Roam like at home is the European Union regulatory principle under which mobile customers traveling within the European Economic Area pay the same price for calls, SMS and mobile data as in their home country, without retail roaming surcharges. In spectrum & telecom policy, it is one of the clearest examples of a regulator setting retail and wholesale prices directly in order to complete a single market for telecommunications.
The principle has applied since 15 June 2017 and was extended by the recast Roaming Regulation (EU) 2022/612 until 30 June 2032. It covers the 27 EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, and it is enforced by national regulators following guidelines from BEREC.
How roam like at home works
Roam like at home works by prohibiting retail roaming surcharges for periodic travel and by capping the wholesale prices that visited networks may charge home operators. Without the wholesale caps, home operators would carry the cost of foreign network use without being able to pass it on, which would make the retail rule unsustainable.
When a customer switches on a phone abroad, the device attaches to a visited network that has a roaming agreement with the home operator. The visited operator records the usage and bills the home operator at wholesale rates, while the customer’s consumption is deducted from the domestic plan as if it occurred at home. The traffic itself is often routed back through the home network, which is why roaming connections can show higher latency than local ones.
The regulation descends gradually in wholesale prices to follow falling network costs. The following table summarizes the maximum wholesale charges set by the 2022 regulation, excluding VAT.
| Service | Cap from 2022 | Cap from 2025 | Cap from 2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data | EUR 2.00 per GB | EUR 1.30 per GB | EUR 1.00 per GB |
| Voice calls | EUR 0.022 per minute | EUR 0.019 per minute | EUR 0.019 per minute |
| SMS | EUR 0.004 per message | EUR 0.003 per message | EUR 0.003 per message |
The data cap falls in annual steps between 2022 and 2027, reaching EUR 1.55 in 2024 and EUR 1.10 in 2026. These caps also serve as the ceiling for any permitted retail surcharge, for example when a customer exceeds the fair use allowance.
Fair use policy and its limits
Roam like at home applies to periodic travel, not to permanent residence abroad. To prevent customers from buying cheap plans in one country and using them permanently in another, operators may apply a fair use policy defined by the regulation and its implementing act.
| Mechanism | What it limits | Consequence |
|---|---|---|
| Stable links requirement | Customers without residence or work ties to the home country | Operator may request proof of stable links |
| Four-month observation | Usage pattern over at least four months | Surcharge if roaming presence and use exceed domestic |
| Open data bundle limit | Roaming data on unlimited or very cheap plans | Allowance tied to plan price and wholesale cap |
| Prepaid limit | Roaming data on prepaid tariffs | Allowance may be capped by remaining credit |
| Sustainability derogation | Operators unable to recover roaming costs | Regulator may authorize a small surcharge |
For open data bundles, the minimum roaming allowance equals at least twice the volume obtained by dividing the monthly price of the plan, excluding VAT, by the wholesale data cap. A plan costing EUR 20 excluding VAT in 2026, with a cap of EUR 1.10 per GB, must therefore allow at least about 36 GB of roaming data per month. Operators must notify customers when they reach the fair use limit and state the surcharge that applies afterward.
What the 2022 regulation added
The 2022 recast did not only extend the principle; it added quality and transparency obligations that close gaps observed in the first five years.
- Same quality of service: where the visited network offers the same generation and speed, roaming customers must receive it, so a 5G customer should not be limited to 3G abroad.
- Emergency access: customers must be able to reach 112 and receive information on alternative means of access for people with disabilities.
- Value-added numbers: operators must warn about higher charges for special numbers such as customer service lines and premium services.
- Non-terrestrial networks: customers must be informed about charges and offered ways to avoid inadvertent roaming on satellite networks used on ships and aircraft.
The quality rule is particularly relevant to network sunsets. As operators switch off 2G and 3G, roaming customers whose devices or agreements rely on legacy technologies may lose service, so regulators now monitor whether wholesale agreements include 4G and 5G access.
Roam like at home compared with related rules
Roam like at home is frequently confused with other pricing rules, and the differences explain many unexpected bills. The comparison below separates the main cases.
| Situation | Rule that applies | Price for the customer |
|---|---|---|
| Calling home from another EEA country | Roam like at home | Domestic price |
| Calling another EU country from home | Intra-EU communications cap | Maximum EUR 0.19 per minute |
| Roaming in Switzerland or the UK | Commercial terms only | Set by the operator |
| Roaming on a ship or aircraft | Satellite network charges | Often high, outside the regulation |
| Living abroad permanently | Fair use policy | Surcharge after notification |
The intra-EU communications cap is a separate rule for international calls and SMS made from the home country, with a ceiling of EUR 0.19 per minute and EUR 0.06 per SMS. Some operators also include countries outside the EEA in their plans as a commercial choice, but that coverage can change without the protection of the regulation.
Policy debates and practical limitations
Roam like at home is widely regarded as a consumer success, yet it has known costs and trade-offs. Operators in countries with heavy inbound tourism receive wholesale revenue but carry high peak loads, while operators in countries whose residents travel often pay more in wholesale charges than they earn.
The regime also has structural limitations. It does not regulate the price of domestic plans, so an operator can raise domestic prices to fund roaming costs, which is the so-called waterbed effect discussed by economists. It does not create a single EU license or harmonized spectrum assignment, so the market still consists of national operators bound by bilateral roaming agreements.
For travelers, the main practical pitfalls are border-area roaming onto non-EEA networks, inadvertent connections to maritime and in-flight networks, and plans whose domestic allowance is far larger than the roaming allowance permitted under fair use.
In everyday language
Roam like at home means that a phone plan bought in one European country works across the EU and its EEA neighbors at the same price. Calls home, messages and mobile data cost what they cost at home, and they come out of the same monthly allowance.
There are two catches. The rule is meant for trips, not for living abroad with a foreign plan, and it does not cover every country near Europe. Switzerland, the United Kingdom, ships and aircraft are outside the rule, so it is worth checking the plan before using data there.
Seen in the real world
A family from Austria spends two weeks on holiday in Croatia. Their domestic plans include unlimited calls and 40 GB of data for EUR 24 per month. Abroad, they use maps, video calls with relatives and streaming in the evenings, about 15 GB in the two weeks, and their bill does not change, because all of it is covered by roam like at home.
On the ferry to an island, one parent’s phone briefly connects to the ship’s onboard network, which is a satellite-based network outside the regulation. The operator sends a text warning about the different charges, and the parent switches on airplane mode until the ferry reaches port and the phone reconnects to a Croatian land network. The family avoids a surprise charge, and the rest of the trip is billed exactly as at home.