20.06.2023

ANCOM warns the users of mobile telephony and mobile internet who plan to travel abroad for the holidays, that roaming services and usage conditions must be carefully checked, irrespective whether their destination lies within the European Economic Area (EEA) or outside it. Moreover, the users must pay attention to involuntary roaming, which may occur in border areas.

Travels outside the EU/EEA

When going on trips outside Romania, users must check whether the purchased tariff plan includes international roaming service. Users can only benefit from international roaming if their provider has concluded roaming contracts with providers in the visited countries.

Roaming charges outside the EEA are not regulated, therefore it is important for users to carefully check in advance the minimum roaming applicable in countries such as the UK, the Republic of Moldova, Serbia, Montenegro, Turkey, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Morocco, Israel.

For example, the standard rates for subscription-based services charged in countries such as Turkey, Egypt, the UK, the United Arab Emirates or Serbia range from:

• 0.0090 euro/min to 1.4280 euro/min for calls received;
• 0.0150 euro/min to 2.6418 euro/min for calls made to România;
• 0.0060 euro to 0.4522 euro per SMS sent;
• 0.0007 euro/MB to 13.0900 euro/MB for internet.

While calls are generally charged on a per-minute basis, the minimum charging unit for data traffic varies depending on operator and destination (e.g. 1KB, 10KB or 1MB). There are also standard tariff plans on the market, charged as packages. In this case, if a user makes or receives a one-minute of call only or uses even one MB of data from a package, he/she will be charged the full price of the package, but the rest of the resources in the package can be subsequently used, before a new package fee is charged. Such standard bundled rates may be: 7 euro/30 minutes for calls received or made or 18 euros/4000 MB used.

Furthermore, besides these standard tariffs, operators can also offer special (add-on) tariff options that require separate activation and ensure access to different resources and/or tariffs based on several criteria, such as: visited country, type of service used (based on subscription or on prepaid card) or the user’s type of tariff plan.

Travels within the EU/EEA

Since the entry into force of the European regulation providing for "Roam like at home", the customers of mobile operators in Romania who benefit from tariff plans with access to roaming in the EEA can use their domestic allowance of voice, SMS and data resources when traveling in the European Union states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland (including the Åland Islands), France (including French Guiana and the islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion and Saint-Martin), Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal (including the Azores and Madeira), Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain (including the Canary Islands), Sweden and Liechtenstein, plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

As of 1 January 2021, providers are no longer legally bound to offer "Roam like at home" in the territory of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, including Gibraltar, but they can voluntarily apply "Roam like at home" in this country. Thus, it is important for users to check their roaming charges with their provider if they are travelling to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

More details about how the "Roam like at home" service works are available here.

Involuntary (inadvertent) roaming

Users travelling in border areas on the territory of Romania must know that there is a risk of involuntarily using the international roaming service, if this service is activated and their mobile phone or tablet is set to automatic network selection. In such situations, the mobile equipment will automatically connect to the network of the operator with the strongest signal at the respective location.

Thus, although the users are located on the territory of Romania, they will be charged for communications services used in roaming, as if they were physically on the territory of a neighboring state.

This phenomenon can also occur when using roaming in an EEA country, in areas near the border with a non-EEA state.

Warning! One is not exempted from the payment of roaming charges, despite the involuntary use of roaming services.

Read more on the involuntary roaming risk, on ANCOM’s Infocentre website, here.

About what, how and where to file a complaint

Users intending to complain about the roaming service, the “Roam like at home” service, or about inadvertent roaming, must direct their complaint to the provider from which they have bought the tariff plan, in the first instance. Where the provider fails to settle the complaint, users may complain to ANCOM, following the steps described here.