Although roaming expenses were removed in the European Union in June 2017, beware of special cases that could explode your mobile bill and incidentally, ruin your vacation. Find out how to roam worry-free on a skiing vacation.

Whenever you travel abroad and make or receive a mobile phone call, send text messages (SMS – Short Message Services) or download data (texts, photos, music, or films) from the internet with a mobile connection, you are roaming. You are roaming on a mobile network of a foreign network operator because your home provider does not provide a service in the country in which you are travelling. For providing this service, the foreign network operator will charge your home operator. This charge is passed on to you at a different rate, sometimes at a surprisingly high level for the consumer.

Although roaming in the European Union disappeared in 2017, there are destinations where using a mobile phone can bring a really high bill. Be aware if you are going to ski in Switzerland, Andorra, Serbia, Bosnia, Turkey, and Russia.

You may roam without realizing it – this happens when your device automatically connects to a “non-European antenna.”. Unless you have set up your device beforehand, it will always connect to the antenna that has the strongest signal, even if it is on the other side of the border.

For example, if you go on holiday this winter in Italy, Austria, France and you are close to the Swiss border or Andorra (or that you pass nearby by car), you may use a 4G network located in this country, which does not belong to the European Union. And the note may be salty.

Additional Tip:

• Download maps and entertainment offline: Before your trip, download offline maps and entertainment like music or movies to avoid data usage while traveling.

But … it shouldn’t be like that. You can be roaming worry-free while Skiing with an Alertify SIM card!

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