EU Data Roaming Restrictions & Fair Use – How Much Data can I use in Europe?

How much data can I use whilst roaming in Europe?

If you are looking to travel in the EU and use your mobile data allowance for work or to stay in contact with friends and family, you will want to know how much of your data your network will allow you to use.

The UK mobile networks all have different restrictions and fair use policies for using your data in Europe, we’ve outlined below how much of your monthly data allowance your network allows before imposing extra charges or restrictions.

How much data can I use in the EU on EE?

If your monthly allowance is more than 50GB of data then EE restrict your usage to 25GB whilst roaming in the EU.

Exceptions are made for data plans over 60GB and over 100GB a month, EE’s fair use policy for these is 30GB and 60GB roaming in the EU, respectively.

How long can I use my EE data in Europe?

If you use data in the EU for more than half of the time within a 4 month period without a stable link to the UK network, EE will alert you by text message and may charge you for the service you use. Continued usage could result in EE blocking your SIM card and roaming services.

What are the roaming restrictions using Vodafone in the EU?

Vodafone allow you to use up to 25GB of your unlimited data allowance whilst roaming in Europe.

For all other monthly plan allocations, ie: 48GB, 72GB, 100GB etc, you are able to use the full amount of data whilst roaming in the EU.

How long can I use my Vodafone data in the EU?

Over a 4 month period, Vodafone state that you can only use your data for roaming for half of that time, in other words spend half of your time logged onto the UK network.

Does Three cap data roaming in Europe?

Yes, all of Three’s Go Roam plans are capped at 20GB data usage in the EU, this applies to all price plans offering 20GB or above including their unlimited data plans.

Three will charge you 0.3p per megabyte if you use over 20GB of data whilst roaming in a month.

How long can I use Go Roam in the EU?

If you use more data whilst roaming than you do in the UK over a 4 month period, Three will send you a text 2 weeks before applying surcharges to your account.

How much data can I use on O2 in Europe?

O2 allow you to use up to 20GB of your unlimited data plan whilst roaming in the EU

How long can I use my O2 data in the EU?

If you use your O2 SIM card for 63 days or more in Europe within a 4 month period, O2 will notify you with a text outlining and if your usage continues apply surcharges to your account.

Virtual UK Network Roaming Restrictions on Unlimited Data Roaming

Virgin Mobile

There is no blanket data cap for Virgin’s pay monthly plans, they have a calculator on their website which allows you to find out how much of your data you can use in Europe before you incur surcharges, here.

It would seem that it’s actually based on how much you pay and not your monthly allowance!

Virgin Mobile’s bundled Unlimited SIM card included in their TV and broadband packages does offer unlimited data roaming.

Sky Mobile

Sky do not cap any of their data plans whilst roaming in Europe, in fact you can even use your saved up data from your Sky PiggyBank whilst travelling.

Unfortunately, Sky plans do not currently offer more than 40GB of monthly data.

Tesco Mobile

Tesco allow you to use up to 23.2GB of your plan data whilst roaming in the EU.

Smarty

Smarty allow you to use up to 19GB of your data plan allowance whilst roaming in Europe.

VOXI

VOXI cap you data usage at 25GB when roaming in the EU, however there are no restrictions on using their ‘Endless Social Media’ aside from the Video Pass which is capped at 5GB data in Europe.

GiffGaff

GiffGaff restrict your data to 20GB whilst roaming in the EU, they then throttle your data speed down to 384 kbps between 8am and midnight and charge 36p per MB for the remainder of your goodybag.

iD Mobile

iD Mobile have a similar arrangement to Virgin Mobile by providing a calculator to find out how much of your monthly data you can use whilst roaming in Europe, here.

Some of the lower priced plans have no restrictions whilst those offering more data do have caps, however there’s no selection for their unlimited data plan …

We’ve heard recently from someone who’s been travelling Europe for the past 6 months with an unlimited data SIM, who’s not encountered any data restrictions whilst roaming … yet!

BT Mobile

BT only cap data plans offering 50GB data and above whilst roaming in the EU, they will apply surcharges for any data used over 50GB in any one month billing cycle.

Lebara

Lebara have a fair use policy for their £35 unlimited data plan whilst roaming in Europe, they cap your data to 19GB a month after which they’ll charge £0,004/MB until your monthly plan refresh.

For their other pay monthly plans they have individual data caps for EU roaming which can be found, here.

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