It’s been quite some time since having an active mobile data connection ceased to be a rarity. We carry the connected mobile anywhere, and we jump from WiFi networks to our data network almost all the time, although these jumps are not always invisible. There is a moment in which the connection can disappear if we do not expressly make clear our desire to maintain it.
That time is when we travel abroad. The operators have local agreements that allow us to navigate under their coverage throughout the national territory. We may not realize it and are under a different operator’s tower, but nothing changes if we continue in the country. When we step abroad we need to authorize the connection with networks far from our country, known as data roaming.
What is data roaming?
As we mentioned in the introduction, data roaming is known as any time we need to connect to a mobile data network (it does not apply to WiFi networks, for example) that is beyond the borders of our country. Well, technically outside the country where we have contracted the mobile Internet service, it does not necessarily have to be ours.
It does not matter that the operator that we are going to use is the same as in our country, for example, Orange in France and then Orange in Spain. If we cross the border, the conditions, the tariff, and the identifier of the operator change, and our mobile will not connect to the new line unless we give express authorization.
Our operator will notify us when we cross a border. He must inform us of the new expenses that we will have.
If we have ever traveled we will have realized that the operators themselves notify us when we cross a border and enter a new country. Normally we are informed that we will have additional connection costs, both for voice calls and for data. This message is from our operator notifying us that we are moving from the local area, where our contracted rates apply, to the roaming area. Although the name that has succeeded the most in this regard is roaming, it sure sounds familiar to us.
How much should we activate data roaming?
This roaming does not only happen when we cross a border, although it is the most common case. There are countries where the operators do not have closed agreements between them in the national territory itself, and if we lose direct coverage with ours, we will lose the connection unless, again, we activate this data roaming on the mobile.
Thus, technically we speak of roaming when we lose the direct coverage of our operator. What happens is that there are usually agreements within the country itself to use each other’s networks and that, in our eyes, we always have the same name on our phone when we look at which network we navigate under.
Traveling abroad implies that we need to activate roaming yes or yes to stay connected.
In the case of virtual operators, it is the same. We are talking about operators that do not have direct coverage and negotiate with others to offer us the service. Pepephone, to cite an example, operates under Yoigo coverage and, therefore, we will use its towers and its line to be able to use the telephone anywhere in Spain. Going abroad, as we said before, things change. We leave you a couple of tutorials to activate roaming when you think it’s necessary.
Sharlene Meriel is an avid gamer with a knack for technology. He has been writing about the latest technologies for the past 5 years. His contribution in technology journalism has been noteworthy. He is also a day trader with interest in the Forex market.
