Moving to an EU country but continuing to use my UK mobile - roaming, fair use, etc.

alexanderalexander

I am moving to Belgium in a couple of months (probably for a duration of around two years). 

I would like to keep my UK mobile number in active use throughout that period (in addition to obtaining a Belgian SIM card for use in a second mobile phone) for a variety of reasons: mainly because I use it to run a part-time small business (so I would continue to use it in Belgium for that purpose), but also so I would have a UK mobile for use when I pop back to the UK (which'd probably be around once a month) and so that longer-term I don't lose my UK mobile number (I've had the same one for around 20 years so I don't want to ditch it now!). 

My understanding is that I could well fall foul of my operator's (ID Mobile's) Fair Usage policy. Does anyone have any experience as to how officiously they or other operators implement these policies? It does say that having "strong ties to the UK" is sufficient to get away with it; as I will be retaining a residence in the UK and will therefore have bills etc. going to a UK postal address, will that be enough?

(Before anyone mentions it, I am well aware that there is a risk that EU mobile roaming could change for the worse anyway following the end of the Brexit transition period, but given that is so unknowable I am not factoring that into my thinking for the moment.)

Jon_01

The Fair usage policy is run by the server software, it's start a counter on your first usage over there which will only reset once the phones used in the UK next.
Sometimes for odd reasons there seems to be lag when the counter runs down, but it wouldn't be for 2 years!

Curls2208

I live and work in Cyprus and use a UK sim. I've done it both with EE and Vodafone. I've never had ANY issues, the occasional text message to remind you where you are is all you get.

I wouldn't worry. 

eDicky

According to my own experience I'd say it's hard to predict if and when a network will impose a fair usage policy on extended roaming, unless someone has particular experience of it with ID Mobile. If you will use it once every month or two in UK, the next period of use in Belgium will begin afresh, presumably. And in any case, if their FUP does kick in you will not be cut off or lose your number, just a tariff of charges will begin being applied.

I've been in Italy since early January. My main UK number with EE is always on (but rarely used) and I also have Three UK data reward and O2 Classic PAYG SIMs for occasional use. So far the 'Roam like at Home' service has not been cut off by any of them. Every few weeks EE send me the "Welcome to Italy etc..." texts as if I have just arrived, as do the others when used afresh in my tablet.

For convenience you might consider using a dual SIM handset instead of two separate phones.

Frozen_up_north

A friend spends up to 10 months each year in Spain, each “trip” lasting 3 or 4 months before returning to the UK for around 2 to 6 weeks. She uses a UK O2 “Classic” PAYG SIM (no longer available to new users). It is used in a dual SIM phone, with a local Spanish SIM in the other slot.

There have been no issues with her roaming, although it’s worth pointing out that usage of the UK SIM is minimal, it might attract attention if it was an “unlimited minutes” contract SIM used to make and receive a lot of calls while roaming.

The usual roaming conditions are that over a rolling period you need to spend more time in the UK than overseas, whether you just receive a warning text, have a surcharge added, or have roaming suspended (or worse), will probably depend on how much loss there is to the network by providing you with “free” international roaming and calling.

alexanderalexander

Thanks to all for your experiences. It sounds like I should just give it a go and see what my operator says (if anything).