In the context of summer holiday travelling and other activities taking place in Romania's border areas, the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) draws the attention of mobile telephone service users to the risk of involuntary roaming in over 350 administrative-territorial units, in the border counties. Involuntary roaming can generate significant additional costs for calls, messages and mobile data, even if users have not actually crossed the border.
In accordance with Law no. 255/2023, ANCOM has identified the administrative-territorial units at risk of involuntary roaming and published their list here. The Authority will inform the town halls, county councils and the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure about the administrative-territorial units in the list regarding involuntary roaming risk in order to take the appropriate administrative measures required by the legislation in force.
What is involuntary roaming?
Involuntary roaming occurs when the mobile phone automatically connects to a mobile network in neighboring countries although the users stay within the border areas of Romania. This situation may arise when the signal of the telecommunications network in a neighbouring country is significantly stronger than that of the user's network, in areas with poor end-user network coverage (signal that is weak or at the sensitivity limit) or in cases of temporary unavailability of the signal from the end-user's network (e.g. due to incidents or scheduled works).
The main risk associated with involuntary roaming is that it generates additional costs, as users may be charged international roaming fees for calls, messages and mobile data, even if they have not actually crossed the border.
Areas at risk
Warning! Especially at the border with the Republic of Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine, users can incur substantial additional costs, as in these non-EU countries the roaming tariffs regulated at EU level do not apply.
ANCOM identified 356 administrative-territorial units at risk of involuntary roaming, located in the border counties of Romania, as follows: Mehedinti – 33, Timiș – 31 , Botoșani – 29, Satu Mare – 28, Bihor – 26, Iași – 22, Dolj – 21, Caraș-Severin – 19, Suceava – 19, Giurgiu – 15, Arad – 15, Constanta – 13, Călărași – 13, Vaslui – 13, Tulcea – 13, Galați – 11, Maramureș – 11, Teleorman – 14 and Olt – 10.
Aisemnal.ro map
For assessing the risk of involuntary roaming and for checking the signal level in Romania, ANCOM recommends accessing the interactive map available on Aisemnal.ro. This platform reflects the mobile signal coverage for 2G, 3G and 4G technologies for each of the mobile operators active on the Romanian market. The map is due to be updated in the last quarter of this year and allows users to accurately identify locations with a strong signal and take preventive measures to avoid automatic connection to foreign networks, which can generate additional costs.
Tips for users
In order to avoid additional costs associated with involuntary roaming, ANCOM recommends users to take the following steps:
- manually select the mobile network to avoid automatically connecting to a foreign network.
- check the phone's roaming settings and turn off data roaming in border areas.
- monitor welcome messages received from foreign operators informing about roaming activation.
- check the applicable roaming charges with the mobile operator, to anticipate possible costs.
Have you incurred additional costs?
If users notice that they have been charged for involuntary roaming, they should immediately contact their mobile operator's customer service for clarification. If the problem persists, users can file a complaint with ANCOM, according to the steps described here.
More information is available on the ANCOM InfoCentre, web section Involuntary (inadvertent) roaming and on the interactive map Aisemnal.ro.
