How to activate data roaming on Android to continue browsing abroad

You carry your passport, suitcases, charger, credit card, and everything you will need once you arrive in the country you are about to travel to. But, do you already know how to surf the Internet with your mobile, considering that you will be abroad?

Thanks to roaming or data roaming, leaving our country of origin, where we have a data plan with a specific company, and continuing browsing the Internet from a mobile phone is rarely a problem. However, you have to take into account several important aspects, which in this guide we want to examine in more detail to clarify all doubts in this regard.

First of all: everything you need to know about roaming

Although in recent years we have heard about roaming to a greater extent due to the changes produced within the European Union, this concept dates back several years ago, when most mobiles still could not connect to the Internet. Roaming refers to the ability to use networks in other countries to make or receive voice calls.

The geographic coverage area of the home network of the operator in question. The term roaming refers to the ability of the customers of a certain operator to continue using the telephone network – whether to make calls, send or receive messages or surf the Internet – even when they leave the network. Using this service, once the customer in question has crossed the coverage limit of the home network, it will automatically switch to using the coverage of another company – with which there is a roaming agreement – when available, thus ensuring the possibility of surfing the Internet or making calls.

Normally, operators charge a certain rate for using this service. When browsing or calling outside the domestic coverage area, the customer will have to pay an extra for the megabytes or minutes consumed. In Spain, these are the rates of the main operators when roaming outside the EU – although, of course, it must be taken into account that the costs may vary depending on the destination country:

However, as I anticipated before, things change in the countries of the European Union. Since mid-2017, operators have been obliged to offer their customers roaming completely free of charge in the 28 countries belonging to the EU, without adding any supplement or extra cost to the original call and data rate.

In this way, all those people who have a call and data rate, whether contract or prepaid, can use the services of the contracted plan, be it making or receiving calls or messages, or surfing the Internet through the network of mobile data, in any of the EU countries as if they were in your region of origin.

How to activate data roaming on your Android mobile

Of course, before leaving your country and being able to connect to the networks of other operators, you must allow your Android device to “jump” from network to network without problems. This process is as simple as enabling an option included in the system settings, which you can do by following these steps:

1. Open the system settings and go to the Network and Internet section.
2. Click on the Mobile Network option.
3. Activate the Data roaming switch, and press Yes in the pop-up message that will appear on the screen.

 

That is all. Keep in mind that, although all operators already offer free roaming within the European Economic Area, you should make sure about the conditions of your rate and specific company, regardless of the country you are going to travel to, and even more so if you are going to visit a country that is not included within this territory. Otherwise, your next phone bill could come as a surprise. And not with a nice one, precisely.