Surely on more than one occasion you have changed the operator looking for more data, or more minutes of calls for your smartphone. It is in those moments in which we discover or notice new functions, which are not so great, and among them we find the “Data Roaming”. An option that we do not know what it consists of and if we should have it activated or not.
This option comes into play, especially when we travel abroad outside our country. There is no official definition of this pun, since it is the unofficial translation of "Roaming", an English word that refers to the service activated by default in the lmobile line that will allow you to use your mobile phone abroad. That is, make and receive calls, surf the Internet, send, receive messages and use the different applications.
What is data roaming?
As we have mentioned, most operators have local agreements thanks to which We can navigate with your coverage throughout the national territory. In fact, on many occasions we are receiving the connection thanks to the tower of an operator other than ours, which does not affect us as long as we are within our country.
Things change when we are abroad, since if we do not activate the indicated option and authorize the connection with networks located far from our country, we will not be able to navigate and that is known as data roaming. It does not matter if the company is the same in the foreign country, since if we cross the border, the rate conditions change, the operator identifier and our mobile will not be able to connect to the new line unless you expressly authorize it in your terminal.
When we move abroad when crossing borders, the operators themselves they usually send messages automatically to users, in which we are informed about the extra costs that we may suffer on our bill for contracted services, such as contracted data, voice calls, etc. And it is that this happens because when leaving the country in which we have contracted with the operator we will have to activate the roaming or roaming.
Smartphone application for online searching, buying and booking flights on the internet. Unusual 3D illustration of commercial airplane and boarding passes on smart phone in hand
In the world of mobile telephony, we can say that roaming is the ability to send and receive calls, text messages and be able to use data outside the local service area of our operator freely. Or what is the same, being able to connect to other telephone networks belonging to companies different from ours, in any part of the territory in which we are, national or international.
When should we activate data roaming?
Data roaming can be activated even in populations very close to foreign territory, in fact there are countries in which the telephone companies do not have pre-established agreements, and if we stop having coverage with our operator we will be left without a line, unless we have activated this option.
Therefore data roaming is the one that is applied when we connect to the Internet by activating the option. However, do not forget that the same roaming can suppose a considerable increase in the bill that we receive at the end of the month, therefore it is convenient to know what it consists of. Although, since June 2017, roaming is free and calls you make within the European Union will be invoiced according to the plan you have contracted in your country of origin.
If we have lost the connection of our operator when leaving the country, we will automatically connect to the networks of other companies if we activate the roaming or data roaming option. This is so thanks to the agreements between the different companies to be able to continue browsing, therefore we will not lose any option on the phone.
That is why we will be operating under the coverage network and line towers of these large operators anywhere in Spain, and when going abroad it will depend on the agreements that they have established. Data roaming usually comes offline on the phone, If you are going to travel outside your national territory, activate it.
MVNOs (virtual operators)
Data roaming is not only useful when we travel abroad, since in the case of virtual mobile operators that do not have their own network, they usually have agreements with other companies, as we have already mentioned. Therefore, in order to have these options, it is common for them to request the activation of data roaming during SIM setup. If you contract MVNOs like Yoigo or Pepephone, you will have to set up a roaming system to be able to use their services.
This option is identified on the screen by the letter R at the top of the screen to the right, even though is not always like that. Specifically, it is located next to it in the same place where the nomenclature of 3G, H+, 4G or 5G usually appears in the indicator of your coverage, as we have indicated, depending on your phone, that R may not appear, and instead the usual symbols will appear. of coverage. That is why we have to take into account, whether or not the symbol appears, to have the data roaming option activated if we use an OMV. Otherwise, navigation, calls or sending and receiving text messages may not work correctly.
If we have contracted rates and plans with virtual operators, the same thing happens, since they do not have their own coverage, they establish line subcontracts to be able to offer the services. This is the case with different companies, since for example, Pepephone works under the coverage of Yoigo, O2 belongs to Movistar itself and also uses its network, Lowi does the same with Vodafone, Simyo with Orange.
After Euskaltel went on to operate throughout the Spanish territory and after the creation in 2020 of the MVNO Virgin Telco, in 2021 the Euskaltel Group passed into the hands of the MásMóvil Group, and thanks to that it has Yoigo coverage, which is also reinforced by Orange and Movistar.
Another OMV type operator is Finetwork that has grown very fast in recent years. It uses coverage supported by the Vodafone Enabler platform, and shares advantages with Lowi such as the possibility of accumulating unconsumed gigabytes and the possibility of sharing data with any client of the same operator.