Stay Connected and in Control Whilst Roaming
When you travel outside of the UK with your mobile, it’s likely that you will connect to a foreign mobile network. The only way to prevent this is to keep your device switched off, in airplane mode, or use roaming blocks. However, if you do want to use your service to keep connected while staying in control of your costs, here’s everything you need to know.
Roaming within the plan.com Europe Zone
—
Travelling to Europe? You can use your domestic data, minutes and text allowances at no extra cost across over 45 countries in our Europe Zone. A full list of these destinations is available below.
The Fair Use Threshold for all ‘Unlimited’ data, voice and text usage in the UK and plan.com Europe Zone is 25GB of data, 3,000 minutes, 3,000 texts per service per month. If you exceed one or more of these thresholds, we may take action in order to remedy the situation or prevent the problem from escalating further.
Usage and Charges whilst roaming
—
Roaming usage – accessing data, making calls and sending texts while outside of the UK – is not included in your tariff. This means that unless you have a relevant bolt-on, using your device while abroad will incur additional charges. Therefore, in order to avoid additional charges, you will either need to add a roaming bolt-on, a roaming bar, or keep your mobile in airplane mode or switched off. Please be aware that mobile devices may access data even if you do not actively use an internet browser or app e.g. to receive notifications.
The following additional charges will be incurred if you do not have a roaming bolt-on, your current location is not covered by your roaming bolt-on, you exceed your daily or monthly bolt-on allowance(s), or use the service outside of its limitations (e.g. out-of-zone or out-of-region calls) while roaming in the plan.com World Zone (outside of the Europe Zone).
Additional charges while roaming outside the Europe Zone
—Customers on all standard tariffs will now pay the same fixed rates no matter where they are in the world. Whether they’re just making calls back to the UK or calls to other faraway places, customers will know exactly where they stand.
| Usage – while in the plan.com World Zone (anywhere outside the Europe Zone) | Cost (excluding VAT) |
|---|---|
| Any call received or made (per minute) | 175p per minute / 175p minimum charge |
| SMS (per message) | 55p |
| Data usage (per MB) | 775p |
| Satellite Data (per MB) | 775p |
| Satellite Calls (per minute) | 1000p |
¹ Prices for the following tariffs: Pro Tariff, pro.plan, pro.plan switch, proshare.plan, simo.plan, exec.plan, more.plan, shareplus.plan, sim.plan, pure.plan, plus.plan, one.plan, single.plan, mbb.plan.
Additional charges while roaming inside the Europe Zone
—
| Charge type | Cost (excluding VAT) |
|---|---|
| Receiving a call | FREE |
| Out-of-zone calls e.g. France to Australia | 175p per minute / 175p minimum charge |
| Data usage (per MB) | 6.25p |
¹ Prices for the following tariffs: Pro Tariff, pro.plan, pro.plan switch, proshare.plan, simo.plan, exec.plan, more.plan, shareplus.plan, sim.plan, pure.plan, plus.plan, one.plan, single.plan, mbb.plan.
Europe Zone
—
The plan.com Europe Zone includes the following destinations. Maritime, satellite and airborne networks are not included, even though they may be based in Europe.
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Canary Islands
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
French Guiana
Germany
Gibraltar
Greece
Guadeloupe
Guernsey
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Isle of Man
Italy
Jersey
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Martinique
Monaco
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Réunion
Romania
Saint Barthélemy
Saint Martin
San Marino
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Vatican City
World Zone Regions
—
The plan.com World Zone includes most destinations in the world but excludes the UK and those destinations listed under the plan.com Europe Zone.
Maritime, Satellite & Airborne
—
Maritime, satellite and airborne networks are not included in any plan.com tariff or Bolt-on allowances, even though they may be based in one of our roaming zones.
plan.com cannot be held responsible for Equipment accessing these networks and is not liable for any additional charges that are incurred from Equipment using these networks, even if accidental.
