Hi John, and thanks for the detailed comment.

So, this is interesting. Back when the EU roaming regulations came into force in 2017, I wrote up an article outlining the changes, and link to it in SIM card posts for EU countries to provide a bit more detail. At the time there was some talk about who it applied to, which I mentioned in the article and said:

Theoretically, then, if you’re not an EU resident, mobile companies aren’t obligated to offer you “roam like at home” pricing. That’s potentially bad news for visitors from elsewhere in the world, who plan to buy a SIM card in the first EU country they visit, then use it across the continent.

Practically, though, many carriers are unlikely to bother trying to restrict their service like this. I spoke to a customer service representative for EE, the largest mobile company in the UK, who confirmed international visitors will be treated the same as any other prepaid customer. As long as they abide by the standard fair use policy, they can roam across the EU like anybody else.

My advice for international tourists planning to use a SIM in this way, though, is to ask this specific question before purchase. Each operator is different, and especially in cheaper Eurozone countries, some may look to keep their costs down by enforcing this part of the regulations.

The long and the short of it is that according to the legislation, providers are only obligated to offer free EU roaming to their customers who are “normally resident in or have stable links entailing a frequent and substantial presence” in that country. In other words, they actually aren’t obliged to offer it to foreigners if they don’t want to. Practically, though, virtually every provider does — this is literally the first time I’ve heard of foreigners being singled out for special (ie, worse) treatment.

As obnoxious as it seems, sadly the staff at the Vodafone store aren’t technically scamming people, they’re just enforcing the regulations as they’re written. 🙁 Hopefully other mobile companies in Czechia (and indeed, the rest of the EU) aren’t following suit en masse!

Dave, what you mentioned about no extra cost roaming is correct (since 2017 due to EU regulation), but there is a new scam in town. Negative Google reviews on the Vodafone store in the Prague airport are increasing, and I am sure this isn’t just limited to the airport store. Based on the reviews, there are times when tourists are now being told forcefully that aforementioned roaming benefits don’t apply to foreigners (which is blatantly false). In another twist, tourists were told that they need a local address or local passport to get that roam free deal. In yet another twist, staff told the tourists that only some very expensive plans are available. You can’t do anything if the staff simply refuses to tell you what plans are truly available or simply refuse to process your order. And it seems that Vodafone tacitly approves the scam because their Czech website contain few plans with very little info when it is in English. One plan they touts now is the “Data SIM for Visitors” where it is stated that the 10GB or 20GB data service is not available for roaming. Also, when I am doing my research on this topic, it seems like similar scams are now being run throughout EU. So it’s a hit or miss if one decides to get a local sim card that works the way it should be. Experience varies from store to store, but now with official Vodafone website looking like this, I am not even sure if major telcos have all put up artificial barriers to gouge the tourists. If this is the case, it is a shame and EU should crack down on these telcos. EU law never says foreigners are excluded from the cost free roaming. Any barriers put up are artificial to gouge tourists.

Those cities are all in EU countries, so you can use the same SIM across all of them at no extra charge. There can be some limits on large data packages, but that’s about it. Check out the link in the EU roaming section at the bottom of the article for more details.