Starting from January 1, citizens of the Republic of Moldova who travel to the European Union can use mobile telephony at rates similar to those at home. Local operators are adapting their services based on the “Roam Like at Home” regime, which allows calls, messages, and mobile internet without additional roaming costs in EU member states.
Contacted by IPN, Michelle Iliev, Secretary of State for Digitalization within the Ministry of Economic Development and Digitalization, says that, in order to benefit from these conditions, users must activate roaming before leaving the Republic of Moldova. The process is simple and is done directly from the phone settings or from the operator’s application, specified Michelle Iliev, according to whom the operators’ applications clearly show the roaming status and the available limits.
“The Roam Like at Home regime works only for EU member countries and vice versa, EU member countries in the Republic of Moldova, only in this space”, explained the Secretary of State.
Calls and messages in the EU are charged as national ones, within the subscription limit. “The price of the call is like a local one. If you have unlimited calls at home, you have them in Romania or in other EU member countries as well”, said Michelle Iliev.
Instead, for mobile internet, there is a limit set by each operator, depending on the subscription. After consuming this, users can activate additional packages directly from the application.
At the same time, users must pay attention to outgoing calls. If a Moldovan citizen in an EU country calls the Republic of Moldova, the call is charged according to roaming. However, if they call from one EU state to another EU state, the call is considered international and is charged separately, not from the roaming minutes.
