Europe

Travel to Europe?

Since 15 June 2017, EU citizens no longer pay roaming charges when travelling within the European Union. Thanks to the EU’s “Roam Like at Home” regulation, you can use your domestic mobile plan across EU countries without additional roaming fees.

But here’s what many travelers misunderstand.

These rules apply only to EU residents using an EU SIM on terrestrial mobile networks. They do not cover visitors from outside the EU. And they do not apply to satellite connections on ships, ferries, or airplanes, where roaming costs can still be extremely high.

If you are travelling across Europe as a visitor, digital nomad, business traveller, or non-EU resident, roaming can still become expensive very quickly. That is where choosing the right Europe SIM card or European eSIM plan matters.

Europe is one of the most connected regions in the world. From historic city centers and coastal villages to Alpine ski resorts and Mediterranean islands, mobile coverage is generally strong. But pricing, fair use policies, and network access differ significantly between providers.

There is no better way to explore Europe’s natural beauty, layered history, and culinary diversity than with reliable mobile data in your pocket. Maps, ride-hailing, train tickets, restaurant bookings, translation apps, banking, and remote work all depend on stable connectivity.

Baltics

Two of the three Baltic nations included in the study sit inside the less expensive half of the list, although for countries that enjoy some of the most advanced broadband networks in the world, they aren’t represented in the top 40 when it comes to the cost of mobile data.

Estonia is the cheapest of the three with 1GB costing an average of $1.27 and sits in 53rd place in the world, while in Estonia 1GB costs $1.85 on average. Latvia sits in the most expensive half of the list with an average of $3.79, although it’s still below the global average of $5.09.

CIS (Former USSR) – Eastern Europe

A number of CIS countries are among the very cheapest in the world for mobile data and all but one sits inside the less expensive half of the table. Kyrgyzstan is third cheapest in the world overall with an average of $0.21, ahead of fifth-placed Kazakhstan ($0.46) and ninth-placed Russian Federation ($0.52).

Turkmenistan is the only CIS nation to appear among the most expensive in the world where 1GB of data costs $11.44 on average – that’s more than twice what it costs in the second most expensive CIS country, Tajikistan ($4.65).

Eastern Europe

The presence of good network infrastructure throughout Eastern Europe helps the majority of countries to appear in the less expensive half of the table, although only one makes it into the top 20 cheapest countries – Poland – with an average price per 1GB of $0.70, followed by Romania ($1.03) and Moldova ($1.12).

Greece’s well-documented economic problems are evident here, with mobile data prices in the country much more expensive than in any of its neighbours. Greece’s average price per 1GB of $12.06 puts it in the top 30 most expensive places in the world to buy mobile data and makes it easily the most expensive in the Eastern European region.

Western Europe

Western Europe consists primarily of wealthy nations with highly developed mobile infrastructures. Italy leads the way with the cheapest mobile data in Western Europe. Italy is also the only Western European country to make it into the top ten cheapest in the world, coming in a respectable fourth in the world. The remainder of the region is spread quite evenly throughout the table, with countries such as Gibraltar, Switzerland and Andorra falling just within the top 200.

The most expensive country in Western Europe is Andorra, with 1GB of data costing just $9.54.