EU roaming: what was abolished, and for whom

"Roaming in Europe has been abolished" is a sentence that is true for a precisely defined group of people and false for most of those who say it. It is worth knowing which side of that line you are on before relying on it.

What was actually abolished

The rule is called roam like at home and it means one thing: a plan bought in an EU country costs the same in every other EU country as it does at home. Minutes are minutes, texts are texts, gigabytes are gigabytes.

Alongside the EU are Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, which are in the European Economic Area. That is the whole circle.

Who is not in that circle

This is the part most often missed:

• Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo — not in the EU. They have a regional agreement lowering roaming among themselves, but it does not reach into the union.
• Türkiye — in neither circle.
• Switzerland — not in it either, which surprises people because it is geographically in the middle of everything.
• The United Kingdom — no longer, since leaving the EU. British operators have largely reinstated roaming charges in the union.

Croatia joined the EU and thereby left the regional Balkan agreement. For a traveller from Serbia that means Croatia is now more expensive than Montenegro.

The fair-use cap, which still exists

Even inside the EU, "like at home" does not mean without limit. An operator may set a fair use cap on roaming data, and it is often far smaller than your domestic allowance.

Two questions worth asking your operator before you travel:

• How many GB may I use while roaming? On unlimited domestic plans this is almost always a finite number.
• What happens when I pass it? Some throttle the speed; others charge per megabyte. The second is what produces the bill stories.

The figure is usually easier to find by searching your operator's name and "fair use policy" than by looking in the app.

And the permanent-residence rule

Roam like at home was designed for travel, not for living. Use a plan from one country for months while permanently based in another and your operator may warn you and then start charging. In practice it means you cannot buy the cheapest plan in the EU and use it somewhere else forever.

For a normal trip this never happens. For somebody working remotely and moving every three months, it does.

What it means in practice

EU plan, travelling in the EU: check your fair-use cap. If it covers you, you need nothing.

EU plan, travelling outside it — Türkiye, the UK, Switzerland, the non-EU Balkans: the rule does not apply and you pay full roaming.

Plan from Serbia, Bosnia or Montenegro: you have a lower regional tariff within the region and no protection at all in the EU. For Greece, Croatia or Italy that is full price.

Why that still leaves room for an eSIM

We are not trying to talk you into something you do not need. If you are from the EU, travelling in the EU, and your fair-use cap covers the holiday — buy nothing.

An eSIM answers the three cases the rule does not cover: travel outside the union, travel from a country that is not in it, and a fair-use cap smaller than what you actually need. That is the whole of its job.

Short answers

Has roaming been abolished in Europe? In the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, for plans bought within that circle. Nowhere else.

Does my Serbian plan work in Greece at domestic prices? No.

Does my German plan work in Türkiye? No.

Does my German plan work in Croatia? Yes, up to the fair-use cap.

And in Switzerland? No — Switzerland is in neither the EU nor the EEA for this purpose.