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. 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 services in our Europe Zone 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 European Zone 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 in our Europe Zone, 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 in the EU 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. You can still use data if you reach our Roaming Limit, but you’ll be charged at £3.50/GB.

These charges will apply until the following (depending on which is earliest);

• You use up your monthly UK data allowance**
• You return to the UK.
• You reach your next bill cycle.

** 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?

The European Union’s policy that customers should be able to use the calls, texts and data from their tariff in other EU countries isn’t meant to include extended roaming periods. Since the UK’s exit from the European Union, new legislation has come into force which allows providers to adopt many of the roam like at home provisions. This includes us being able to implement fair usage policies in order to prevent any abuse of domestic allowances and to cover the costs we have to pay to the networks our customers use abroad, and when they’re roaming. Want to know more? Go to the Government website.