If you were to conduct a survey among your compatriots, asking them to indicate countries in Europe that are not part of the EU or that do not have “free” roaming, Switzerland would probably get the fewest points, maybe ex aequo with Great Britain. However, on the islands there is no such problem as in Switzerland, or more precisely around this country.
Well, Switzerland borders with five countries, including four belonging to the European Union, and the fifth one – Liechtenstein – although it is not a member of the organization, still benefits from roaming in the EU according to the RLAH principle.
I have read many stories on the Internet about Poles who only passed through a part of Switzerland and did not even enter because they were in the Italian Alps, and still came back with a large bill for data transfer. As you can easily guess, this was due to the fact that they accidentally fell into the so-called cross-border roaming, in which their smartphone automatically switched to a stronger transmitter of a Swiss operator near the border.
So, even if we are aware that Switzerland is not part of the EU or has not joined the EU roaming according to RLAH, like several other non-EU countries, we are often unknowingly exposed to high roaming costs in Switzerland. How to avoid this?
Turn off automatic network selection on your phone
When we go to one of the EU countries, all we have to do before setting off is to turn on roaming in the phone settings. After arriving or landing, we automatically connect to one of our operator’s roaming partners and can start using calls, messages or the Internet as in Poland (RLAH – Roam Like At Home).
However, if you are going to the border regions with Switzerland – in Germany, France, Italy, Austria or Liechtenstein, be sure to change this one setting on your phone (it looks similar on iOS and Android): Settings – Mobile network – Network selection – Automatic.
After turning off this option – the third screenshot – available operators in a given country will be displayed below. If you are traveling by plane, at the airport in your destination country in the EU there will certainly be only operators from that country, so we choose the one with the strongest signal first from the top.
You’re driving and you’re just passing through Switzerland
If you are traveling by car and you need to turn off roaming before the border with Switzerland, turn it on once you are “deeper” in a given EU country. You can turn it off in the same place on your phone, as seen in the screenshot above, or it is best to switch directly to airplane mode.
You need uninterrupted network access
The third option has two sub-options – you are traveling through the whole of Switzerland and need uninterrupted access to the network, and Switzerland is your final destination.
In both sub-options, I recommend first turning off the use of the cellular network in the App Store and Google Play application settings and in the Apple Photos and Google Photos applications – with these settings, 5 GB was enough for 3 days in Albania for two people (outside the hotel with hotspot turned on for the second phone).
Next, it is best to take advantage of some roaming offer in the form of an additional eSIM card. We add it to the phone as a second line and set it to use mobile network data, data only, etc. the setting depends on the type of smartphone.
Where does this eSIM card come from? If you don’t have a great roaming offer from your operator, I recommend checking price lists for Switzerland in popular eSIM solutions such as Revolut:
- mobile internet with a limit of 1 GB for 7 days – PLN 15,
- mobile internet with a 5 GB limit for 30 days – PLN 55,
- mobile internet with a 10 GB limit for 15 days – PLN 90.
It’s cheaper in the Orange Flex application – you don’t need to have a mobile offer for your main phone number, when creating an account you choose Orange Flex Travel, and after registering the account, you add an eSIM card to your phone and activate the selected package for Switzerland:
- mobile internet with a limit of 1 GB for 7 days – PLN 15,
- mobile internet with a 5 GB limit for 7 days – PLN 40,
- mobile internet with a 10 GB limit for 15 days – PLN 75.
Don’t you want another application on your phone? You can also do it via a website, for example – Airalo, but it will be more expensive.
Stock Image from Depositphotos.
