Best network for roaming

 

Table of Contents Roaming in Europe Roaming outside Europe Major network roaming policies EE Vodafone Three O2 MVNO roaming policies 1pMobile Asda Mobile Giffgaff Honest Mobile iD Mobile Lebara Lyca Mobile ParentShield Sky Mobile Smarty Spusu Talk Home Talkmobile Tesco Mobile VOXI Cost comparison Conclusion

Using your phone abroad, also called roaming, used to be a sure-fire way to incur a massive bill at the end of the month. That’s no longer necessarily the case, but it’s still important to examine where each of the major UK networks stands on the matter.

Using a foreign network typically incurs additional charges, but a mixture of legislation and cooperation between the world’s networks has reduced the penalty for roaming in certain key territories. Prior to Brexit that most notably meant free roaming across the EU, but while that’s no longer the case on every network and plan, the costs are still usually affordable.

Here’s a breakdown of the roaming policies adopted by every significant UK network, including EE, O2, Vodafone and Three, plus most major MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators), both in the EU and outside of it.

Roaming in Europe

Network	European roaming regions	Availability	Restrictions
EE	47	Select plans or as an add-on	50GB of data
O2	48	All plans	25GB of data
Three	49	Select plans	12GB of data
Vodafone	51	Select plans	25GB of data
1pMobile	46	All plans	14GB of data
Asda Mobile	46	All plans	5GB of data
Giffgaff	38	All plans	5GB of data
Honest Mobile	44	All plans	20GB of data, up to 5 days per trip
iD Mobile	49	All plans	30GB of data
Lebara	36	All plans	30GB of data
Lyca Mobile	30	All plans	Variable data limit
ParentShield	33	Requires add-on	Calls only
Sky Mobile	48	Costs extra	None
Smarty	42	All plans	12GB of data
Spusu	36	All plans	Variable data limit
Talk Home	38	All plans	None
Talkmobile	42	All plans	5GB of data
Tesco Mobile	48	All plans	More time in UK than abroad
VOXI	47	Costs extra	20GB of data

The EU dropped all roaming charges from June 15, 2017. This meant that making calls, sending texts and using the internet on your phone used to cost the same as at home when in any country that’s a member of the EU, whatever network or plan you're on – though when it came to data there were often fair use limits.

Of course, with the UK no longer in the EU, that's all changed. The specifics of EU roaming terms vary from network to network and will be detailed below under each network’s heading, but in short many either don't offer free EU roaming anymore or only do on select plans.

However, a lot of networks also still do allow EU roaming, as you can see in the table above.

Note that we’re including all EU and EEA regions as being part of Europe – even ‘outermost regions’ like Guadeloupe, which are closer to other continents.

Recommended SIM Only deals

	1GB data Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	£2.90 a month View Deal
	50GB data Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	£8 a month View Deal
	60GB data Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	£9 a month View Deal
Compare SIM Only deals

Roaming outside Europe

Network	Other roaming regions	Availability	Restrictions
EE	5	Select plans or as an add-on	50GB of data
O2	27	Select plans	25GB of data
Three	114	Select plans	12GB of data
Vodafone	32	Select plans	25GB of data
iD Mobile	1	All plans	30GB of data
Lebara	1	All plans	30GB of data
Lyca Mobile	1	All plans	Variable data limit
Sky Mobile	7	Costs extra	None

If you want to roam outside Europe then your affordable options are a lot more limited, with only the networks in the chart above offering plans that include global roaming – or in the case of Sky Mobile, low cost global roaming prices.

Even then, the selection of locations that are included is quite low on all networks other than Three, Vodafone, and O2.

You’ll find more details of the specific locations in the network sections below.

Major network roaming policies

Below, you’ll find an in-depth look at the roaming policies and locations offered by the UK’s four major networks – namely EE, Three, O2, and Vodafone.

