Roaming in the EU: more giga abroad
Nowadays smartphones are an extension of our body: they can do so many things that it looks like impossible to live without them. But, to make smartphones work fully, we need a growing quantity of internet gigabytes.
Nowadays more and more people travel everyday, to work or for holidays and they often are abroad, or have their lives divided between their own country and another one.
Until few years ago, travelling abroad and using gigabytes (at least for a good price), or to call home without paying a fortune, were almost always 2 incompatible things.
Roam like at home
June 15th 2017 will be probably remembered as an epochal day in the EU history. As you probably know, that day the European Union, with Roam like at home, abolished the roaming’s costs in the EU countries. As regard calls and sms there are no restrictions, and you can call and send messages, based on your national tariff. There are, instead, still limits for the data traffic.
But 2019 took some important news
Since January 1st 2019, indeed, the conditions for users became much better. The maximum price per giga, in fact, passed from 6 to 4,5€ (+ VAT tax).
What does it mean?
If you have a limited quantity of giga in your tariff, you will be able to use them abroad and, once finished, to keep on using them, paying a maximum of 4,5€ (+ VAT) per giga.
If you have a pre-payed card, offering you calls, sms and data, it works in this way:
You bought a 20€ prepayed card in your country. You move to another country and you still have 12€ on the card. The minimum quantity of data that your operator can give to you is 12/4.5 = 2.6 gigabytes.
If you have a tariff offering you a limitless quantity of giga, instead, the situation is even more interesting.
The minimum volume of gigabytes, indeed, will be calculated in this way:
volume of giga = 2 x (your tariff/4.5)
while, until 2018 it was calculated as 2 x (your tariff/6).
This means that if, for example you pay 20€ for your tariff, your limit for the data traffic in EU countries passes from at least 6,6 to at least 8,8 gigabytes. If you finish them, you will pay an over-price of, maximum, 4,5€ per giga.
How will the situation evolve?
In the next future, the maximum price per giga is expected to go down and down. In the next 3 years, in fact, it will become 3.5, 3 and finally 2.5€ in 2022.
This means that, with a tariff (with limitless giga) of 20€, at that time you will have the possibility to use at least 16 gigabytes in EU countries!
Limits
These offers are valid only for those who occasionally are out of the Country where they live or have links. To avoid violations, in order to give everybody the possibility to get the service, providers will monitor the use. In general the use of data abroad should always be less than that in your home country. In case of violation, the service provider must contact you and give you 14 days to clarify your position. It can impose some extra fees, according to maximum decided by the EU.
What do you think…?
What do you think about this policy? Did it give you any advantage? Is there any point that, in your opinion, should be improved?
Tell us in a comment below.
