Will the new EU roaming rules impact IoT?

By now, you’ve probably heard that UK MNOs are bringing back EU roaming charges this year (with the exception of O2). Anyone using a UK SIM in the EU will be charged up to £2 a day.

On top of that, there are fair use caps that hit you with extra charges or disconnect you entirely if your SIM spends more than half its time overseas (over sixty-two days within four months), or if you go over your data limit.

£2 a day and 25GB a month might not sound so bad if you’re visiting friends in France.

But if you’re a business with IoT solutions overseas, it’s a cause for concern.

What do the roaming regulations say about IoT SIMs?

It’s vague. UK MNOs haven’t directly addressed this issue, so it’s safe to assume that they’re talking about all SIMs, regardless of their use.

The EU has proposed that standard roaming charges shouldn’t affect permanently roaming IoT SIMs. But they haven’t actually defined what counts as permanent roaming yet. And there’s no guarantee this proposal will benefit IoT SIMs from the UK.

Will the roaming changes affect my IoT SIMs and connectivity deployments?

If you’ve got an IoT partner, and you’re using intelligent mobile data, not to worry—you’re safe.

With intelligent mobile data and roaming IoT SIMs you’re protected from any changes the MNOs put out, now and in the future. A good IoT partner will have connectivity agreements with local networks around the world—they’ll handle all the legwork, so you’ll have no trouble deploying roaming IoT SIMs in any country (or countries!).

You won’t have to worry about roaming overages or restrictions in the EU, or anywhere else for that matter.

Even better if you’re using unsteered Multi-network SIMs: they don’t have a home network at all. Instead they find the strongest signal wherever they are and connect to that network, until a stronger option comes along. So no need to stress about losing signal as mobile deployments move around a region, or critical tech going down in an outage overseas.

eSIMs are another option. They let you manually change your SIM’s operator profile and set an overseas local network as your SIM’s home network. Think of it like getting your SIM a passport for that network, so it’s no longer a tourist paying huge roaming fees.

Doesn’t matter if you’re connecting a set of public offices in the UK, a fleet of food trucks journeying across Europe, or smart electric meters in buildings around the world.

With the right partner and the right SIMs, it’s a breeze every time.

Want an example?

Here’s how we used roaming IoT SIMs and intelligent mobile data to connect over a hundred planes for Etihad.

Check out the case study

What if I don’t have an IoT partner?

Then you better hurry and partner up. Vodafone and EE’s new roaming rules have already kicked in, and Three’s are soon to follow in May 2022.

Plus: you’ll see so much more revenue and your deployments will be so easy that you’ll wish you’d done it sooner.

In the meantime, if you’ve got projects to plan here on UK soil, go ahead and check O2, EE, Three, and Vodafone’s coverage in the UK using our coverage checker.