Please take extra care when travelling off-land or within areas not covered by mobile operators. We suggest putting your device into flight-safe mode in these situations or turning off roaming data on your device.
Roaming Controls
—
Our suite of roaming controls can help you to avoid unwanted charges by blocking data usage, or restricting calls and texts to numbers and services that are not covered by most standard allowances, such as international numbers and usage while roaming.
In one simple step you can set up alerts when services are approaching the additional charge limit that you set. If reached, their usage is automatically restricted, and you’ll have the tools you need to quickly reconnect them using a bolt-on or by increasing their Spend Limit.
Visit my.plan to discover the controls available.
Roaming Bolt-ons
—
When you travel abroad, you’ve already got enough to think about – your mobile devices and staying connected while in control of your costs shouldn’t add to your list of worries.
That’s why we’ve got an impressive selection of roaming bolt-ons and add-ons* for every type of traveller. They offer a range of data, voice and text options, covering daily travel and monthly trips across the globe.
You can find out more about our range of roaming bolt-ons via https://www.plan.com/roam
Roaming Network Selection
—
When you roam, your service will try to connect to the most relevant roaming network. However, if you’re struggling to connect to a network whilst travelling outside the UK, our roaming network selection guide will tell you everything you need to know about APN and roaming network selection settings: https://www.plan.com/manual-roaming
General T&Cs
What is roaming?
Roaming is when Equipment is used outside of the UK. For example, when you travel to a foreign country with your mobile phone. Your plan.com tariff does not include use of your service(s) outside of the plan.com Europe Zone (“EZ”). Therefore, using Equipment outside of the UK or EZ means that you may incur additional charges, other than those described as part of your tariff, while using your service.
Equipment is ’being used’ while abroad when one or more of the following events take place:
- Data is accessed by your device. This may happen as soon as a device (“Equipment”) connects with a foreign network provider. plan.com will charge you a fixed standard per MB rate for this data usage without an applicable roaming data bolt-on. To prevent this, either mobile data must be turned off, roaming data must be turned off, the Equipment must be in Flight Mode and/or the Equipment must be turned off. PLEASE NOTE: Data can be accessed by your Equipment as soon as it is turned on, or Data access is enabled having been previously disabled. Data is not limited to specific apps being opened e.g., Facebook, an internet browser or Spotify. Background tasks often access data on your Equipment without your specific interaction. Therefore, your Equipment may be sending or receiving data simply by being turned on.
- A call is made or received. In order to make or receive a call, your Equipment will automatically attempt to connect to a foreign network provider. The third-party will fulfil this call request. You can prevent calls from being received while abroad by keeping your Equipment in Flight Mode, or asking for an incoming call bar to be applied. plan.com will charge you a fixed standard per minute rate for this usage (see pricing) unless the usage is bundled with a roaming voice bolt-on.
- A text message is sent. As above, this Service will be fulfilled by a foreign network provider and plan.com will charge you a fixed rate per text (see our pricing guide) unless the usage is bundled with a roaming SMS bolt-on. Multimedia Messages (MMS) are not covered by roaming Bolt-Ons or Add-Ons and are prices accordingly.
Our Daily and Monthly Roaming Bolt-Ons and Add-Ons are a range of products designed to support those Customers who want to use their services while roaming while staying in control of their costs.
Additional charges while roaming
Customers who use their service(s) while roaming to access data, make or receive calls, or send texts and do not have an applicable roaming Bolt-on or add-on in place will incur additional charges.
Customer will also incur additional if their usage exceeds (i) the relevant allowance included within the Inclusive Allowance of the Customer’s Tariff and (ii) the additional daily or monthly allowance provided by any Bolt-On, Add-On or Data Boost that has been applied (iii) the limitations of the inclusive allowance e.g. when used in a destination not covered by the allowance or used in a way outside of the allowed usage, such as Out of-Zone calls (see below for more details).
