Travellers in Romania’s border areas must know that there is a risk of involuntary roaming, if their roaming service is enabled and their mobile telephone or tablet is set to automatically find a network connection. Thus, the mobile terminal will connect automatically to the network of the operator with the best coverage in the respective area.

 

A user located in Romania will then be charged for roaming services as if he/she were in the neighbouring country.

 

Warning! Involuntary roaming usage does not exempt you from the payment of roaming charges.

However, the providers have the obligation to inform the users on the applicable charges for roaming in the respective country as soon as the connection to the partner network has been established, without undue delay. One should read all the information messages received from the providers.

 

ANCOM makes available the list of border localities where the users may incur the risk of involuntary roaming, here.

 

Upon the entry into force of the EU Regulation “Roam like at home”, customers of mobile operators in Romania with EU/EEA roaming-enabled tariff plans can use the domestic resources provided in their tariff plans (voice, SMS and data) across the EU Member States, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. “Roam like at home” also applies in certain outermost European territories, namely French Guyana, the Islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, Reunion, Saint-Martin (only the part of the island belonging to France), the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands, in the Åland Islands, and – at least until 31 October 2019 – in Gibraltar.

 

When you travel outside the EU/EEA, ANCOM recommends that you check whether the purchased tariff plan includes the international roaming service or not. One can benefit from international roaming only if the provider offering the respective tariff plan has concluded roaming agreements with the providers in the host countries.

 

Since the charges for roaming services offered outside the EEA are not regulated, ANCOM recommends the users to check the applicable international roaming charges before travelling to countries such as the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, Serbia, Montenegro, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Morocco, Israel, Canada, or the United States of America.

 

The users travelling abroad have the right to benefit from a default financial ceiling when using the roaming mobile internet service. Providers have the obligation to cut off a user’s access to roaming mobile internet services when the additional charges for using this service reach the EUR 50/month ceiling (VAT not included), where the user has not utterly opted for a different ceiling in the providers’ commercial offers or where he/she has not explicitly chosen to ignore the default ceiling.

 

The operators must warn the users, by means of SMS, e-mails or pop-up windows, when the total international data roaming (MB/GB) consumption hits 80% of the agreed ceiling, as well as when consumption has reached the respective ceiling. Usually, operators send such notifications by SMS, and, if one wishes to keep using the roaming internet service, he/she must reply sending ”YES” by SMS.

 

The costs of using roaming internet services in countries outside the EEA (e.g. Turkey) are usually high, therefore the default cap may be reached immediately after connecting to the visited network, in a single session. When a user agrees to continue or resume service usage after the provider’s warning that the cap has been reached, he/she consents to incur a cost above this limit, and the default ceiling will be deactivated for that billing month.

 

In border areas, your device may connect automatically to a network in the neighbouring country, although you are not physically in that country. For example, if you are visiting Italy, at the border with Switzerland, you may automatically connect to a network in Switzerland. In such situations, you will receive an information message containing the tariffs for the roaming services applicable in Switzerland and you will have to keep in mind the fact that connecting to a network outside the EU involves higher charges, therefore you could hit the EUR 50 (VAT not included) ceiling sooner than expected.

 

Further information on the usage and costs of roaming services is available on the Authority’s website, here.