Our Roaming Fair Usage Policy
Roaming in our Europe Zone is included in your tariff, so you can use data (subject to a roaming limit), make calls, and send texts just like you do at home. Some tariffs also offer inclusive roaming in selected locations outside Europe. However, this service is only available for occasional travel (like holidays or short breaks) and not for long stays abroad.
What are our Fair Usage Limits?
Permanent Roaming
Using our inclusive roaming services outside the UK for more than 63 days in any four-month period is what we consider to be unfair use. If you do this, we’ll send you a fair usage notification by text. If you continue to use these services after we’ve notified you, we’ll apply surcharges for further usage that we recognise as overage.
These surcharges are £3.50 per GB for data, 3.3p per minute for calls and 1p per text. The surcharges will appear on your next month’s bill. We’ll stop applying surcharges to your non-UK usage once the majority of your usage over the previous four months has been in the UK.
What options do I have?
You can continue to use your phone outside the UK, but should be aware that usage will be charged at the rates given above. For example, if you use 1GB of data and 100 texts after receiving the notification, you’ll be charged an extra £4.50 - that’s £3.50 for the data and £1 for the texts.
If you find yourself living abroad for a long period of time, it may be more cost-effective for you to buy a local sim card or take out a contract with a local network. You might like to check whether your phone’s locked to our network.
25GB Roaming Limit
If your UK monthly data allowance is over 25GB, you’ll have a Roaming Limit of 25GB when roaming in our Europe Zone. This means you can use up to 25GB of your allowance at no extra costs - we’ll text you if you’re getting close to the limit, and again if you reach it.
If you do reach 25GB or if you use all your UK data allowance when roaming outside the UK, you’ll need to buy a data Bolt On if you want to keep using data. Find out more about our data Bolt Ons.
Tariffs with 25GB or less of monthly data
These tariffs are not subject to our Roaming Limit of 25GB. But if you use all your UK data allowance when roaming outside in the UK, you’ll need to buy a data Bolt On if you want to keep using data. Find out more about our data Bolt Ons.
Why does O2 apply surcharges?
We apply our roaming fair use policies to prevent any abuse of domestic allowances and to cover the costs we have to pay to the networks our customers use when they travel abroad.
Comparison against major networks
| Network | Starting Point | Min Period | £ | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EE | Unlimited Essentials Plus | 24 months | £24/month | |
| Unlimited Essentials Plus | 1 month | £41/month | ||
| Vodafone | 5GB Xtra Euro Roam | 24 months | £25/month | |
| 1GB Xtra Euro Roam | 12 months | £23/month | ||
| Three | 1GB Value Plan | 24 months | £14/month | Limited to 28 days |
| 1GB Value Plan | 12 months | £16/month | Limited to 14 days |
The information listed above is a general summary of our competitor’s EU roaming offerings, accurate as of June 2025.
Definition of major networks
Based on a ruling against Carphone Warehouse regarding savings versus major networks from 2017, the ASA noted that the mobile services market was divided broadly into mobile network operators (MNO), which controlled the complete infrastructure needed to provide their services, and mobile virtual network operators (MVNO), which relied on the infrastructure of MNOs to deliver their services. They stated that the four UK MNOs were EE (part of BT), O2, Vodafone and Three.