About roaming

Roaming providers (i.e. operators) provide roaming services at domestic prices to their roaming customers who are habitually resident in the Member State of the roaming provider, or with which they have durable ties involving a frequent and substantial presence in that State while travelling occasionally within the EU/EEA.

However, in order to prevent abusive or improper use of regulated retail roaming services, operators may introduce a so-called "fair usage policy". Operators thus cumulatively check the presence of users and their consumption on their home network over a period of at least four months. If a user spends more time (i.e. more than 50% of the days) in other EU Member States than at home (a user is considered to be logged in to the home network if he logs in at least once a day) during a period of at least 4 months and at the same time uses more than 50 % of his total services roaming in the EU during that period, the operator may inform him by SMS that if he does not change his usage pattern within 14 days, he will be charged a surcharge for roaming in the EU.

If the data transfer is proven to have taken place on the Serbian network, the operator is entitled to charge for it. Because the propagation of radio frequency waves does not respect national borders, the signal of foreign operators is present everywhere along the borders. If the signal of the operator to which the user is roaming is strong enough and the network is not congested, the mobile device will not switch to the signal of the foreign operator. However, if the signal of the selected operator is not available or is too weak, or the network is busy (e.g. due to increased traffic), the mobile device will search for the strongest available signal from the operator. This phenomenon cannot be completely eliminated technically, but it depends on the circumstances described above and on the ruggedness of the terrain how far into the country the signal of foreign operators reaches.

It is the responsibility of each user to exercise a certain degree of care when using services, including monitoring the network to which their mobile device is connected. The subscriber could avoid the disputed charges by manually selecting the network of the preferred operator on the mobile device, thereby ensuring control over which operator's network he uses.

If the data transfer is proven to have taken place in a country outside the EU, the operator is entitled to charge for it. Because the propagation of radio waves does not respect national borders, the signal of foreign operators is present everywhere along the borders. If the signal of the operator where the user is roaming is strong enough and the network is not congested, the mobile device will not switch to the signal of the foreign operator. However, if the signal of the selected operator is not available or is too weak, or the network is busy (e.g. due to increased traffic), the mobile device will search for the strongest available signal from the operator. This phenomenon cannot be completely eliminated technically, but it depends on the circumstances described above and on the ruggedness of the terrain how far into the country the signal of foreign operators reaches.

It is the responsibility of each user to exercise a certain degree of care when using services, including monitoring the network to which their mobile device is connected. The subscriber could avoid the disputed charges by manually selecting the network of the preferred operator on the mobile device, thereby ensuring control over which operator's network he uses.

In accordance with Regulation (EU) No 612/2022 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 April 2022 on roaming on public mobile communications networks in the Union, the operator must stop data traffic when the consumption reaches EUR 61.00 incl. VAT due to a security limit. Data transmission may only resume provided that the user and/or subscriber explicitly authorises the consumption.

Each roaming provider shall also ensure that an appropriate notification is sent to the roaming user's mobile device, for example by SMS, email or pop-up window on a computer, when the consumption of data roaming services reaches 80 % of the agreed financial or quantitative limit.

Should this financial or quantitative limit be exceeded, a notification shall be sent to the roaming user's mobile device. This notification shall specify the procedure to be followed by the user in order to continue using these services and the costs associated with each additional unit consumed. This applies to networks in the EU, but the operator may also provide such notification in countries outside the EU. If the operator does not use this option in countries outside the EU, it must inform the user, without undue delay and free of charge, by SMS, at the point of entry into such a country, that the total consumption data and the guarantee that a certain financial limit will not be exceeded are not available. The information message on the limit or consumption shall be provided by the operator during the session and not only at the end of the session.

In the US, some operators also charge for ringing if the caller does not answer, for both outgoing and incoming calls. Please note that the billing interval for outgoing and/or incoming calls is often 60 seconds. Therefore, a call may start to be charged as soon as it rings and continue to be charged when the called party answers. The billing of the connection and the billing interval must be specified in the price list of both the foreign and the domestic operator, which then charges the end-user for the service.

In this respect, before travelling abroad, you are advised to check the price lists of your operator and the price lists of the foreign mobile operators in the countries to which you are travelling and, if possible, choose one that does not charge for connection or uses a billing interval that is more favourable to you. If you wish, you can also take appropriate prior action to prevent unwanted bundling charges on incoming calls (blocking incoming calls, which you can order from your operator, switching off your mobile phone, etc.).