Additional Charges will be incurred at the rates set out in our Pricing guide, which can be found here: https://guides.plan.com/pricing/
What is international usage
International usage relates to calls and texts that originate in one country and are received in a different country.
When roaming, please check your Bolt-On or Add-On guide when making or receiving calls while roaming, or sending texts.
Roaming Bolt-ons and Add-Ons do not include International Calls from the UK to a destination outside of the UK. An International Bolt-On or Add-On is required in these cases. International Bolt-On or Add-Ons do not apply while roaming.
Roaming in Europe
Customers with tariffs and Bolt-ons that include UK allowances may use their UK allowances when roaming in the plan.com Europe Zone (EZ).
Usage in these destinations will be deducted from your domestic tariff allowances. For example, our pro.plan 6GB tariff customers will enjoy 6GB of data to use in the UK and EZ. If you use 500MB in France, 500MB will be deducted from your pro.plan 6GB data allowance.
If you exceed your tariff data allowance and/or Bolt-On or Add-On allowance while roaming in the EZ you will be charged at the same out of bundle rates that apply to the UK.
The following usage is included with the UK tariff allowance:
- All data usage in the EZ
- Calls and texts back to the UK from an EZ destination (including voicemail retrieval)
- Calls and texts within an EZ destination, e.g. Spain to Spain
- Calls and texts from one destination to another where both are in the EZ, e.g. Spain to Germany (except where calls or texts originate in the UK – these are still regarded as international calls/SMS)
The following usage is excluded from the UK tariff allowance:
- Calls and texts from the UK to destinations in the EZ will not be included in UK Tariffs – these are international calls/texts
- Calls and texts from in the EZ to a non-EZ destination, e.g. Spain to the USA are classified as Out of Zone Calls/Texts and subject to fixed per minute/SMS charges (see pricing guide for more information
- Calls and texts to Premium/Non-Geographic numbers are not included, neither are texts received from premium rate numbers
1Fair usage applies
Calls & texts to Europe Zone
Calls and texts to Europe Zone means calls and texts that originate in the UK and are received by services in the plan.com Europe Zone. These are classed as International Calls and Texts.
Calls and texts to Europe do not include calls and texts made while a service is roaming in the Europe Zone. These are classed as Roaming Calls and Texts.
International calls are charged by the minute, with a one-minute minimum call charge.
Unless a relevant Bolt-on or Add-On is applied, international calls and texts are charged at the standard out of bundle international call and text charge rates – please see the pricing guide for more information: https://guides.plan.com/pricing/
Calls & texts to countries outside of the Europe Zone (International)
Calls and texts to countries outside of the plan.com Europe Zone means calls and texts that originate in the UK and are received by services outside of the UK and plan.com Europe Zone. These are classed as International Calls and Texts.
Calls and texts to international destinations do not include calls and texts made while the service making the call or sending a text is roaming. These are classed as Roaming Calls and Texts.
International calls are charged by the minute, with a one-minute minimum call charge.
Unless a relevant Bolt-on or Add-on is applied, international calls and texts are charged at the standard out of bundle international call and text charge rates – please see the pricing guide for more information: https://guides.plan.com/pricing/
Roaming calls and texts within europe zone
Roaming calls and texts within Europe Zone include: Calls and texts from the Europe Zone back to the UK, In Country (e.g. France to France), and In Zone (e.g. France to Germany).
Roaming calls and texts within Europe Zone do not include Out of Zone (e.g. France to America).
Roaming calls and texts within Europe Zone do not include calls that originate in the UK and are received by services in the plan.com Europe Zone. These are classed as International Calls and Texts.
Unless a relevant Bolt-on or Add-On is applied, roaming calls and texts are charged at the standard out of bundle roaming charge rates – please see the pricing guide for more information: https://guides.plan.com/pricing/
Fair usage while roaming
The Fair Use Threshold for all mobile or MBB data usage while roaming outside of the UK (including roaming in the Europe Zone) is 25GB per service per month.