EE

For all new, upgrading and existing customers, here’s EE’s current roaming policy:

 

Essentials / No Frills plans

Essentials and No Frills plan customers can roam for £2.47 per day in 47 destinations across Europe (see below for a full list). However, this charge will only apply to Pay Monthly handset and SIM Only customers who’ve joined EE or upgraded from 7th July, 2021, onwards. Older customers who haven’t recently upgraded can roam in these places at no extra cost. For tablet, laptop, and mobile broadband customers, these charges came into play for plans started on or after 18th August 2021.

If customers are going on a longer break they can purchase a Roam Abroad pass, which costs £25 per month but allows free roaming in these European locations, as well as in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and the US.

There’s also a Travel Data Pass, which gives you 500MB of data and costs £6.74 per day in the US and Canada or £8.45 per day in Australia, China, India, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and UAE. It can also be purchased for £8.45 per day in 45 other destinations including Brazil, Japan and Jamaica, but in these places you only get 150MB of data.

To get the Travel Data Pass, text TRAVEL to 150 before you go or while you’re abroad.

Essentials Plus / All Rounder plans

If you have an Essentials Plus plan then EU roaming in 47 destinations will be included in your plan. The same is true of All Rounder plans taken out on or after August 29th, 2024. Previous All Rounder plans can access global roaming (in 52 destinations) but only if you choose a Roam Abroad pass as your Inclusive Extra. Otherwise no roaming is included.

Full Works plans

If you’re on one of EE’s high-end Full Works plans taken out on or after August 29th, 2024, or on a Full Works for iPhone plan taken out at any point, then global roaming in 47 EU destinations will be included, as will worldwide roaming in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and the USA, for 52 locations in total (up to a 50GB ‘fair usage cap’). 

If you're on an older Full Works for Android plan from before August 29th, then you can also access free roaming in these 52 destinations, but only if you select roaming as an Inclusive Extra.

Vodafone

Vodafone has introduced a £2.42 daily charge to use allowances in 51 European destinations – or you can reduce this if you buy an eight or 15-day pass.

However, customers on plans taken out before August 11th 2021 won’t have to pay this charge until they upgrade, and there are plans which avoid the charge, detailed below.

Inclusive roaming

Vodafone has rolled out a range of plans called ‘Xtra Plans’ which come with ‘Xtra benefits’, and one of the extras that comes with many of these is inclusive roaming in the 51 locations above.

On top of that, some Xtra Plans go even further and allow for free roaming in 83 destinations – many of which are outside Europe. Note that in all cases though there’s a 25GB fair usage limit.

The additional locations include:

Albania, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Australia, Barbados, Bermuda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Ghana, Grenada, Jamaica, Kenya, Lesotho, Mexico, Montserrat, Mozambique, New Zealand, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten, South Africa, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent, St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey and Northern Cyprus, Turks and Caicos, and the US.

Travelling further

For many other parts of the world or for those who don’t have a plan that offers inclusive roaming in 83 locations, you can pay £7.39 per day to use your allowances in 105 locations. These locations include:

Afghanistan, Albania, Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Cambodia, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Democratic Republic of, Costa Rica, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Laos, Lesotho, Macau, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Russia, Saba, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten, South Africa, South Korea, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent, Suriname, Swaziland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey and Northern Cyprus, Turks and Caicos, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Uruguay, US Virgin Islands, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

Vodafone also lets customers on a 5G plan roam at 5G speeds in select locations.

5G speeds are available in parts of Spain, Italy, Germany and Ireland.

Three

Three’s Lite plan customers (previously called Standard plans) will have to pay £2 per day to use their allowances in the EU (across 49 destinations), £5 per day to use them in 22 ‘Go Roam Around the World’ destinations, and £7 per day in 92 ‘Go Roam Around the World Extra’ destinations.

Customers of Value plans (previously called Plus plans) can roam for free for up to 28 days and those on Complete plans (previously known as Premium plans) can roam at no extra cost for up to 56 days.

