# Roaming

> Using a foreign mobile network while abroad, with your home carrier billing you for it, often at rates far higher than local or prepaid eSIM plans.

Source: https://viasimo.com/glossary/roaming/
Also known as: international roaming

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Roaming is when your phone connects through a foreign mobile network while you are outside your home carrier's coverage, with your home carrier billing you for the usage. The visited network carries your calls, texts and data, then charges your carrier a wholesale rate, which your carrier passes on to you, usually with a significant markup.

That markup is why roaming has a reputation for painful bills. Carriers price international roaming per megabyte, per day or in bundles, and the rates are often many times what locals pay for the same data. The main exception is the European Union, where roam-like-at-home rules let EU SIM holders roam across [Europe](/destinations/europe/) at domestic rates; outside arrangements like that, roaming remains one of the most expensive ways to use a phone.

## Roaming vs a travel eSIM

Strictly speaking, most travel eSIMs also roam: the provider partners with local networks, and your eSIM connects as a roaming line on them. The difference is commercial rather than technical. A travel eSIM is prepaid at a known price, so there is no open-ended meter running, while home-carrier roaming bills you after the fact at retail rates. Our [cost comparison of eSIMs and roaming](/magazine/esim-vs-roaming-cost-comparison/) puts the two side by side, and [how to avoid roaming bill shock](/magazine/avoid-roaming-bill-shock/) covers the defensive settings worth applying before any trip.

Two confusions come up constantly. First, roaming is not the same as the [data roaming](/glossary/data-roaming/) toggle in your settings; the toggle is just the per-line switch that permits it. Second, disabling roaming does not always block charges completely, since voicemail retrieval and accidentally answered calls can still bill on some plans, so check what your carrier counts as usage.

A concrete example: on a two-week trip to [Turkey](/destinations/turkey/), a home carrier might charge a daily roaming fee that quietly multiplies across fourteen days, while a prepaid country plan or [regional eSIM](/glossary/regional-esim/) costs a fixed amount upfront. Same towers, same coverage, very different bills.