6 years ago today a long journey ended, for the first time it was possible to use one’s own “domestic” tariff plan in the other countries of the Union without surcharges, within a few limits. Previously, calls, SMS and data traffic were charged according to consumption outside your borders, unless you bought packages in view of your departure with which you could save something. But the gist is that before zero roaming, for years, to communicate while traveling in the EU we had to surrender to more or less salty extras.
From 15 June 2017, on the other hand, it was possible to call and send text messages in European countries at no additional cost to those provided by your plan or tariff package. In Europe like at home, Like at Home precisely. As for the Internet connectionthe “Giga”, it was necessary to proceed in a different way, because the figures at stake were different: no instantaneous cutting of additional costs, rather a progressive removal of the “limits”, and gradual expansion of the “giga” enclosure within which one could navigate without spending more.
Europe’s goal was and is to progressively reduce the cost of wholesale data roaming, the cost incurred by operators, until 2022, when it was extended by ten years (it will last at least until 2032) with new thresholds to climb up to 2027. Today, thanks to the threshold taken on January 1, 2023we are at one maximum of 1.8 euros per GB of trafficfrom 1 January 2024 it will drop to 1.55 euro/GB and so on until 2027 when 1 GB of traffic will cost 1 euro:
- from 1 January 2023: 1.80 euros
- from 1 January 2024: 1.55 euros
- from 1 January 2025: 1.30 euros
- from 1 January 2026: 1.10 euros
- from 1 January 2027: 1 euro
Note: the legislation establishes maximum wholesale costs, so operators can also pay less.
The formula for knowing the amount of data traffic that you have available each month in Europe with your own plan is:
free data traffic in European roaming = 2 x [(costo mensile propria offerta, IVA esclusa) / costo all’ingrosso del roaming dati]
Therefore, till today:
free data traffic in European roaming = 2 x [(costo mensile propria offerta, IVA esclusa) / 1,8]
The formula is quite simple, but if you don’t want to venture into calculations, know that the operators provide a page where you just need to enter the monthly cost of your offer (in this case VAT included, the calculation of the unbundling will be done automatically) to find out how many “giga” you have available in Europe. In other cases there is a list with the European data available for each offer, in still others everything is found in the personal area of apps and web portals.