Swedes’ data roaming within the EU is at an all-time high, usage has increased 130 percent since the summer of 2019, i.e. before the pandemic. Already last summer, data traffic was at the same level or even slightly higher than before the pandemic (2019) and this year will increase sharply. Since the EU’s new roaming rules were introduced in 2017, data roaming from Sweden users has increased by nearly 500 percent, mainly driven by increased streaming. 3 Sweden data roaming

This is shown by a new analysis of mobile data from the mobile operator Tre.

– This summer’s data roaming in the EU is by far the highest that Tre has ever measured. It is probably a combination of the fact that the travel restrictions are now over, a new mobile behavior with a lot of use of streaming and that customers have adapted to the new freer rules for EU roaming, says Haval van Drumpt, CEO of Tre Sweden.

In 2017, EU roaming was introduced, also called “roam like home”, which means that EU citizens can use the phone in another EU country without paying any extra fees (up to a ceiling that varies for different operators). Despite this, the fear of being hit with a high mobile phone bill while on holiday abroad seems to have persisted for several years after the roaming rules were introduced.

But now the fear seems to have subsided. With the exception of a period during the pandemic when travel was down to low levels, roaming has increased sharply since 2019. The destinations where data traffic via roaming has increased the most since last year are Spain, Turkey and Greece (excluding Öresund traffic between Sweden and Denmark).

Rapid increase in data usage in Sweden as well 3 Sweden data roaming

Even within Sweden, data usage in the mobile network is increasing a lot, mainly due to an increased share of streaming, which requires a lot of capacity for data transmission. An average Trekund has increased its data consumption by over 300 percent in the last four years, between 2018 and 2022. The increase is explained almost exclusively by increased streaming of TV channels such as SVT Play, Netflix and others as well as video in social media.

The top list, where the Swedes roam the most:

Like this? "Sharing is caring!"