Free roaming in Europe

[Deska]

A friend of mine recently went to Greece but his "free roaming" did not work until he called O2 and "activated" it. Is this a typical issue and you need to notify O2 about your travel with Europe free zone, or this was just a glitch with his phone?

[jonsie · Accepted solution]

If you have O2 Travel as a bolt on in My O2 you should be ok

Just to be sure, it may be as well to call customer service to check there are no roaming bars on your account

give them a call on 202 or 0344 809 0202

or use the social media links below and they should be able to assist you with this

[Deska]

Thanks. I am talking about "free roaming" in EU not about bolts. It supposed to be completely automatic. And what the hell is a "roaming bar" that is not mentioned anywhere but frequently mentioned in these talks about roaming.

[Cleoriff]

@Deska 

Some phones have a roaming bar applied. It was during Covid when there was a restriction on travel and if honest, it's quite rare nowadays.

If you are abroad and have problems with your phone this is the advice we give

1. Manually search for another network
2. Reboot the phone
3. If you have an iPhone change your data APN to "mobile.o2.co.uk"
4. Try toggling Airplane mode on/off (it often helps kickstart things)
5. Drop down to 3G and see if that helps.
6. Contact O2 to see if there are any roaming bars on the account

[Deska]

Thank you for the advice. Just to note that this roaming bar should not then be applicable to any private sim/numbers received/activated this year. Yet it happens as the example of my friend shows (he joined O2 in April 2022). I joined in July, so hopefully will not experience this issue.

[madasaf1sh]

@Deska

I would still speak to o2, and double check, as although it shouldn't be applied, it is always wise to check, to save frustration when you arrive.