Last year, we conducted an expansive analysis of mobile roaming in the European Union. We’re updating our data to see which countries have the best roaming speeds and how roaming affects time spent on Wi-Fi. This analysis is based on Speedtest data from Android devices in Europe during Q3-Q4 2019. Despite Brexit, we’ve included data from the United Kingdom to keep parity year-over-year, as the roaming agreement remains in place for 2020 and this data involves travel within a specific set of countries.
Roaming in Europe typically means slower download speeds
Mobile roaming speeds are affected by the deals struck between individual mobile operators on a country-by-country basis. This means roaming speeds can depend on the plan a subscriber has selected in their home country and on what is offered in the country of destination.
Out of the 28 countries we examined, residents of 22 countries experienced slower speeds when roaming elsewhere in Europe than they do in their home countries. Travelers from the Netherlands experience the most significant loss in speed, with a roaming download speed that is 54.7% slower than at home. However, users in Slovakia barely notice a change in download speed with a roaming download speed only 2.6% slower than the mean download speed in Slovakia during this period.
| Country | Local Speeds (Mbps) | Roaming Speed Upload (Mbps) | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 46.30 | 35.93 | -22.4% |
| Belgium | 50.95 | 33.38 | -34.5% |
| Bulgaria | 55.32 | 30.95 | -44.1% |
| Croatia | 52.40 | 43.73 | -16.6% |
| Cyprus | 43.50 | 21.04 | -51.6% |
| Czech Republic | 47.00 | 36.37 | -22.6% |
| Denmark | 48.38 | 32.28 | -33.3% |
| Estonia | 42.61 | 43.90 | 3.0% |
| Finland | 43.38 | 41.46 | -4.4% |
| France | 44.34 | 34.00 | -23.3% |
| Germany | 34.07 | 30.48 | -10.5% |
| Greece | 39.90 | 45.03 | 12.9% |
| Hungary | 45.53 | 29.55 | -35.1% |
| Ireland | 26.73 | 32.05 | 19.9% |
| Italy | 33.64 | 40.98 | 21.8% |
| Latvia | 33.20 | 38.54 | 16.1% |
| Lithuania | 46.72 | 39.73 | -15.0% |
| Luxembourg | 52.55 | 34.61 | -34.1% |
| Malta | 48.88 | 32.30 | -33.9% |
| Netherlands | 62.52 | 28.31 | -54.7% |
| Poland | 33.07 | 25.57 | -22.7% |
| Portugal | 34.49 | 36.34 | 5.4% |
| Romania | 37.84 | 33.69 | -11.0% |
| Slovakia | 34.74 | 33.83 | -2.6% |
| Slovenia | 39.34 | 32.67 | -16.9% |
| Spain | 34.28 | 27.56 | -19.6% |
| Sweden | 48.52 | 36.55 | -24.7% |
| United Kingdom | 36.36 | 34.96 | -3.8% |
Upload speeds locally are also mostly faster than those experienced while roaming. Cyprus, Denmark, and the Netherlands all had relatively high mean upload speeds locally, but they also had the largest loss in roaming upload speeds ranging from 31.3% to 36.7% slower upload speeds on mobile roaming.
Residents of some European countries do benefit from faster speeds when roaming on mobile. Users from Estonia, Portugal, Greece, Latvia, Ireland, and Italy all experienced faster download speeds when roaming elsewhere in Europe than they did in their home countries during Q3-Q4 2019. Italian and Irish travelers gained the most when roaming with download speeds that were 21.8% and 19.9% faster than their local speeds, respectively.
A total of 12 countries had higher mean upload speeds while roaming than they experienced locally during this period. France, Latvia, and Ireland benefitted the most with an increase in upload speeds that ranged from 26.5% to 21.4% while roaming.
Latency increases dramatically while roaming in Europe
Unlike mean download and upload speeds, latency is almost always dramatically different while roaming. This is because roaming signals are routed through a user’s home network, making latency a significant issue for Europeans when traveling.
