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Travelling abroad with Sky Mobile: Sky’s Roaming Passport explained

Sky Mobile customers can now travel to 36 European destinations with total peace of mind, as their data, minutes and texts allowances can be used abroad at no extra cost. Here’s all you need to know about Sky Mobile’s Roaming Passport, including supported countries, how to activate the service, and what happens if you run out of data in a foreign country.

What happens when I travel outside of the UK with Sky Mobile?

That depends which country you’re travelling to. Right now, Sky is offering its mobile customers the ability to use their standard data, minutes and texts abroad at no extra cost, for 36 EU and EEA countries. This is the Roaming Passport deal, which was introduced in June 2017 as per EU regulations.

In other words, you can access the internet as you can at home, for checking emails, browsing websites, streaming media and more. Any data used will simply come out of your standard UK allowance. Calls and texts to mobiles and standard landlines within those supported countries will also come out of your standard allowance, while you also won’t be charged to receive calls.

If you’re travelling to a country outside of this group, then charges will apply. More on this later.

What about Pay As You Use customers? Are they covered by the Roaming Passport?

If you’re a Pay As You Use customer on Sky Mobile, you’ll be charged 10p per minute or per text when calling or messaging a mobile phone or standard landline within the supported countries. You won’t be charged if you receive a call or text message.

Which European countries are covered by Sky Mobile’s Roaming Passport?

The following is a comprehensive list of all of the countries covered by Sky Mobile’s Roaming Passport at the time of publication.

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Cyprus (Northern), Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland (Republic of), Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Azores (Portugal), Madeira (Portugal), Reunion, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.

Do I need to activate the Roaming Passport on my Sky Mobile account or do anything else before leaving the UK?

Roaming is automatically enabled for all Sky Mobile customers, so your mobile phone should work as normal when you land in a foreign country. Likewise, Roaming Passport is enabled for all users, with no further action required. You can just travel to any of the above countries and use your phone as usual and as long as you don’t go over your limits, you won’t be charged anything extra.

What about other countries? What will Sky Mobile charge me for using my phone everywhere else in the world?

Sky’s rates for other countries are competitive, although charges can of course stack up if you’re not careful. Head to the Sky Mobile travel tariffs page for the charges incurred in every other country when travelling from the UK.

What happens if I use up all of my data allowance when abroad?

Don’t stress if you realise that you’re running low on data when outside of the UK. You have a few different options for topping up your data allowance, even when roaming. In fact, all of Sky Mobile’s usual top-up schemes work perfectly fine.

For one, any Piggybank data that you have saved up can be used abroad. That is, providing you have at least 1GB saved up in there. Check out Sky Mobile’s Piggybank page for more info.

Alternatively, you can simply buy a data add-on to give you more online time. These booster packages can be used in the supported EU and EEA countries without any extra charges. Just sign into your online account and choose ‘manage data’ to get started.

Is Brexit going to mean changes to mobile roaming charges?

Charge-free roaming is a new EU initiative, so it seems likely that Brexit will result in some changes to existing schemes. Of course, these changes all rest on the negotiations which are currently underway and we won’t know for sure until the UK leaves the EU what impact this move will have. Stay tuned!

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