The Hidden Costs of International Roaming for SMEs

If your employees regularly travel overseas for meetings, conferences, and product launches, chances are, they’re going to need to stay connected. But, even in a day and age where roaming and its costs are supposedly easier to understand than ever before, there are still financial risks to your SME if you send staff abroad without a safety net.

Roaming costs have been expensive for several years now – and, ultimately, the costs you’ll pay for your staff’s international mobile use will depend on the network in play, and how much data they actually use.

In this guide, we’ll take you through what to expect from hidden roaming fees and how you can cut back on them and keep your international teams on budget.

Why is international roaming so expensive?

International roaming refers to any mobile phone, tablet, or other cellular network device or SIM that switches to overseas networks during travel. That means any typical device usage, such as calls, texts, or use of mobile data (such as emails, browsing, or streaming) will fall under roaming, and will become chargeable.

Quite how you’re charged, and how much for, depends on your network and business tariff. For example, some networks cover business roaming as part of the regular amounts you pay within your contract. At other times, however, roaming charges can skyrocket if you don’t keep a close eye on them.

This is especially true if, for example, one of your employees uses an iPhone with several background tasks and refreshing processes which use up data without them realising. Beyond this, even simple phone app tasks such as browsing social media uses up considerable data (though whether or not your team should be using TikTok for personal use on your tariff remains your concern!).

Some roaming costs that can ramp up without users or tariff owners realising include:

• Background tasks and hidden app usage (including syncing)
• Cross-border connections (for example, say a phone user in Turkey connects to an Asian network after using a European 4G connection)
• Post-Brexit fees (some networks may charge for European roaming)
• Over-threshold usage (depending on plans and packages used)

Thankfully, there are ways for businesses to keep track of what’s being used and to curb roaming costs so that they don’t eat into their bottom lines.

How to cut down the cost of international roaming for your business

Cutting to the chase, the absolute best way to prevent rising roaming costs for your SME is to invest in prepaid travel eSIMs. Paying in advance means that you have complete control over how much data you top up with, and there are zero roaming fees added on top.

For now, however, let’s break down all the ways you can lower your roaming rates, per user, when they use their phones abroad.

Plan ahead

It’s always good to have a plan, and while you might be a brilliant communicator, it really does pay to lay down a clear roaming budget ahead of time. That means ensuring your team has a process through which they can request eSIMs, say, for any destinations your company needs them to travel to, for a specific period.

You could also plan ahead by setting up remote data tracking, depending on the network or service you adopt. Regardless, it is never wise to simply offer your staff SIM cards without carefully choosing packages that will limit them to what they are likely to use.

Encourage WiFi and VPN use

Public WiFi and data hotspots are not always secure and frequently pose a variety of risks, which is why so many SMEs look towards mobile data instead. That said, it is reasonable to expect employees to use conference centre or hotel WiFi provided it is secure, and if they use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to do so.

By mandating VPN use, you can always ensure that employees feel safe when connecting to WiFi, which will also reduce their dependence on 4G and 5G. However, they can also use VPNs with mobile data for optimal security and the fastest all-around connectivity.

Set up a roaming plan or bolt-on with your network

There’s a good chance your business mobile network will already support some form of roaming plan or bolt-on. In which case, it’s still worth comparing the rates they offer with those of others on the market.

One of the biggest issues SMEs face with existing networks and bolt-ons, however, is extra fees that can ramp up once data runs out, or that roaming packages simply don’t give their teams enough to work with. Therefore, in many cases, using an eSIM is often more cost-effective.

Why using travel eSIMs is the best way to cut down roaming costs

Travel eSIMs operate much like traditional SIM cards, with the key difference being they download and ‘embed’ to devices. They can also connect to multiple different networks within a specific region, meaning users are able to hop from one to another if signals drop or connectivity slows down.

For example, say that members of your team are heading to Europe. With Planet Telecom’s Europe (40+ Areas) eSIM, they will have access to up to 5G speeds in multiple territories, also enabling them to create portable, shareable hotspots. This particular eSIM offers a flat coverage rate of up to 50GB for up to 180 days, with unlimited plans also available, providing daily resets of up to 2GB of data.

The biggest benefit of moving to eSIMs means there are no roaming fees. You top up with the data required before you or your team travels using a simple QR code, and you’re covered to connect to several of your destination’s top network providers.

It’s still a good idea to set expectations and to limit data usage if you are working to a budget, but the amount of money your SME will save simply by paying for roaming data in advance is going to be considerable.

That means you can refocus any of your budget otherwise spent on roaming into other project areas – great news for businesses that are trying to scale but are constantly fighting financial fires!

International roaming doesn’t have to cost your business or your individual teams and users the earth. Being smarter about how you manage your data costs, and by switching to prepaid eSIMs will give you greater flexibility and far fewer headaches when it comes to crunching mobile data expenses.

Take a look at Planet Telecom’s wide range of travel eSIMs now, and feel less stressed about giving your team the freedom to roam – no matter where business takes them!