| Country | Local Latency (ms) | Roaming Latency (ms) | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 26 | 84 | 220.4% |
| Belgium | 27 | 83 | 205.7% |
| Bulgaria | 27 | 127 | 368.3% |
| Croatia | 33 | 89 | 166.0% |
| Cyprus | 23 | 213 | 825.5% |
| Czech Republic | 26 | 74 | 187.6% |
| Denmark | 26 | 100 | 287.9% |
| Estonia | 25 | 76 | 201.5% |
| Finland | 27 | 97 | 254.6% |
| France | 41 | 82 | 98.8% |
| Germany | 38 | 87 | 128.1% |
| Greece | 29 | 129 | 349.8% |
| Hungary | 25 | 93 | 272.6% |
| Ireland | 35 | 100 | 185.0% |
| Italy | 50 | 91 | 81.2% |
| Latvia | 26 | 95 | 268.2% |
| Lithuania | 27 | 107 | 302.2% |
| Luxembourg | 23 | 83 | 262.6% |
| Malta | 19 | 136 | 611.6% |
| Netherlands | 28 | 87 | 208.3% |
| Poland | 35 | 109 | 209.2% |
| Portugal | 30 | 109 | 258.8% |
| Romania | 30 | 113 | 275.3% |
| Slovakia | 31 | 76 | 105.5% |
| Slovenia | 24 | 74 | 208.2% |
| Spain | 45 | 107 | 137.4% |
| Sweden | 29 | 118 | 304.3% |
| United Kingdom | 38 | 103 | 173.1% |
In their home country, residents of Malta (19 ms), Luxembourg (22 ms) and Cyprus (23 ms) enjoyed the lowest latencies in Europe. Residents of France, Spain and Italy experienced the highest latencies in their home countries at 41 ms, 45 ms and 50 ms, respectively.
European residents experienced an increase of at least 81.2% in their latency when visiting other countries within Europe. Residents from Cyprus, Malta and Bulgaria experience the biggest increase in latency when visiting other countries in Europe, ranging from Cyprus’ 825.5% to Bulgaria’s 368.3%. The countries that experienced the smallest increase in latency were Italy (81.2%), France (98.8%) and Germany (128.1%).
Locals spend more time on Wi-Fi than visitors in Europe
While there are no roaming changes within the E.U., users often opt to connect to Wi-Fi to avoid additional data overages at home and abroad. The following table compares the percentage of time spent on Wi-Fi by a resident of a country with that of a visitor to the same country during Q3-Q4 2019.
| Country | Local Customers | Visitors | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 75.5% | 40.5% | -46.3% |
| Belgium | 77.9% | 35.8% | -54.1% |
| Bulgaria | 74.0% | 60.3% | -18.5% |
| Croatia | 74.3% | 53.8% | -27.5% |
| Cyprus | 79.3% | 70.2% | -11.5% |
| Czech Republic | 80.1% | 46.6% | -41.8% |
| Denmark | 78.7% | 60.3% | -23.4% |
| Estonia | 70.3% | 51.9% | -26.2% |
| Finland | 63.0% | 60.3% | -4.4% |
| France | 69.3% | 48.7% | -29.7% |
| Germany | 80.0% | 47.1% | -41.1% |
| Greece | 79.3% | 64.3% | -19.0% |
| Hungary | 76.8% | 47.8% | -37.8% |
| Ireland | 75.6% | 58.9% | -22.0% |
| Italy | 70.9% | 55.1% | -22.2% |
| Latvia | 68.8% | 49.2% | -28.4% |
| Lithuania | 73.8% | 52.2% | -29.2% |
| Luxembourg | 72.4% | 30.8% | -57.4% |
| Malta | 79.4% | 65.9% | -17.1% |
| Netherlands | 81.8% | 49.1% | -40.1% |
| Poland | 70.2% | 58.2% | -17.1% |
| Portugal | 76.5% | 61.9% | -19.0% |
| Romania | 69.6% | 64.1% | -7.9% |
| Slovakia | 76.2% | 40.1% | -47.4% |
| Slovenia | 70.7% | 24.7% | -65.2% |
| Spain | 78.3% | 62.8% | -19.7% |
| Sweden | 81.8% | 53.8% | -34.3% |
| United Kingdom | 79.3% | 60.9% | -23.1% |
As we saw last year, Finnish residents spent the least amount of time on Wi-Fi at 63.0%. Latvia showed the second lowest time spent on Wi-Fi (68.8%), followed by France (69.3%). Residents from the Netherlands, Sweden and the Czech Republic spent the most time on Wi-Fi at 81.8%, 81.8%, and 80.1%, respectively.
Visitors to Cyprus, Malta and Greece spent the most amount of time on Wi-Fi during this period. Time spent on Wi-Fi by visitors ranged from 64.3% in Greece to 70.2% in Cyprus. Visitors to Slovenia, Luxembourg and Belgium as a destination country spent the least amount of time on Wi-Fi at 25.7%, 30.8% and 35.8%, respectively.
Are you interested in more data on roaming performance? Read more here!