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Make sure you don't get big bills when you use the internet while roaming abroad. Choose a ceiling
02.04.2015
The Romanian National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) reminds those travelling abroad that they have the right to choose a ceiling on roaming mobile internet usage. If the users do not choose any of the ceilings available in the commercial offer, without specifically renouncing the implicit one, the operators must implement the EUR 50 limit on the roaming data consumption.
When you use data roaming, you may choose one of the financial limits available in your providers’ commercial offers. In order to avoid the bill shock after using the data roaming service, if you have not specifically chosen a certain limit in the commercial offer or you have not specifically renounced the implicit ceiling, the operators have the obligation to automatically apply the implicit financial limit, i.e. EUR 50/month (VAT excluded) or a data volume ceiling whose value is below EUR 50/month (VAT excluded).
If you disagree with the enforcement of an implicit ceiling on data roaming, you should ask your provider to cancel it. To be sure, you should check whether you ticked the box for renouncing such a limit in the contract for the provision of mobile internet and telephony services.
If you have chosen to renounce the implicit ceiling - either when signing the contract or later - or if you decided to renounce the chosen ceiling, you can reactivate it at any moment, by sending a request to your provider. Upon receiving the request, the provider has the obligation to activate the chosen ceiling within one working day from the receipt of the request, without imposing conditions or restrictions on other items of the subscription.
Irrespective of the chosen ceiling, the operators have the obligation to warn you, by means of text messages, emails or pop-up windows, when you reach 80% of the implicit financial limit or the volume ceiling, as well as when you achieved the ceiling value. The message warning you on the achievement of the traffic amount within the ceiling must also inform you on the procedure to be followed to keep using data roaming, if you want to.
The rules for using the data roaming service are applicable both in the European Union and outside it. In the latter instance, the operator of the network in the visited non-EU country should allow the roaming provider to monitor the customer’s service usage in real time.
Moreover, if you wish to avoid the involuntary usage of data roaming or you do not wish to use the data roaming service, you can specifically set the respective telephone/tablet.
ANCOM recommends the users to analyse their provider’s offer before travelling and to make sure that the chosen tariff plan best suits their communication needs. Furthermore, when they decide not to activate any ceilings on data roaming, the users should make sure that they have taken this decision being fully aware of the applicable tariffs, as well as of the data amount required by various types of online activities.
For comparing all the telephony and internet offers currently available in the market, including the data roaming ones, the users may access www.veritel.ro, the online tariff comparison tool created by ANCOM.
Further information on the use and costs of the roaming service is available on the Authority’s website, here.
ANCOM statistical information
In Q3 2014, according to the statistical data published by ANCOM here, the Romanian users who used the data roaming services in the EU/SEE countries consumed more than 71 million MB, whereas the users who travelled outside the EU/SEE registered over 3 million MB traffic.
According to the data available on www.veritel.ro, a Romanian mobile internet user using the standard tariff plan and travelling, for example, no further than the neighbouring countries or to “traditional” tourist destinations such as Turkey, Moldova, Montenegro or Serbia, pays between EUR 5 and 13 per MB, for data transfer. Comparatively, when travelling to EU countries, where the maximum tariff the operators can charge is regulated, Romanian users pay maximum EUR 0,248 per MB, if they use the standard tariff plan (Eurotariff).