The Fair Use Threshold for all mobile call usage while roaming outside of the UK (including roaming in the Europe Zone) is 3,000 minutes per service per month.
The Fair Use Threshold for all mobile text usage while roaming outside of the UK (including roaming in the Europe Zone) is 3,000 texts per service per month.
If, at the absolute discretion of plan.com, your call usage exceeds the Fair Usage Threshold as described above, we may contact you by email, text, or telephone to advise you accordingly, but we reserve the right to bar your service.
When we contact you, we will provide you with the opportunity to rectify the situation by ceasing, or substantially reducing, your call and/or text usage. If excessive usage continues, or if for any reason we reasonably suspect that you are not acting in accordance with this policy, we reserve the right to take further action.
Such action may include, but is not limited to:
- Removing the roaming Bolt-On or Add-On
- Transferring you to a tariff that does not include unlimited calls, texts and/or data
- At our absolute discretion, suspending, modifying or restricting the use of your services
- Withdrawing access to the service indefinitely
- Termination of contract, which may also include contractual termination fees
Fair usage while roaming: permanent or semi permanent residency
plan.com tariffs, Bolt-Ons and Add-Ons are intended for customers and users with a stable link to the UK who travel abroad periodically. They are not intended for users roaming on a permanent or semi-permanent basis.
We reserve the right to monitor usage patterns of plan.com customers to reasonably determine whether a Customer may be abusing the regulatory right that permits Customers to use an Inclusive Allowance whilst roaming.
If a customer spends more than two months abroad out of four months or if the customer has consumed more data abroad than at home over this time, we may send an alert to that customer.
Once the alert is received, the customer will have two weeks to clarify the situation. If the user continues to remain abroad, we reserve the right to apply surcharges (equivalent to wholesale roaming caps, agreed on 31 January 2017).
Roaming near borders
While roaming in countries that border with other destinations that fall outside the region or zone (e.g. The Republic of Cyprus, which borders with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus), it is possible for a roaming mobile phone to connect with a mobile mast in the neighbouring country. In the example of Cyprus and Turkey, voice, text and data charges are set at the higher, non-Euro Zone rates.
When it comes to data usage, this can be up to £6 per MB. This is also true of maritime, satellite and airborne networks. plan.com is not able to control which network your Equipment connects to. For this reason, we are not liable for any additional charges that are incurred.
Maritime, satellite and airborne networks
Maritime, satellite and airborne networks are not included in any plan.com tariff or Bolt-on allowances, even though they may be based in one of our roaming zones.
plan.com cannot be held responsible for Equipment accessing these networks and is not liable for any additional charges that are incurred from Equipment using these networks, even if accidental.
Please take extra care when travelling off-land or within areas not covered by mobile operators. We suggest putting your device into flight-safe mode in these situations or turning off roaming data on your device.
Using your phone as a personal hotspot while roaming
We do not recommend using your phone or connected device as a personal hotspot. Services on standard mobile tariffs are designed for calls, texts and general use such as daily browsing. They’re not designed for being used as (or in) a mobile broadband device, as this usually consumes a great deal of data.
When you use your phone as a hotspot, all devices will be using data from your phone. Depending on the number of devices connected and what they’re being used for, your data allowance could be used up (and exceeded) very quickly.
In addition to this, the reporting of the amount of data used while tethering is subject to increased delays, sometimes of several days. This means that we may not be able to react as quickly to tethered data use as standard data use. Therefore, any data alerts and/or bars set up on your account will also be delayed. This could lead to additional charges on your account.
The reporting of data while roaming outside the UK can further increase the delay in data reporting. Due to the increased cost of using data outside the UK/EU, we highly recommend that you avoid using your phone or connected device as a personal hotspot while roaming.
Spend Caps
—
Spend Controls restrict a service’s ability to use data, make chargeable calls or send chargeable texts to prevent additional charges above a limit that you set. They do this by disabling chargeable usage such as those made to International, Premium and Non-geographic numbers, or using data outside of your allowance.
