Italian mobile phone users will have access to additional data in EU Roaming as of January 1, 2023, thanks to the operators’ adoption of the new data traffic calculation algorithm and the new extra-threshold pricing, which will be in effect for the entire 2023 period.

Basically, the Roaming Like At Home (RLAH) legislation, which permits you to utilize your national offer while roaming within European Union nations, always permits you to utilize the minutes and SMS that are included in your national offer in all of the European Union nations, making it possible for you to use them exactly as in Italy without any restrictions (except for exceptions).

Instead, when required by law (typically once a year), the major mobile phone operators must modify the terms of the offers by raising the amount of data traffic that may be used in Europe at any given time (if desired) and lowering the cost of the additional threshold in the event that this amount is exceeded.

Since the current European Regulation 2022/612 went into effect on July 1, 2022, it has been possible to extend the Roaming Like At Home (RLAH) program for an additional 10 years while introducing some innovations compared to the prior legislation. For the following ten years, there will also be a new gradual reduction in wholesale roaming prices, which are the fees that operators charge one another for the use of their respective networks when their customers travel abroad.

The new regulation’s rules state that there will be five additional price reductions for wholesale data traffic from 2023 to 2032. Particularly starting on January 1, 2023, the cap has been lowered to 1.80 euros (without VAT) per data and will remain in effect through December 31, 2023.

Thus, even in 2023, clients of the major Italian mobile phone providers will be able to take advantage of an increase in the number of gigabytes they can use when traveling to other European nations, as well as better terms in the event of going over the threshold.

Regarding data, European laws permit the use of one’s data traffic, under the same national circumstances, up to a maximum amount in the reference month, which may be accessed on the operator’s official website.

Operators may impose a premium above this upper limit, with an annual cost that decreases, under the law as it stands until 2027.

Each operator is free to use more than the predetermined limit or even all available data under the same national conditions in the EU. It is also possible to request, as some less structured operators have already done, a derogation to AGCOM in order to be able to apply conditions other than those specified by EU law.

Here is the updated method for calculating gigabytes in EU roaming in 2023

Basically, the law always allows for the application of a formula that alters every year, allowing each variation to gain more and more data available, to determine the maximum amount of data traffic that may be used in Europe.

As previously mentioned, the following is the formula that went into effect on January 1, 2023, and which in this case will be effective until December 31, 2023: GB volume is equal to   X 2.

The latter took the place of the old formula, which was in effect for the second half of 2022 and was as follows: Volume of GB = X 2.

In this way, from 1 January 2023 the ceiling on the wholesale cost of data traffic, which is one of the factors in the formula for determining data in the EU, has dropped from 2 euros to 1.80 euros (excluding VAT) per GB, resulting in a new increase in usable data traffic in the European Union.

According to the provisions of the current European regulation, from 1 January 2024 the ceiling will then drop to 1.55 euros (excluding VAT) per GB, from 1 January 2025 it will be equal to 1.30 euros (excluding VAT) per GB, and from 1st January 2026 it will drop to 1.10 euro (excluding VAT) per GB, and finally starting from 1st January 2027 onwards the ceiling will stabilize at 1 euro (excluding VAT) per GB.

Therefore, from 2027 the price should remain at 1 euro per Gigabyte until the new deadline set for June 30, 2032.

In this way, from 1 January 2024, there will therefore be another 4 increases in the maximum amount of data traffic that can be used in EU roaming calculated with the current formula.

The extra threshold cost has also been updated eu roaming 2023

Generally, if the volume of data traffic resulting from the formula is higher than the data traffic envisaged by your offer, the entire data packet envisaged can be used in the European Union.

Once the gigabytes usable in the EU have run out, surfing extra- threshold according to the coefficient set for each year (except for exceptions): throughout 2023, a new cost of approximately 0.220 euro cents including VAT will be applied for each MB consumed.

Be aware that the Roaming Like at Home guidelines are meant for people who occasionally go abroad. When you spend more time or use your mobile phone more frequently at home than abroad, it is seen as an effective use of roaming services.

The operator has the option to track and confirm the customer’s roaming activities over the previous four months as part of the fair usage policy. The operator may get in touch with the customer and ask him to clarify the situation within 14 days if during this time, the consumer has spent more time traveling than at home or if his roaming usage is more than his domestic usage.

Which countries are included and the UK situation for EU Roaming

The countries in which the regulation is valid with the adaptation in force from 1 January 2023 and valid until 31 December 2023 are all those of the European Union, to which are added the countries of the European Economic Area (EEA) : Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, (including Guadeloupe, French Guiana, La Reunion, Mayotte, Martinique) Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Ireland, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Holland, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Hungary.

The United Kingdom, due to the completion of Brexit, on 1 January 2021 is no longer officially part of the European Union, and therefore theoretically it would no longer be included in the countries where it is possible to take advantage of the Roaming Like At Home regulation.

However, currently, no Italian operator has changed the roaming conditions for the United Kingdom, so until further notice the possibility of using one’s offer at national conditions also in the UK remains unchanged, with the same regulations as in EU countries.

In recent years TIM, Vodafone, WINDTRE and Fastweb had declared that they will keep the conditions unchanged until otherwise communicated.

Iliad has instead decided to introduce a deadline within the price brochures of its offers: in the section dedicated to Roaming, the United Kingdom is in fact included in the list of countries valid for EU Roaming, but currently with the wording “until 31 December 2023”.

Also last year there was an expiry date, but this was set at December 31, 2022 (while the initial expiry was December 31, 2021). If there should not be a further extension as also happened in 2023, it is not yet clear what will happen next with Iliad.

In general, behavior on Roaming Like At Home in the United Kingdom is at the discretion of individual Italian operators, based on their agreements with British operators, so in the future, they will be able to decide whether or not to continue to include the use of their national bundles also when in the UK.

Some Italian operators have adapted even in advance

After the adjustment that took place in mid-2022 due to the change in the European regulation, this time the values ​​for data traffic in EU Roaming were updated on 1 January 2023, thus returning to being adjusted at the beginning of each year as is the case usual.

However, several Italian operators have once again decided to adapt in advance starting from the end of November 2022 and in the month of December 2022.

In particular, as already mentioned, among the operators who have updated the data thresholds in EU Roaming in advance are TIM, Kena, PosteMobile, and ho. Mobile and Iliad.

On the other hand, no change for WINDTRE and Very Mobile, given that already in the second half of 2022 they had made the data thresholds of 2023 available to their customers in advance.

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