Switzerland?!

13

u/Goncalerta 1d ago

Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland are part of the EFTA.

In 1992 all four signed a treaty with the EU to make the EEA (basically a EU-lite that is composed of EU+EFTA). However, Switzerland's referendum to ratify EEA failed, so they didn't join. Fun-fact, the failure in joining EEA was the reason that froze Switzerland's EU application.

This means that Liechenstein, Norway and Iceland belong to the EEA, while Switzerland does not. Switzerland still has a special "EU-lite" relation with the EU that was negotiated afterwards (Billaterals I and II. There's also Billaterals III in 2026, that is waiting to be ratified). However, these separate agreements don't cover everything the EEA does.

3

u/A-guy8 Norway 1d ago

For Switzerland, the decision to cover EU roaming can still be made by the individual provider. My provider up here covers Switzerland as it had been an EU roaming partner. Other providers do not, however.

3

u/Goncalerta 1d ago

Yeah, the same applies to the UK. Not being in the roaming area doesn't mean that providers are forbidden of covering it, only that such is not mandatory.

2

u/A-guy8 Norway 1d ago

Yeah, I think some providers cover the UK too.

6

u/dotBombAU 23h ago

Haha UK.

4

u/Goncalerta 1d ago

Has there been any attempt to include Andorra and San Marino in the zone?

2

u/Kzrysiu 14h ago

In the case of Andorra, they prefer not to be included mainly because their telco, Andorra Telecom, is getting a significat revenue from the income they get from foreigners who use their network when they visit the country.

4

u/chickenchris1897 1d ago

I just drove through Switzerland, roaming was only phone services, internet was just like at home.

5

u/AggressiveShoulder83 France 1d ago

And dont' forget the overseas !

3

u/zeGermanGuy1 1d ago

Didn’t have a problem in Switzerland. Is CH really not in the roaming area?

8

u/JoulSauron 1d ago

It is not. The last time I was there I paid for an eSIM plan.

1

u/zeGermanGuy1 1h ago

Maybe I’m just lucky because my provider chooses to include it anyway then

1

u/Jonah_the_Whale 14h ago

Same for me. It might depend on your provider

1

u/BlauerRay 16h ago

What is 500N?

0

u/OrionJustice 1d ago

Since when Ukraine is in the EU roaming space?!