One of the biggest limitations when we use the data connection on our smartphone is the connection cost when we go to a foreign country . When we are abroad, the phone is connected in roaming, that is, it uses the antennas of one of the local telephony operators, who in exchange will ask to pay an additional cost for calls, SMS and for browsing the Internet. If we have to travel to a foreign country, then it is better to plan everything well in advance and control all the costs, so as not to receive bad surprises or dry up the residual credit in a few seconds. In fact, the cost of data roaming, phone calls and SMS sent from abroad has always been very high, even prohibitive in the past.
To travel without worries, we have created the definitive guide to roaming abroad, in which we will show you what advantages citizens of the European Union benefit from, what are the best offers by geographical area and how to activate or deactivate roaming on our smartphones, so as to decide in advance whether or not to connect to the foreign network.
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How to activate or deactivate data roaming on smartphones
Before seeing in detail what the roaming costs are in the various foreign countries, we must learn how to activate or deactivate data roaming on our phone, so as to avoid excessive costs even before leaving.Data roaming on Android
On smartphones with Android operating system we can manage roaming by going to the Settings app -> Mobile networks (or similar names) -> Data roaming and set the item to Never or Always as needed.
Data roaming on iPhone
If we have an iPhone instead, we can manage data roaming by opening the Settings app, going to the Cellular menu, Cellular data or Mobile data -> Cellular data options and managing the Data roaming button.
European Union Roaming Cost
If we travel to a country in the European Union, we will not have to worry about roaming: from 15 June 2017 , roaming is free of charge for phone calls, the Internet and SMS . We will not have to sign up for any subscription or offer for abroad but we will be able to take advantage of a part of the subscription or offer signed even when we are in the country belonging to the European Union.Just for completeness of information, here are the countries of the European Union where free roaming is in force: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the United Kingdom (pending Brexit to materialize), the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Hungary.
If we travel to Switzerland, normal roaming charges apply, except if we have a Fastweb SIM (which includes free roaming in the Swiss country since the operator's ownership is in the hands of Swisscom, a Swiss operator).
To learn more about roaming in the European Union, we invite you to read our guide to free roaming in Europe: limits, conditions and additional costs .
Roaming cost for non-European countries
In this chapter we will instead show you the best offers that we can sign up for in order to travel to a foreign country outside the European Union. These countries are enclosed in "Zones" so that you can sign up for a single season ticket for multiple countries (just check which area includes the country in which we have to travel).NOTE : do not travel abroad without signing up for a roaming subscription! Even just receiving calls could result in additional costs that would drain the remaining credit in a few minutes.
- Offer 3 Italy : with World Pass at the cost of € 5 per week we get 500 minutes and 500MB of data traffic. The option does not provide for automatic renewal, is valid for 7 days (including the day of activation) and remains active until midnight, Italian time. Calls and internet traffic involve a click of cents on the response and at the beginning of the Internet session.
- Wind offer : with Travel Weekly at the cost of € 10 per week we get 200 minutes, 200 SMS and 600 MB of Internet traffic included.
- Vodafone offer : with Travel Mondo at the cost of 20 € for 10 days we get 200 minutes of calls, 10 SMS included and 10GB to navigate without worries even abroad.
- TIM Offer : with TIM in Viaggio MONDO Pass, at the cost of 30 € every 10 days we will get 100 minutes, 100 SMS and 500 MB in 4G everywhere in the world.
Currently the cheapest and most accessible offers to take advantage of roaming without bleeding are those of 3 and Wind, which with 5 € or 10 € per week allow you to get a good number of minutes to call to Italy or to the numbers of the country where we come and surf with 500MB of data traffic. If we consider this threshold for data too low, the only offer with many GB of data traffic included abroad is that of Vodafone, which at a cost of € 20 every 10 days allows you to get as much as 10 GB for browsing abroad.
Roaming zones
Roaming Zones allow us to offer different types of passes and offers based on the country in which we travel. Although many of the operators now offer offers that can cover the whole world, we can always find offers dedicated to a specific country, so as to save a lot of money compared to the "all inclusive" subscription. For completeness of information below we have collected the standard roaming Zones.- Zone 1 : United States, Albania, Algeria, Australia, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, China, Macao, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Qatar, Serbia, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Taiwan and Turkey. By convention, the Republic of San Marino and the Principality of Monaco are also included in this area.
- Zone 2 : Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Australia, Belize, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, South Korea, Cuba, Ecuador, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Georgia, Japan, Jordan, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Kuwait, Libya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, New Zealand, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Russia, Senegal, Seychelles, Singapore, Syria, South Africa, Taiwan, Ukraine, Thailand, Venezuela.
- Zone 3 : all other countries not mentioned in the previous two zones.
Not all operators follow the indications provided in the areas indicated above: many continuously move the countries from one Zone to another as needed, so take these indications with the pliers and always check on your operator's site as they are structure the roaming zones.
Conclusions
Traveling abroad with your smartphone has become much easier, since we can take our offer around the countries of the European Union with you without having to pay extra costs (obviously remaining within the thresholds set by the operator). If, on the other hand, we travel to an extra-EU country, the costs are still quite high and the traffic offered is very risky, so if we have to stay more than 10 days, we might as well buy a SIM in the country where we arrive and take advantage of the one with an offer " all inclusive "(you really save a lot).In another guide, we showed you how to consume less internet data on LTE traffic, so as to always save something when we surf abroad with only 500 or 600 MB of Internet traffic.
If, on the other hand, we want to save as much when we are abroad, we can follow the suggestions proposed in our guide on How to stay connected to the internet and online wherever you go .
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