Do you remember the bill shock? That’s the shock when the phone bill arrives after the vacation. In the EU, ‘roam like at home’ has been in effect since 2017, but you still shouldn’t just leave your roaming on everywhere.
The roam like at home regulation was much needed. From the nineties, the period in which mobile telephony gained a place in society, absurd bills were sent to unsuspecting customers. “Amounts of around 25,000 euros were not an exception.”
There were suspicions of cartel formation in the telephony sector. The European Union therefore acted to protect consumers.
In the EU you can therefore roam as if you were at home. But there are exceptions. And if you cross the European borders, you are back in the time of the bill shock.
What is roaming?
Roaming means that your mobile phone connects to the network of a foreign provider. Your phone does this because you are outside the coverage area of your own provider, for example when you are abroad. You give your phone permission to do this yourself.
High prices are not even caused by very high-quality technology, but by opaque legislation. A Dutch company developed an app that allows you to use cheap – or after watching an advertisement – free mobile internet worldwide without data roaming costs. That is a form of e-SIM technology. Firsty is a major player in that market, just like Ailaro and Nomad.
“In the past, roaming costs outside the Netherlands were extremely high. Can you imagine that happening in any other industry or store. You walk in somewhere and ‘buy’ something for thousands of euros without knowing it. Within the EU, these problems have been partly solved with new rules, but in the rest of the world it remains a problem.”
An e-sim works like this: you download an app, and that app installs an e-sim card on your phone. For a small amount you connect to networks in the country where you are, while you turn off roaming from your own, original provider. That’s all. But because we are loyal and home-loving, and often afraid of hassle, we often leave this option on vacation.
“I understand that, because you already have so much to know and figure out. But the difference in costs is enormous. Either you pay a few hundred euros for streaming a movie in Indonesia, or one euro thanks to an e-sim card.”
‘Watch out for cowboys’
The providers of e-sim cards are nice, innovative players in the telecom market. They are disruptive, and that market could use that.
Beware of cowboys: this e-SIM technology is in its infancy and new players can take advantage of this by making promises they do not keep. “Read reviews on Trustpilot, and pay with your credit card so you can get your money back if something is wrong. You can trust larger players in this market who work with all providers in the world. And remember that an e-SIM card is especially interesting outside Europe. So use it for your vacation and throw it off your phone afterwards.”