EU Roaming Rules Explained: Best Prepaid SIM Plans for Students Who Travel

What Roam Like at Home actually guarantees

Since 2017, the EU's Roam Like at Home (RLAH) rule has meant you use your normal domestic calls, texts, and data allowance while traveling in another EU or EEA country, without extra roaming charges. Regulation (EU) 2022/612 renewed and extended these rules, and they now run through mid-2032. As of 1 January 2026, the same rules extend to Ukraine and Moldova as well, alongside the EU's 27 member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway, according to the European Commission's roaming policy page . The UK is not covered since Brexit, so check your specific operator's terms before assuming your plan works there the same way.

The rule applies identically to prepaid SIMs, eSIMs, and standard contract plans. If your plan includes a fixed amount of data at home, that same data works at the same price while you are traveling in a covered country.

Fair use limits: why unlimited is not always unlimited

Operators are allowed to cap how much data you use at domestic prices while roaming, through a fair-use formula rather than a fixed cap for everyone. In practice the limit is calculated from your monthly plan price divided by a regulated wholesale rate, then doubled, so cheaper plans get a smaller roaming allowance and more expensive plans get more. Operators must alert you as you approach your limit and again at set spending thresholds if you go beyond it, so you should get a warning before you are charged extra rather than finding out from your next bill.

The wholesale price cap that feeds into this formula steps down each year under the regulation, which pushes fair-use data allowances up gradually, from 1.3 euros per gigabyte in 2025 down to 1 euro per gigabyte by 2027, where it holds for the rest of the regulation's term.

Choosing a prepaid SIM plan as a student who travels

Buy your SIM in the country where you spend the most time, usually your main study destination, since that country's operator sets your home rates and the fair-use allowance you carry into every other covered country. A plan with a bigger data bundle at home gives you a bigger roaming allowance elsewhere, under the formula above, so a slightly pricier domestic plan can be worth it if you travel often.

Look for a few practical things before you commit to a prepaid plan: confirm the operator explicitly lists RLAH coverage for the destinations you actually plan to visit, check whether the SIM supports eSIM if your phone does, since it is easier to activate before you travel, and read the fair-use data cap in gigabytes rather than trusting a headline unlimited claim, since almost every unlimited domestic plan still carries a capped roaming allowance under EU rules.

What still is not covered

RLAH covers calls, texts, and data while temporarily traveling. It does not apply if you permanently relocate and keep using a foreign SIM as your only number long-term, operators can restrict that under their fair-use policies since the rule is designed for travel, not permanent residence abroad on someone else's domestic rates. It also does not cover roaming outside the listed countries, so check coverage separately for any trip outside the EU/EEA plus Ukraine, Moldova, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.

Practical takeaway

For most students moving between EU study destinations, a single domestic prepaid SIM from your main country covers you at home rates almost everywhere else on this list. Save a backup plan, such as a second eSIM profile or your university's campus wifi details, for the rare country your operator does not cover, and check your specific plan's fair-use gigabyte cap before a long trip so you are not caught out mid-semester.