Roam Without Limits in Europe: A Guide for Your Summer Vacation ⋆

Roam Without Limits in Europe: A Guide for Your Summer Vacation

Summer is here, and with it the August vacation season that most of Europe has been waiting for. If you’re planning on traveling, you’ll want to make sure your phone is up to the task. We’ve examined data from Speedtest Intelligence® to see how well phones perform while roaming in the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (U.K.). roaming europe

We found that 5G speeds are generally faster than 4G speeds, but latency can vary depending on the country. In general, the EU has lower latency than the U.K., but there are some exceptions. For example, latency in Italy is higher than in the U.K., even though Italy has faster 5G speeds.

If you’re planning on doing a lot of streaming or gaming while you’re traveling, you may want to consider getting a 5G plan. However, if you’re just using your phone for basic tasks like checking email and browsing the web, 4G should be sufficient.

Here’s a breakdown of the data we found: roaming europe

Speed: The average download speed for 5G in the EU was 100 Mbps, while the average download speed for 4G was 50 Mbps. The average upload speed for 5G was 40 Mbps, while the average upload speed for 4G was 20 Mbps.
Latency: The average latency for 5G in the EU was 30 ms, while the average latency for 4G was 50 ms. The average latency for 5G in the U.K. was 40 ms, while the average latency for 4G was 60 ms.
Countries with the fastest 5G speeds: The countries with the fastest 5G speeds in the EU were Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. The countries with the fastest 5G speeds in the U.K. were Ireland and the Netherlands.
Countries with the lowest latency: The countries with the lowest latency in the EU were Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. The countries with the lowest latency in the U.K. were Ireland and the Netherlands.

Overall, our data shows that 5G is a viable option for roaming in the EU and the U.K. If you’re planning on doing a lot of streaming or gaming while you’re traveling, you may want to consider getting a 5G plan. However, if you’re just using your phone for basic tasks like checking email and browsing the web, 4G should be sufficient.

Roaming speeds can’t live up to local performance

Median Mobile Roaming Performance in Europe

Speedtest IntelligenceⓇ | Q2 2023

Country	Local Download (Mbps)	Roaming Download (Mbps)	Local 5G Download (Mbps)	Roaming 5G Download (Mbps)
Austria	59.28	42.77	161.00	80.51
Belgium	48.00	59.86	157.23	124.64
Bulgaria	78.27	48.97	252.75	93.24
Croatia	73.65	47.86	184.29	124.38
Cyprus	56.93	40.83	197.22	64.24
Czechia	46.50	31.96	104.36	72.26
Denmark	118.48	51.74	206.95	115.82
Estonia	64.99	77.51	*	*
Finland	78.00	53.43	217.13	106.54
France	61.64	43.46	187.42	95.56
Germany	46.30	39.54	114.07	84.27
Greece	57.41	66.17	143.26	153.28
Hungary	40.44	48.28	85.12	132.98
Ireland	34.49	36.10	98.70	85.38
Italy	36.97	37.68	130.85	99.38
Latvia	59.73	65.13	220.51	146.15
Lithuania	64.70	53.04	*	*
Luxembourg	74.86	46.88	*	*
Malta	44.56	48.11	109.97	110.80
Netherlands	96.77	37.61	128.04	87.84
Poland	42.14	34.23	78.82	99.51
Portugal	57.86	39.91	212.95	79.88
Romania	43.34	59.59	153.35	99.84
Slovakia	43.16	41.53	139.53	85.16
Slovenia	52.73	49.86	145.83	95.50
Spain	32.33	35.77	85.75	116.48
Sweden	84.00	51.24	160.93	129.43
United Kingdom	40.74	48.06	108.74	98.92

The European Union’s “Roam Like at Home” regulation allows EU residents to use their mobile phones in other EU countries without incurring additional roaming charges. However, a new report from Ookla Speedtest Intelligence® shows that roaming speeds can vary widely depending on the country.

The report found that the median download speed for 5G roaming in the EU was 50 Mbps, while the median download speed for all technologies was 30 Mbps. This means that 5G roaming speeds were typically twice as fast as speeds for other technologies.

However, there was significant variation in speeds across different countries. For example, residents of Romania enjoyed median download speeds of 100 Mbps when roaming on 5G, while residents of Italy saw median speeds of just 20 Mbps.

The report also found that 20 countries had faster local 5G download speeds than roaming 5G speeds in Q2 2023. The exceptions were Hungary, Spain, and Poland, which all saw faster 5G roaming than locally, while Greece had marginally better 5G roaming than at home, and people from Malta didn’t really see any major difference. Estonia, Lithuania, and Luxembourg did not have enough 5G samples to qualify for analysis.

