Roaming

What is roaming?

Roaming is when you use mobile telephony services (calls, SMS and mobile Internet) when travelling abroad:

• you call or send an SMS message or MMS message to a fixed or mobile number from the country you are in;
• you call (or send an SMS or MMS message to) a fixed or mobile number of another country;
• you call (or send an SMS or MMS message to) a fixed or mobile Belgian number;
• you receive a call or an SMS message on your phone, smartphone or tablet;
• you surf the Internet using your smartphone or tablet.

Beware, roaming should not be confused with international communications. This principle refers to calls made and SMS messages sent from Belgium, to a foreign number.
The distinction is significant given that in the case of intra-EU communication, tariffs can be considerably higher than for roaming in the EU.

Tariffs

What is the tariff for calling, sending SMS messages and surfing when roaming within the EU?

The use of mobile services when roaming in the EU (and associated countries: Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein) is subject to the national tariff. Therefore, your operator may not, in principle, apply surcharges related to roaming.

Please note that there are exceptions to this principle:

• The application of a fair use policy;
• a derogation obtained by your mobile operator.

We draw your attention to the fact that calls to numbers indicated as free in the country you are in can be charged at a tariff higher than the domestic tariff. Indeed, it is possible that the “service” element of the call be subjected to billing regarding calls originating from foreign numbers.

What is the tariff for calling, sending SMS messages and surfing when roaming outside of the EU?

The roaming services outside of the European Union (and associated countries: Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein) are not regulated. Operators are therefore free to choose the tariffs applied to these services. We advise you to contact your operator in order to discover the tariffs applied to the use of mobile services outside of the European Union (and associated countries: Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein).