Calls, messages, and internet abroad

Roaming refers to the use of mobile communications on the network of an external operator.

In EU countries, you will use your mobile service as you would in Estonia, but if you are travelling outside the EU, you will be charged differently. All internet use outside the EU is subject to charges.

You can control the use of your roaming service – you can activate or deactivate it in the self-service. In addition to activating roaming in the self-service, you will also need to set it up on your phone. Unless you deliberately choose not to use the internet on an external operator’s network, data roaming must always be switched off on your phone. With roaming turned on, your phone will use the internet anyway.

It is safe to use the internet abroad, but always check the terms and conditions  on Telia’s website before you travel.

Outside the EU, the Mobile Internet Daily Plan always keeps your internet costs under control for 24 hours.

If you want to use the internet outside the EU for more than 24 hours, order a 7-day Weekly Plan. You can order a plan up to 7 days in advance and start using it as soon as you arrive abroad.

Telia will inform you by SMS when you are connected to an external network.

Telia will also inform you when your chosen internet plan is full. You will then need to decide whether you want to continue using the internet and with which plan. If you do not want to continue using the mobile internet, turn off data roaming on your phone.

Make sure you read the SMS messages sent to you abroad and follow the notifications on the My Telia app!

If you lose your phone abroad or it is stolen, report it to Telia by calling +372 639 7130 as soon as possible. You can do this around the clock. Remember that you cannot call Telia on 123 from abroad; you must dial a long number. Telia reacts immediately to SIM card closures and third parties will not be able to use your number if the SIM card is closed.

Remember that as long as you have not notified Telia of a lost or stolen phone, you are responsible for paying the invoice for the services used.

Make sure you have ended the call when you are done – even if the other party has ended the call on their device, the call may still be active.

If you do not plan to use the internet abroad, make sure you already turn off data roaming on your phone in Estonia.

How do I turn off mobile internet on my phone?

Find your phone settings:

„Settings“ / „Seaded“ -> „Mobile data“ / „Mobiilne andmeside“ -> „Mobile Data Options“ /„Mobiilse andmeside valikud“ -> „DATA ROAMING ON“ / „Andmerändlus sisse lülitatud“ -> vali „DATA ROAMING OFF“ / „Andmerändlus välja lülitatud“.

We recommend that you keep data roaming deactivated on your phone at all times, and only switch it on when you really need to use mobile internet abroad. In this way, there is no risk that you will end up on a foreign network and immediately start using the internet on the foreign operator’s tariff. If data roaming is switched off, there is no possibility of unauthorised use on a foreign network, and your phone will not start using the internet without your knowledge if you are on a foreign operator’s network.

It is also worth being careful in border areas of the European Union (e.g., the Greek Islands, the southern coast of France, etc.), and in border areas of Estonia, where you may end up on another operator’s network, where internet use can be significantly more expensive.

Note that many phone apps also use mobile internet in the background (e.g., GPS, Facebook, etc.; regularly check your location to determine where you are). It is therefore a good idea to close (log out of) these apps, or determine which apps you allow you to use mobile internet in your phone’s data settings.

At the top of your phone screen, you will see the name of the external operator whose services you are using.

Depending on the phone, this information may also appear as a combination of the foreign operator’s name and Telia’s name – in any case, you are on the foreign operator’s network.

Outgoing calls are usually charged by the minute. This means that if you have a call for 42 seconds, for example, you pay for one minute.

Mobile-ID also uses the SMS service for authentication and digital signature abroad. All SMSs will be charged according to the external operator’s tariff.

If you have data roaming turned off on your phone, you will not be able to use mobile internet abroad and you will not be charged for the service.

In any case, if data roaming is turned on for the phone, there will be a charge for using mobile internet.

If you want to use a little bit of mobile internet every day, it is a good idea to subscribe to a 7-day Weekly Plan in Estonia up to 7 days in advance.

If you have not opted for a Weekly Plan or MB-based pricing, you will be covered by the default Daily Plan, which keeps your internet costs under control for 24 hours.

If data roaming is switched on for your phone, you will immediately start using the internet abroad and the Daily Plan will be activated.

Daily Plan

The Daily Plan is renewed every 24 hours. If you have stopped using the Daily Plan and have switched off data roaming on your phone, the new Daily Plan will not be activated until you start using mobile internet again (for example, after 3 days and as long as data roaming was switched off on your phone, there is no Daily Plan charge).

Weekly Plan

With the Weekly Plan, you can use mobile internet in countries where Telia offers the Weekly Plan service.

You can subscribe to the Weekly Plan up to 7 days in advance via the My Telia app or by SMS (see the Telia website for instructions). The Weekly Plan is activated the first time you use the internet on an external operator’s network after subscribing.

The Weekly Plan is valid for 7 days (168 hours) from activation, or until capacity is reached.

You can also pre-subscribe for the next Weekly Plan during the validity of an existing Weekly Plan when 75% of the capacity is used.

Roaming refers to the use of mobile communications on the network of an external operator.

