Research: Americans could spend more than $2,000 per gigabyte when traveling

Hefty roaming charges can ruin your holiday — here’s how to avoid them

Americans could spend more than $2,000 for just a gigabyte of mobile data while traveling, according to the latest research by Saily. 

The prices advertised online at the beginning of July 2024 show that some of the biggest telecommunications providers in the USA may charge customers up to $2.05 per megabyte when traveling outside of the USA to destinations like Canada, Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom, and South Korea. This amounts to a staggering $2,050 per gigabyte in roaming charges.  

“Roaming can be very expensive, and most providers do offer alternative plans and solutions to help customers avoid such hefty costs. However, sometimes users forget to take care of such things before their trip, leading to headline-making charges, such as the infamous 11 thousand pound bill racked up by a Scottish minister,” says Vykintas Maknickas, head of product strategy at Nord Security, the creators of Saily. 

Why is roaming so expensive?

Roaming — using your mobile phone outside of its home network range and connecting to another available cell network — is expensive due to several reasons. 

First, there are inter-operator charges, meaning that the home operator has to pay the foreign operator for using their network. These charges are high, so they are often passed on to the consumer, unless the consumer bought a special data plan in advance. 

Infrastructure is another expensive element. When users roam, they’re essentially renting access to another company's infrastructure, hence the added cost. 

It’s worth noting that various international efforts have been made in many regions to reduce roaming charges. The European Union, for example, has a "Roam Like at Home" initiative, which has significantly reduced costs for consumers within the region. However, many consumers worldwide still face high roaming charges due to the technology being costly in general. 

“We also tend to underestimate how much data we use. For example, watching a five-minute video in full HD (1080p) would use up about 250MB of data, and streaming a song could use up as much as 7.5MB, depending on its length and quality. So, in theory, listening to one song could cost you about 14 USD in roaming charges, and that’s a lot,” says Vykintas Maknickas.

Roaming costs in other countries

When it comes to roaming charges in other countries, the situation isn’t much better. While the European “Roam Like at Home'' initiative has made roaming more affordable in the EU, when traveling further, Europeans could also face hefty costs. For example, one provider in Germany charges 12.29 EUR per megabyte when traveling to such destinations as the USA, South Korea, Turkey, Canada. This could add up to more than 12 thousand Euros for a gigabyte. 

How to stay connected when traveling 

In order to save money while traveling, Maknickas suggests the following solutions:

1. Try out an eSIM. eSIM services can be a very convenient and affordable tool for travelers, with prices starting at 1.99 USD per gigabyte. 

1. Investigate your options. Do thorough research before your trip and evaluate what service or plan will work best for your trip. Also, to avoid last minute hiccups, make sure your phone supports an eSIM, should you choose to use one, and install it before traveling if you can. Look into alternative options, should something not go according to plan. 

1. Limit apps that use your data. Some apps can use a lot of data simply by running in the background. Evaluate whether you really need all your apps while traveling and disable or delete the ones you don’t need.

Methodology: The Saily team looked at the most popular telecommunications providers in the USA in July 2024. The team reviewed the prices advertised on the telecommunications providers’ websites accessible to all customers, without looking into any special offers.

About Saily

Saily is an affordable, user-friendly, and sustainable eSIM service that helps people to manage mobile and internet connections from anywhere in the world. Saily offers 24/7 instant customer support, flexible plans, and global coverage. Saily was created by the experts behind NordVPN — the advanced security and privacy app. For more information: saily.com.