In all cases that’s up to a 12GB limit. The European locations can be seen in the chart below.

The places beyond Europe that can be roamed in for £5 per day (or inclusively on some plans) are listed in the chart below.

Albania, Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba (Netherlands Antilles), Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire (Netherlands Antilles), Bosnia and Herzegovina, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cayman Islands, China, Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Curacao (Netherlands Antilles), Cyprus, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Faroe Islands, Gabon, Georgia, Ghana, Greenland, Grenada, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Rwanda, Saba (Netherlands Antilles), Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sint Eustatius (Netherlands Antilles), Sint Maarten (Netherlands Antilles), South Africa, South Korea, Suriname, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turks and Caicos Islands, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Uzbekistan, and Zambia.

Note that in all cases these charges only apply to customers who signed up to or renewed their contract on or after October 1st, 2021. For everyone else, the locations in these charts can be roamed in at no extra cost (until you upgrade or renew). All Pay As You Go customers can also roam in these places at no extra cost.

If you want to roam somewhere not covered by Go Roam, there’s also a Data Passport, which gives you unlimited data in many locations for £5 per day.

O2

O2 allows customers to roam for no extra cost in 48 European destinations, many of which offer 5G speeds. The list of roaming locations can be seen in the chart below, but is similar to that offered by other networks.

However, unlike other networks O2 hasn’t announced plans to remove free roaming, so at the time of writing it’s the only one of the big four UK networks that still offers free roaming on all plans. Note though that there’s a 25GB data limit when roaming. However, O2 does offer 5G roaming in some places.

On some plans you can also roam in Argentina, Australia, Botswana, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Greenland, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mexico, Myanmar, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Rwanda, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela and Yemen.

Want to go further? O2 also offers an O2 Travel bolt-on for £6 per day, which gives you unlimited data, minutes, and texts in the locations below.

MVNO Roaming Policies

Below you’ll find brief details of the roaming policies for most of the UK’s MVNOs, along with links to more detailed guides for each where available.

1pMobile

1pMobile allows all customers to roam across 46 European destinations at no extra cost, up to a fair use limit of 14GB of data.

1pMobile will also check that you’re using your phone more in the UK than abroad over a rolling four-month period.

Asda Mobile

Asda Mobile allows customers to roam in 46 European destinations at no extra cost. However, there’s a roaming data limit of 5GB, so you can’t use more than that abroad each month without being charged extra.

It’s worth noting that Asda Mobile offers 5G roaming in parts of numerous EU countries too.

Giffgaff

Giffgaff lets customers roam in 38 European destinations at no extra cost. However, there’s a fair usage limit of 5GB for all plans that come with that much data or more.

Honest Mobile

Honest Mobile allows EU roaming of up to five days per trip at no extra cost, but additional days will cost £2 each, and there’s a 20GB fair usage limit.

iD Mobile

On iD Mobile you can roam abroad in 50 destinations in the EU, EEA and beyond. All of these locations are at least partially located in Europe, but the list includes Kazakhstan, which is primarily in Asia, so we’ve counted that as outside Europe in the charts above. Like most networks, iD Mobile has a fair usage policy, but it’s reasonably high at 30GB, and the network offers 5G roaming in some places.

Lebara

Lebara allows customers to roam at no extra cost in the EU, up to a 30GB fair usage limit for customers on unlimited data plans.

This network stands out though by also offering inclusive roaming in India, where there’s likewise a fair usage limit of up to 30GB.

Lyca Mobile

On Lyca Mobile you can roam across the EU at no extra cost, as well as in India, but there’s a variable fair usage limit depending on your plan. At the time of writing the highest available cap is 35GB.

ParentShield

ParentShield technically offers free EU roaming, but it asks that if affordable you pay for its £2.99 ‘Super Roaming’ add-on.

Its roaming terms are also more restrictive than most networks, as its goal is keeping kids safe.