Usage restrictions can be removed by increasing or removing the Spending Limit, or adding a relevant bolt-on. Usage restrictions put in place by Spend Controls are automatically removed at the start of the next month when allowances are reset.
plan.com is a business service provider, which means our Spend Controls work slightly differently to High Street providers because it is common that as a plan.com customer, you have more than one service with us. Therefore, our Spend Controls apply to each service (e.g. phone) on your account rather than to your entire account. This is so you can set up specific Spend Limits for every service that’s on your account.
Types of Spend Control
80% and 100% notifications are linked with the following types of Spend Control, which you manage via my.plan:
- UK & Roaming Data
- UK & Roaming Voice
- UK & Roaming Texts
Setting up notifications
—
Notifications are emails and/or SMS that are sent when 50%, 80% and/or 100% of your data, voice or text allowance is used. They are also sent when 80% and 100% or your Spend Controls are reached.
You set the levels at which you are notified, who is informed and how.
Managing alerts in my.plan
Essential services can benefit from roaming a limited amount of controls ad alerts whereas Gold and Platinum services benefit from the full range of bespoke and tailored alerts.
You can manage usage notifications and Spend Controls through the CONTROLS option in my.plan, this is where you can also turn them off.
Captive Pages
—
Captive Pages are webpages that are triggered automatically, or via a link in an SMS or email when a Spend Control is activated, and a service is restricted. Our range of Spend Controls can be accessed via my.plan, and help you to stay in control of your costs, while keeping your business connected.
Captive Pages give you the opportunity to increase their Spend Limit, or purchase bolt-ons directly from their phone in order to stay connected.
No need to download an app. No need to play with settings. Captive Pages are available to all plan.com services.
FAQs
—
SETTING THE RIGHT LIMIT
Spend Controls offer a broad safety net against bill shock and give you confidence that your monthly costs are under control. However, setting a Spend Control too low may lead to services being constantly restricted and prevent the person using the phone from being connected with the business and its customers.
Please remember when setting an appropriate Spend Control, a certain proportion of out of bundle spend is to be expected on any corporate account. For example, international calls, premium-rate calls or roaming usage may be an essential element of your business. Therefore, setting a Spend Limit too low may be an obstruction to the business.
£0 SPEND CONTROLS
Customers have the option to apply £0 Spend Controls to their services. In these cases, the service will be automatically restricted so that some types of usage (such as premium-rate and international calls, roaming etc.) are unavailable. You should only opt to select a £0 limit if you understand that certain kinds of usage will be unavailable to your service.
WHAT HAPPENS IF A SERVICE REACHES ITS SPEND LIMIT?
Any further chargeable call, text or data usage will be restricted (depending on the Spend Control that you opt for). If you exhaust your monthly allowances and/or bolt-on allowances, additional calls, texts and data usage may be barred. A service will always be able to make calls to emergency services. Calls to plan.com Customer Services will also be available to most services.
Any usage that is still within the agreed allowances will not be restricted. For example, with our unlimited minutes and texts tariffs, you will still be able to call or text other plan.com and O2 mobiles, local geographic numbers etc. And if you are still within your data allowance (you may have reached your Spend Limit due to calls), you can access mobile data as normal until the allowance is exhausted.
CAN A SPEND CONTROL BE INCREASED IN ORDER TO REMOVE RESTRICTIONS?
Yes. If you have set them up the service will be sent an SMS or email at 100% of its Spend Limit, which notifies the person using the device of the usage restrictions in place. The Captive Page linked from the message also gives the service the opportunity to purchase a bolt-on (giving them extra allowances) or increase the Spend Limit.
All services on your account with a Spend Control that’s been activated can make these purchases or increase their Spend Limit via Captive Pages unless authority has been removed. To deauthorise a service and remove this ability to increase Spend Limits or purchase bolt-ons, log in to my.plan and access Controls > Visibility & Access > Self Management.