30 August 2007
International roaming enables you to use your mobile terminal (telephone, tablet etc.) while travelling in another country.
Thus, you can make and take calls, send and receive text messages (SMS) or use data services (video calls, e-mail, Internet surfing) whenever you leave the coverage area of your home network.
Things to do before leaving the country:
Don’t forget to activate your roaming service before leaving!
Remember that providers have several commercial offers for roaming services, at different prices, and – most often – they have special offers for the holiday season.
Ask your provider about the costs incurred when activating this service. Depending on how frequently and on how long you intend to use this service while travelling, analyze various offers and choose the tariff plan that suits you best.
What do you pay?
Whenever you use your telephone in roaming, you will be charged both for the originated and for the received calls. Tariffs may vary depending on the host country – you should find more about them before the journey.
You will not be charged for receiving SMS.
Within the European Union, there are regulations in force regarding the maximum tariffs the operators could charge and the charging methods for voice, SMS and data services (including Internet access).
On 25 November 2015, Regulation no. 2015/2120/UE was adopted, completing the provisions of Regulation (EU) No. 531/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2012 on roaming on public mobile communications networks within the Union.
According to its provisions, between 30 April 2016 and 14 June 2017, “roaming providers may levy a surcharge in addition to the domestic retail price for any regulated roaming services”, this being the last intermediate step regulated by the European Commission before the full removal of roaming charges within the European Union, to enter into force on 15 June 2017.
Thus, in the above-mentioned period, the Romanian users who chose the basic tariff plans for roaming services (Eurotariffs for voice, SMS and data services) will communicate at the same costs as at home while travelling in the EU/EEA countries, to which the operators may add a surcharge of maximum 5 eurocents/minute for outgoing calls to EU/EEA countries, maximum 1.14 eurocents/minute for incoming calls, maximum 2 eurocents per text message (SMS) sent towards EU/EEA countries, whereas internet access may be additionally charged by maximum 5 eurocents/MB (VAT being not included in these fees).
If a provider of communications services chooses to levy a surcharge, either for all roaming services (outgoing calls, incoming calls, sent SMS, data), or for certain services only, the national off-net tariff plus the applied surcharge cannot exceed the following maximum regulated tariffs: EUR 0.19/minute (VAT not included) for outgoing calls, 0.06 EUR (VAT not included) per sent text message (SMS), respectively EUR 0.20/MB (VAT not included) for data traffic.
WARNING! In order to benefit from roaming services, prepaid card users must top up an additional amount from which the surcharge for using roaming services could be deducted.
Where a service provider chooses not to enforce a surcharge, the maximum regulated tariffs do not apply, so that the domestic off-net tariffs they charge in roaming may be higher than the maximum regulated level.
The charging method for roaming services starting from 30 April 2016, as regulated in the EU (applying Eurotariff-based tariff plans for voice, SMS and data services), is illustrated in the table below (according to the latest BEREC interpretation, as of 22 April 2016):
How roaming surcharges are applied:
For example, a user benefits – in the country – from a subscription including:
- 200 on-net minutes + 100 national minutes + 100 SMS + 500 MB mobile internet access
upon the consumption of which, the user pays:
- EUR 0.16/minute (VAT not included, on-net/off-net), EUR 0.05/SMS (VAT not included, on-net/off-net), respectively EUR 0.16/MB
1. When making a 10-minute on-net call, while roaming in another EU/EEA country, the user will be charged based on the standard tariff plan (Eurotariff) and on the operator’ charging the maximum additional charge, as follows:
§ if he/she has not already consumed the 200 minutes available on-net – the 10 minutes may be deducted from these, and the user pays only the EUR 0.05/minute * 10 minutes, i.e. EUR 0.50 (VAT not included)
§ if the user has already consumed the 200 minutes available on-net – the 10 minutes will be charged by the national tariff of EUR 0.16/minute (VAT not included) + the surcharge of EUR 0.05/minute (VAT not included), but not exceeding the regulated tariff of EUR 0.19/minute (VAT not included); therefore the user will pay EUR 0.19/minute * 10 minutes, i.e. a total of EUR 1.90 (VAT not included)
2. When making an off-net 10-minute local call in the visited country or to another EU/EEA country, this will be charged as follows:
§ if he/she has not already consumed the 200 minutes available on-net – the 10 minutes may be deducted from these, and the user pays only the EUR 0.05/minute * 10 minutes, i.e. EUR 0.50 (VAT not included)
§ if the user has already consumed the 200 minutes available on-net – the 10 minutes will be charged by national off-net tariff of EUR 0.16/minute (VAT not included) + the surcharge of EUR 0.05/minute (VAT not included), but not exceeding the maximum regulated tariff of EUR 0.19/minute (VAT not included); therefore the user pays EUR 0.19/minute * 10 minutes, i.e. a total of EUR 1.90 (VAT not included)
This is also the manner of charging SMS, as well as internet access services, to such categories of users.
3. When receiving a 10-minute call, irrespective of the call origin (from Romania, from the visited country, from another EU/EEA country or even from a non-EU Member State), this will be charged as follows:
§ the surcharge of EUR 0,0114/minute (VAT not included) * 10 minutes, i.e. the user will pay a total of EUR 0.114 (VAT not included).
Incoming calls (to which the Eurotariff applies), will be charged per second. For outgoing calls, the provider may apply a minimum initial charging interval, not longer than 30 seconds, after which the call will be charged per second.
For data services to which the Eurotariff applies, tariffs are charged per kilobyte. Outgoing multimedia messages (MMS) will be charged per unit.
* Tariff transparency
Anybody may request to be charged according to the Eurotariff for calls, for SMS or for data services (including internet access), free of charge, and does not bind the user to conclude an additional subscription with the provider or to pay any surcharges. The Eurotariff may be combined with any other retail tariffs offered by your operator for roaming services under alternative tariff plans.
Moreover, when entering the territory of an EU/EEA country, you will receive information (usually, by SMS) regarding the applicable tariffs, both for calls and for data services.
For roaming data services, you can choose one of the ceilings proposed by your provider. If you choose a certain ceiling, the operator must warn you by a notification when your bill for the roaming data services is about to reach the specified limit.
If you have not chosen a ceiling, the provider will automatically apply the default ceiling amount of EUR 50/month (VAT not included), or a limit expressed in volume (the default volume limit) corresponding to an amount not exceeding EUR 50/month (VAT not included).
When receiving such a notification, you will have to confirm your agreement to exceed the limit, before resuming the roaming data traffic or – if you have chosen the warning option without an automatic disconnection – the data transfer will continue despite the notification.
Furthermore, starting 1 July 2012, in order to avoid the data “bill shock”, those who travel outside the EU receive warnings by means of SMS, e-mails, or pop-up windows when the cost of the downloaded data is nearing EUR 50 or if the established limit has been exceeded.
From 1 July 2009, you are able to conclude a separate roaming contract prior to leaving on a journey or to choose using exclusively the network of a certain operator in the host country, similarly to choosing a Wi-Fi network.
Warning!!!
Watch out if you have activated a roaming service and you are in your home country, yet close to the border! Your telephone could automatically connect to the network of the neighbouring country and you could be applied roaming tariffs, paying also for the received calls (involuntary roaming)!
In order to avoid such situations:
- Select your network manually
- Require your operator to activate the roaming service only upon request
- Check the telephone network before using the handset
According to the provisions of the Regulations on roaming services, the maximum values regulated for the Eurotariff, Euro-SMS tariff and Euro-data tariff are as follows:
|
Service type
|
Maximum values regulated for the Eurotariff, Euro-SMS tariffs and Euro-data tariff
|
|||||||
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Roaming I
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Roaming II
|
Roaming III
|
||||||
|
30.08.2007 – 29.08.2008
|
30.08.2008 – 30.06.2009
|
01.07.2009 – 30.06.2010
|
01.07.2010 – 30.06.2011
|
01.07.2011 – 30.06.2012
|
01.07.2012 – 30.06.2013
|
01.07.2013 – 30.06.2014
|
01.07.2014 – 29.04.2016
|
|
|
Outgoing call
(EUR/minute, VAT not included)
|
0.49
|
0.46
|
0.43
|
0.39
|
0.35
|
0.29
|
0.24
|
0.19
|
|
Icoming call
(EUR/minute, VAT not included)
|
0.24
|
0.22
|
0.19
|
0.15
|
0.11
|
0.08
|
0.07
|
0.05
|
|
SMS sent
(EUR/SMS, VAT not included)
|
–
|
0.11
|
0.09
|
0.08
|
0.06
|
|||
|
SMS received
|
–
|
0
|
||||||
|
Data services (including internet access) (EUR/MB, VAT not included)
|
–
|
–
|
0.70
|
0.45
|
0.20
|
|||
Ask your operator for further details!
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