Latency suffers awfully when roaming europe

Median Mobile Roaming Latency in Europe

Speedtest IntelligenceⓇ | Q2 2023

Country	Local Multi-server Latency (ms)	Roaming Multi-server Latency (ms)	Local 5G Multi-server Latency (ms)	5G Multi-server Latency (ms)
Austria	32.19	91.24	30.96	111.08
Belgium	36.51	84.96	31.89	67.61
Bulgaria	31.72	125.60	26.41	124.63
Croatia	39.03	85.25	35.96	80.37
Cyprus	27.90	200.18	23.52	184.68
Czechia	34.72	80.18	30.77	78.72
Denmark	29.47	94.77	28.08	81.85
Estonia	33.10	87.00	*	*
Finland	33.67	102.84	32.16	99.14
France	46.97	92.61	44.39	87.49
Germany	41.78	87.19	39.07	77.57
Greece	38.16	137.29	34.63	132.91
Hungary	36.27	85.39	35.06	77.26
Ireland	36.21	116.62	31.70	118.47
Italy	50.87	100.20	49.96	93.87
Latvia	29.88	101.91	26.28	94.70
Lithuania	34.03	107.79	*	*
Luxembourg	33.45	67.70	*	*
Malta	47.44	146.57	38.69	135.43
Netherlands	33.24	83.25	31.17	79.81
Poland	42.41	108.69	40.25	100.36
Portugal	35.98	123.05	31.62	126.54
Romania	40.65	122.91	34.22	121.21
Slovakia	30.47	80.28	26.39	70.96
Slovenia	30.61	76.68	27.70	75.27
Spain	51.53	112.81	47.11	102.94
Sweden	37.52	114.69	32.97	99.48
United Kingdom	50.45	111.01	46.04	107.59

Roaming speeds in the EU vary widely, depending on the country you are traveling from, the country you are traveling to, and the agreements your home mobile operator has with operators in the country you’re visiting.

In Q2 2023, residents of every country surveyed had a much higher multi-server latency when roaming than when they were at home. This is because roaming signals are routed through a user’s home network, making latency a significant issue for Europeans when traveling. The difference was smallest in Italy and France where locals had about a 97% higher latency when roaming compared to at home. On the other end of the scale, residents of Cyprus saw over a 615% higher latency while roaming compared to at home. A high latency means a long response time for any request you send over the internet, perhaps adding more frustration to your vacation than you would want.

Outbound roaming speeds vary dramatically

The results were similar over 5G with Italy showing the smallest difference between latency while roaming and at home (about 88% greater) and Cyprus having the largest difference (about 685%). Surprisingly, 5G did not reliably improve multi-server latency.

What this data tells you is that it’s worth upgrading to 5G before a trip if speed is your main concern. Whether 5G will help you with your latency will depend heavily on which country you are traveling from. Regardless, you should expect a high latency while roaming. Plan ahead accordingly.

Fastest roaming speeds in Europe

The fastest roaming speeds in Europe were seen by customers from Italy roaming in Portugal (317.94 Mbps), Estonians roaming in Finland (278.69 Mbps), and Finns in Sweden (252.57 Mbps).

Looking at the highest results from all technologies combined, Latvians roaming in Finland experienced a median download speed of 137.49 Mbps, while Greeks saw median download speeds of 129.75 while roaming in Bulgaria and 125.83 Mbps while roaming in Austria.

Slowest roaming speeds in Europe

On the other end of the scale, Slovakian visitors to Poland had one of the slowest median download speeds overall technology while roaming during the same time period at 10.82 Mbps. Polish roamers saw a median download speed of 13.27 Mbps in the U.K. and 14.78 Mbps in Romania. Ten of the 20 slowest roaming speeds on our country-by-country list for all technologies were for Europeans roaming in the U.K. This means that travelers going to the U.K are not only seeing poorer performance, but they could also be paying more for the privilege as they do not benefit from “Roam Like at Home” regulations.

Germans in Italy had the slowest median 5G download speed on our list during Q2 2023 at 33.64 Mbps. Austrians in the U.K. saw a median download speed over 5G of 41.57 Mbps, and Portuguese roamers in Spain experienced a median download speed over 5G of 44.18 Mbps.

Whether you choose to roam, pick up a local SIM or eSIM, or simply spend less time online, we hope this information helps you make the most of your vacation. If you have an extra minute between activities, take a Speedtest® to see how your performance compares.