Roaming in Italy

[MartinSquash]

Hi does anyone understand O2 fair usage policy on roaming in Europe. I have a place in Italy and am in the summer for about 90 days continuously. No WiFi in the house so am heavy on data. I use about 50 to 60gb a month. Was going to buy a sim card with 100gb data and month. Until I read something about being in Europe for more than 63 days in any 4 month period. As i am but didn't understand the additional charges. Help.

[Cleoriff]

Hi @MartinSquash 

O2 has a fair usage policy which means occasional (holiday use abroad). If you are using your phone abroad for more than 63 days in 4 months, your services will be restricted

https://www.o2.co.uk/termsandconditions/mobile/o2-consumer-fair-usage-policy 

Edited to add...

You may only use our services in our Europe Zone (excluding the UK) for periodic travel, like holidays or short breaks. Your data usage may be limited in our Europe Zone (excluding the UK) at a lower level than you data allowance in the UK if you’re a Pay As You Go customer. Once you go over this limit you’ll be charged. For these limits and charges please see www.o2.co.uk/help/pay-as-you-go/roaming-in-europe.
What to avoid: Using our services for the first time outside of the UK, using a large volume of your allowance (be that text, calls or data) in our Europe Zone (excluding the UK), or using our services and travelling within our Europe Zone (excluding the UK) for prolonged periods which don’t follow reasonable consumer holiday and travel patterns and behaviour. If you use our services outside the UK in our Europe Zone for 63 or more days in any four month period and you cannot demonstrate prevailing use and / or presence in the UK this is likely to be deemed to be an unfair use of our services. In such an event we will notify you and then after two weeks charges will apply (the “Surcharges”). For Pay Monthly and Pay As You Go customers the Surcharges are £4.50/GB for data, 3.3p/minute for calls and 1p/text for texts. These charges will cease to apply if you can subsequently demonstrate prevailing use and / or presence in the UK.

[Bambino]

@MartinSquash You can find the fair usage policy in the Terms and Conditions link at the bottom of the page. No more than 63 days in a four month period is correct. You would most likely have your service either severely curtailed or suspended if you go over that time length.

[MartinSquash]

Thanks for the replies. I did phone O2 and the call handler checked with her manager and said no problem as you can use your plan in Europe as you would in the UK. Unbelievable. The other networks seem to have set a cap of 20 to 25gb a month. Last two years my partner have been with Vodafone and noth of us using about 50 to 60gb a month. But now the other networks have set a cap of 20 to 26gb a month. Only solution is to buy an Italian sim card!! Thanks again.

[Bambino]

@MartinSquash If you're going to be there for longer than the allowed number of days on a regular basis, an Italian sim card would seem to be the best way to go.

[Cleoriff]

@MartinSquash 

Obviously the call handler should read the terms and conditions before making silly statements.

We have had people posting in here who were abroad and unable to get back due to the pandemic. Their services have been restricted and then charged at standard rates. Some have then been cut off.

[MartinSquash]

May have a solution. A provider that uses the O2 network allows you to roll over unused data into your piggybank. I phoned them this morning and was confirmed there are no restrictions or data cap in Europe. So buy a 25gb sim card for £15 and by June will have over 130gb in my piggybank. Problem solved - he says confidently!!

[Cleoriff]

@MartinSquash 

Personally I don't think that will make the slightest bit of difference if your still using the O2 network. You are rolling over data but still using O2 for beyond 63 days. The only way out of this is to buy a local sim and use that for 2 weeks, then put your O2 sim back in the phone, use that for under 63 days, and go back to the local sim....rinse and repeat.

Edit spelling

[MI5]

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@Cleoriff wrote:

@MartinSquash 

Personally I don't think that will make the slightest bit of difference if your still using the O2 network. You are rolling over data but still using O2 for beyond 63 days. The only way out of this is to buy a local sim and use that for 2 weeks, then put your O2 sim back in the phone, use that for under 63 days, and go back to the local sim....rinse and repeat.

Edit spelling

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Phone has to register on O2-UK to reset the timer but I think @MartinSquash is talking about switching to Sky Mobile anyway?

[Cleoriff]

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@MI5 wrote:

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@Cleoriff wrote:

@MartinSquash 

Personally I don't think that will make the slightest bit of difference if your still using the O2 network. You are rolling over data but still using O2 for beyond 63 days. The only way out of this is to buy a local sim and use that for 2 weeks, then put your O2 sim back in the phone, use that for under 63 days, and go back to the local sim....rinse and repeat.

Edit spelling

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Phone has to register on O2-UK to reset the timer but I think @MartinSquash is talking about switching to Sky Mobile anyway?

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Really? I didn't see any mention of Sky Mobile in his post?