EU roaming on a Belgian plan: how many GB you get

EU roaming is included in every Belgian mobile plan, at Belgian rates. The data volume is not always included in full: on unlimited or very cheap plans it depends on the price you pay, not on the network. A hey! customer paying €14 has 80 GB in Liège and 25 GB in Lisbon.

The same right for everyone, but not the same volume

Since 2017 a Belgian plan can be used without surcharge across the European Union. The current regulation extends that regime until 30 June 2032 and covers the 27 member states plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Ukraine and Moldova joined the zone on 1 January 2026.

On this point there is no difference between Proximus and its cheapest tenant. A word of context for newcomers: Belgium has three mobile networks (Proximus, Orange and Telenet) plus DIGI, which is still building its own, and around fifteen brands that rent them. Some are MVNOs, mobile virtual network operators with no antennas of their own; others are budget brands owned by a network operator, such as hey! for Orange. Foreign antennas do not read the label on your SIM card. They see a Belgian subscriber, and the operator of the visited country then bills your brand at the wholesale price. That wholesale price explains everything that follows.

How many GB does your Belgian plan open in the EU?

The table lists the Belgian plans for which a European volume is published, with the host network and the minimum the European rule requires at that price.

Monthly prices without temporary discounts. hey!: mobile plans page consulted on 5 October 2026, prices without the discount offered until 4 October. Unlimited plans: survey by the Belgian daily L'Avenir, 19 August 2026. The last two columns are our own calculations: the European formula with 21% VAT and a wholesale price of €1.10 per GB, then the monthly price divided by the European volume.

Two things stand out. First, at hey! the €9 plan travels with 35 GB and the €14 plan with 25 GB. Paying more gives you less data abroad, on the same Orange antennas. The second sits in the last column. In Belgium the network operator is almost always the most expensive label on its own network; measured per gigabyte usable in the EU, it becomes the cheapest in the table, at €0.13 with BASE and Orange against €0.56 with hey! XL or Mobile Vikings Unlimited Basic.

Why does a cheap plan travel less far?

Because every gigabyte used abroad costs your brand a price set by Europe, and that price sometimes exceeds what you pay the brand.

EU Regulation 2022/612 caps the wholesale rate at €1.10 excluding VAT per GB in 2026, then €1 from 1 January 2027. Take hey! mobile XL: 160 GB for €25, or €0.16 per GB sold. If a customer used all 160 GB in Spain, the brand would owe up to €176 to the Spanish operator for a plan that brings in €20.66 excluding VAT. The regulation therefore provides a safety valve for so-called open data bundles, those where a gigabyte costs less than the wholesale price: the brand may limit the European volume, provided it guarantees a minimum.

That minimum takes three operations, set out on the European Union's roaming page: remove VAT from the monthly price, divide by the wholesale price, multiply by two. For €25: €20.66 divided by 1.10 gives 18.8, times two. The result is 37.6 GB.

Three practical consequences:

• the European volume follows the price of the plan, never the Belgian volume: 160 GB or 300 GB at €25, the floor stays at 37.6 GB;
• a discount lowers the floor with it, since it is calculated on the price actually paid;
• the floor rises on 1 January 2027, when the wholesale price drops to €1: 41.3 GB for a €25 plan, without the brand deciding anything.

None of the brands surveyed sticks to the strict minimum. hey! XL and Mobile Vikings Unlimited Basic give 45 GB where the rule requires 37.6, and TADAAM goes up to 56 GB at the same price on the Telenet network. The gap between these three €25 plans therefore reaches 11 GB a month abroad, and no homepage mentions it.

The objection: small plans are not restricted at all

It is a fair one. hey! mobile S and M travel with their entire allowance, twice the legal minimum in the first case. DIGI, on its own network, shows no separate roaming cap on its plans page consulted on 5 October 2026: the offer is valid "in Belgium and while traveling (roaming) in the European Union zone", and excess data costs €0.0006 per MB, or €0.60 per GB. The three plans displayed that day run from 5 GB at €3 to 30 GB at €7.

For someone using 10 or 15 GB a month, the question of the European volume does not arise. It arises once the plan goes beyond forty gigabytes or so, which is exactly when you chose it to stop counting.