Sky Mobile

Sky Mobile doesn’t let you roam for free, but you can access your allowances in over 55 destinations for £2 per day. You’re not limited to Europe either – you can also roam in the US, Canada, Australia (including Cocos islands and Christmas islands), New Zealand, South Africa, Turkey (including Northern Cyprus), and the UAE.

Smarty

When travelling in the EU on Smarty you’ll have access to your normal allowances at no extra cost, up to a fair usage limit of 12GB. It’s worth noting that Smarty has the same parent company as Three, and yet Three doesn’t offer free roaming on all plans.

Spusu

Spusu offers inclusive EU roaming as standard, with a variable fair usage limit (depending on your plan) that tops out at 25GB at the time of writing.

Talk Home

Talk Home lets users roam across most of Europe at no extra cost, and unlike most networks there also aren’t any fair usage limits when doing so.

Talkmobile

Talkmobile allows customers to roam as if at home in 42 European destinations, up to a fair usage data limit of 5GB per month, and the network also offers 5G roaming.

Tesco Mobile

Tesco Mobile lets you roam in 48 destinations in the EU and beyond at no extra cost.

Its fair usage terms are less restrictive than on most networks, as it basically just says you can’t be spending more time or data in its free roaming locations than in the UK or the rest of the world. Your usage for these purposes will be monitored over a rolling four-month period.

VOXI

VOXI is among the rare MVNOs that charge you to roam even in Europe. The network charges £2.45 per day, though you can get discounts for longer periods, with an eight-day roaming pass costing £12 and a 15-day one costing £17. This pass will cover you in Europe up to your standard data allowance or a 20GB fair usage limit, whichever is lower.

It's worth noting that VOXI also allows 5G roaming in parts of Germany, Spain, Italy and Ireland.

Cost Comparison

As we’ve seen, each UK network has its own roaming provisions and deals that can reduce the cost of using your phone while travelling dramatically. However, they also each have a list of base charges that apply when none of these provisions is met.

By way of a comparison, here is a table that compares the basic unsubsidised costs of placing a local call, sending a text, and surfing the web in three of the most popular destinations for UK travellers, on the UK’s four main networks. 

Roaming Cost Comparison

Country	EE	O2	Vodafone	Three
Australia	£1.66 per minute, 82p texts, £8.45 per day for 500MB	£2 per minute, 50p texts, £6 per day for data	£7.39 per day to use your normal allowances	£5 per day to use your normal allowances
USA	£1.66 per minute, 82p texts, £6.74 per day for 500MB	£2 per minute, 50p texts, £6 per day for data	£7.39 per day to use your normal allowances	£5 per day to use your normal allowances
China	£2.52 per minute, 82p texts, £8.45 per day for 500MB	£2 per minute, 50p texts, £6 per day for data	£7.39 per day to use your normal allowances	£7 per day to use your normal allowances

Conclusion

As you can see, standard roaming charges are hardly what you’d call cheap. But each network’s roaming initiative can provide massive savings in their own separate way.

As things stand at the time of writing (September 2024) O2 arguably tops the pack in terms of the four main networks, as it's keeping roaming free on all plans. That said, for a wide selection of destinations, Three comes out on top, and you can still roam for free on some plans with that network.

As for the MVNOs, the vast majority do offer free EU roaming. However, VOXI and Sky Mobile don’t. So these two rank low – though notably Sky lets you cheaply roam beyond Europe.

Of the other MVNOs, we’d highlight Tesco Mobile and Talk Home as two of the best, as they have less restrictive fair usage limits than the other networks. Lebara and Lyca Mobile also rank high for certain travellers, since they allow you to roam for free in India.

Overall though we’d say O2 has all of those beat as well, since select plans let you roam widely, on top of all plans letting you roam in Europe. So O2 is our pick as the best network for roaming overall.

Beyond that, our one piece of advice for frequent travellers is to pick out the UK network that offers the best roaming terms for the highest number of countries you intend to visit over the duration of your contract.