Roaming in Germany

EU Roaming Regulation: Roam Like at Home

The EU Roaming Regulation (EU) 2022/612 extends the "Roam Like at Home" (RLAH) principle through June 2032. Under this regulation, mobile subscribers from any EU or EEA member state who travel to another EU/EEA country — including Germany — pay no additional roaming surcharges for voice calls, SMS, and data used within their home plan allowance.

Germany is fully covered by this regulation. A subscriber from France, Poland, Spain, or any other EU/EEA state using their SIM in Germany is treated, for pricing purposes, as if they are in their home country.

What Is Covered Under EU Roaming

EU roaming regulation applies to:

• Voice calls: Outgoing and incoming calls within the EU/EEA zone are included without surcharge up to the home plan allowance
• SMS: Outgoing and incoming text messages within EU/EEA are included without surcharge
• Data: Mobile data is included up to the applicable fair use limit (see below)

The regulation does not apply to:

• Calls to premium rate numbers
• Machine-to-machine (M2M) SIM cards not designed for retail consumer use
• Data used for tethering/hotspot in some plan configurations (check tariff terms)

Fair Use Policy for Data Roaming

Operators are permitted to apply a fair use volume cap on data roaming to prevent abuse of unlimited domestic plans for permanent EU roaming use. The cap is calculated using a minimum formula based on the domestic retail price of the plan divided by the maximum wholesale roaming rate.

For practical purposes: most mainstream EU mobile plans include several gigabytes of EU roaming data, and plans with large domestic data allowances typically include proportionally large EU roaming allowances. Plans specifically designed for "EU roaming unlimited" exist, but verify the specific data cap on your operator's tariff terms.

When the roaming data cap is reached, the operator can charge at the regulated maximum retail roaming rate (€0.003/MB as of 2022, decreasing annually), or reduce speed to a minimum level (128 kbps).

Non-EU SIM Cards in Germany

Visitors from outside the EU/EEA — including the United Kingdom, United States, Switzerland, Australia, etc. — are not covered by the EU roaming regulation. Their roaming experience in Germany depends entirely on the bilateral roaming agreement between their home operator and a German MNO.

Options for non-EU visitors to Germany include:

• International roaming: Use your home SIM with your operator's international roaming add-on. Charges apply per day or per data volume depending on the plan.
• German prepaid SIM: Purchase a prepaid SIM from a German operator (available at airports, supermarkets, and electronics stores). Identity verification (Ausweispflicht) is required under German law — a passport or EU ID is needed.
• Tourist eSIM: Several providers offer eSIM profiles valid in Germany, installable before travel.

National Roaming in Germany

National roaming refers to arrangements where one German MNO allows subscribers of another German MNO to use its network in areas where their home operator has no coverage. This is distinct from international roaming.

National roaming between the three German MNOs for general consumer services is limited. The operators do not have comprehensive commercial national roaming agreements for standard consumer SIM use. However:

• Emergency calls (112, 110): Emergency calls in Germany can connect via any available network regardless of your operator, though this is a regulatory requirement rather than a commercial roaming arrangement.
• Some MVNOs: Certain MVNOs have negotiated agreements that allow their subscribers to roam onto a second network in areas where the primary network lacks coverage. This is explicitly stated in the MVNO's terms if applicable.
• Specific regulatory obligations: The 2019 spectrum auction required operators to provide wholesale roaming access in areas where they receive shared infrastructure subsidies under the Mobilfunkförderprogramm.

Manual Network Selection

When abroad in Germany, you can manually select which German operator your device should use (if your home operator has roaming agreements with multiple German MNOs). Manual selection can be useful if automatic selection picks a network with poor coverage at your location.

On most smartphones: Settings → Mobile Network → Network Operators → Search networks → Select manually. Available networks will be listed by name. Note that attempting to connect to a network without a roaming agreement will result in a "Not allowed" or similar error.

Frequently Asked Questions