One other safeguard applies at every price. A brand may monitor your usage over four months: if you spend more time and use more data abroad than in Belgium over that period, it can ask you to explain, then apply a surcharge. Roaming is a traveller's right, not a way of living in Alicante on a €5 SIM card.

United Kingdom, Switzerland, Andorra: the label decides

Outside the 32 countries of the zone there is no common rule. Each brand draws its own map.

The DIGI case deserves a word. Its general terms dated 30 September 2025 place the United Kingdom in the zone where the plan works as in Belgium; the country list on its plans page, consulted on 5 October 2026, does not mention it. Before a stay in London, ask for a written answer.

Switzerland is the most consistent trap. It lies in the middle of Europe, on the road to Italy, and it is in the zone of no entry-level Belgian brand.

Where does data cut off completely?

At edpnet, which runs on the DIGI network. Its support page, updated on 11 June 2026, leaves no doubt: mobile data is only available within the countries of the European Union, its zone 1, and there is currently no way to use it outside. Calls and texts, on the other hand, work worldwide. For a traveller heading to the United States or Morocco, this plan therefore means a travel eSIM or the hotel Wi-Fi.

Mobile Vikings also blocks data outside the EU, but as a precaution: a pass unlocks it. And at DIGI the prepaid card does not work abroad at all, according to the terms of 17 November 2025.

Does Wi-Fi calling work abroad?

In principle, no. Wi-Fi calling (VoWiFi) routes your calls through a Wi-Fi connection when the mobile signal is weak. On the Orange Belgium forum, a moderator's reply dated 21 December 2020 fits in one line: Wi-Fi calls are only possible in Belgium. We found no more recent source saying otherwise, for Orange or for hey!, which shares its calling platform. A VPN with a foreign address is enough to switch the feature off from your own living room. The full brand-by-brand record is in our article on VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling.

Count on WhatsApp, not on VoWiFi.

Five checks before you leave

• The European volume of your plan, in the tariff sheet and not on the homepage. If it is not written down, apply the formula: price excluding VAT divided by 1.10, times two.
• The exact country. United Kingdom, Switzerland, Andorra, Monaco, Turkey: five common destinations, five different answers depending on the label.
• The safety cap. At €60.50 including VAT of roaming data, access cuts off automatically. Do not lift it by text message without knowing what comes next.
• The host network, if you plan to change brand before leaving. Our table of Belgian brands by network keeps you from changing antennas by accident.
• The cost of the next tier up. Moving from Mobile Vikings Unlimited Basic to Superfast costs €10 more a month and adds 55 European GB. One month is enough: after six months of contract you can change plan or brand at no cost.

For someone who crosses a border twice a year, the right plan is still the cheapest on their network, and the 25 GB of hey! L easily cover a week in Spain. The sums reverse for someone working ten days a month abroad: at that pace the 300 European GB of BASE at €39 or Orange at €40 are worth their price, and it is one of the few cases where I would recommend the network operator over its entry-level brand. The limits of unlimited plans inside Belgium are covered in our comparison of unlimited offers.

We do not subscribe to any of these plans and measured nothing abroad: this page cross-checks the European regulation, the brands' public tariff pages and the Belgian press. Plans sorted on the price in month thirteen, host network shown, are in our 5G plan ranking.

Sources: Regulation (EU) 2022/612 on roaming; European Union, "Roaming: using a mobile phone in the EU", checked on 7 January 2026; hey! Telecom, mobile plans page consulted on 5 October 2026; DIGI Belgium, mobile plans page consulted on 5 October 2026 and general terms of 30 September and 17 November 2025; edpnet, support page "Using edpnet mobile abroad", updated 11 June 2026; L'Avenir, "Data illimitée : les 5 pièges", 19 August 2026; CallMePower, 20 August 2026; Selectra, updated 20 July 2026; Test Achats, the Belgian consumer association, "Roaming hors UE", 14 July 2026; Holafly, Mobile Vikings roaming page, updated 7 September 2026; Orange Belgium forum, reply of 21 December 2020. Official brand page cited: hey! plans. No link on this page is monetised.