If you wish to make VoLTE calls while roaming, check the information of the foreign operator’s open networks to see whether the operator supports such calls.

NB! If the foreign operator has closed the 2G and 3G networks, and calls only work over the 4G network, make sure that:

NB! The VoLTE calls service does not use mobile data, but if it is enabled on your phone, other apps on your device may start a mobile data session.

When you arrive in each country, Telia will send you a message with the prices in that country, and also when you start using mobile internet. Be sure to check the prices in the country of your destination on our website before you travel and, if you want to use the internet, subscribe to the Weekly Plan in advance. You should also check the conditions for using the internet.

In most foreign countries, operators do not charge for the ring tone. However, operators in the United States, for example, also charge for the ring tone of outgoing calls. If a service provider charges a fee for the ring tone, you can find information about the roaming services price list of such service providers on our website.

Around border areas (e.g., in Narva), the reception of roaming service providers can sometimes be stronger than that of Estonian service providers and your phone will automatically select the network with a stronger signal. If the owner of the phone ignores this and makes calls on the network of an external operator, the roaming calls will appear on their invoice.

We will send you a message on pricing when you are on an external operator’s network. This message means that you have started roaming and will be charged by the external operator on whose network the services are used. It is always a good idea to keep data roaming deactivated in your phone’s settings, and only turn it on when you really need to use mobile internet abroad. In this way, there is no risk that you will end up on a foreign network and immediately start using the internet on the foreign operator’s tariff.

Additionally, the invoice of the current month can include roaming services used abroad during the previous month. For example, if you make a call on 20 September while you are abroad, this can be expressed on your invoice for October that is sent to you in November. The reflection of roaming services use in invoices depends on when the roaming service provider sends the information to Telia.

The use of LTE or 4G networks in roaming can cause, due to LTE/4G standards, short periods of mobile internet use even if the data roaming of the device is switched off. This is because the different functionalities of your phone need mobile internet to work. Data roaming sessions are charged according to the roaming pricing list. To avoid these sessions, you must select 3G or 2G as the network type for your device.

This is the number of Telia’s message centre, which will be included in your call log when you have sent messages while abroad. As the roaming partners do not send us the specific number to which the message was actually sent, we will instead include the number of the Telia message centre on your invoice.

You can send and receive MMSs while abroad in the networks of such service providers with whom mobile internet or data roaming use is agreed upon. When sending an MMS abroad, a fee for using mobile internet, based on the roaming price list, will be added to the price of the MMS. Receiving an MMS will also entail a fee for using mobile internet according to the roaming price list.

It is generally not free to answer phone calls while abroad and the prices are based on the roaming services price list.

Use the unconditional forwarding service, which is available to all clients.

Activation of call forwarding:

In the case of forwarding, it does not matter whether forwarding is activated in Estonia or while abroad.

Unconditional and conditional call forwarding when outside the service area or when the phone is switched off will generally be charged on the same basis as call forwarding in Estonia. If you are in a foreign country, for example in the United States, and:

Conditional forwarding of calls, if the calls are left unanswered or if the number is busy, will be charged according to the sum charged for answering calls in a foreign country and the sum of calling a number forwarded from the roaming operator network.

When you activate conditional forwarding (forwarding calls only if you do not pick up the phone during the set time or if the phone is busy or switched off) to an Estonian number and someone calls you, you will pay for the incoming call as well as for a call from the United States to Estonia (according to the Telia roaming price list).

When you activate conditional forwarding to a U.S. number while in the States and someone calls you, then you will pay for the local incoming call and the local U.S. call (according to the Telia roaming services price list).

We recommend that you make an advance payment if you know in advance that your use of the service may exceed the credit limit we have set for you ( read more about the credit limit). This helps prevent any restrictions when using services.

You can check the credit limit that has been set on your summary invoice either from the self-service or by calling Telia client service.

Prepayments can be made to the same account to which you make invoice payments (and by using the same reference number). Most certainly, you can pay in advance for services over your credit limit abroad; however, it is definitely more convenient to do so at home.

We will issue an intermediate invoice if the credit limit ( read more about the credit limit) you have been set has been exceeded and an intermediate payment is necessary for further use of the service. To prevent this, we recommend that you review your service use balance before heading abroad and make a prepayment, if necessary.

The callback service enables you to enjoy better call quality when you are not in Estonia. The service does not have an ordering fee nor a monthly fee The callback service is open for all our clients by default.

How to use the callback service?

It is easy to use the service – to order callback, just dial *111* in front of the phone number.
For example: if you want to call 5xxxxxx, dial the number in the format *111*5xxxxxx# and press the dial key. You will then be connected to that number.
The recipient of the call will see the caller’s number in its regular format, without knowing that the connection has been ordered from abroad.
The recipient of the call will hear a notice about calls having been connected and the system will then call back the initiator of the call. If the recipient does not pick up their phone, the user of the callback service will receive a notice about it. The same method can be used when calling intra-company short numbers. In this case, you would dial *111*7234#, for example.
NB! When using the callback service, your number will be visible to the recipient even if you have activated hidden caller ID.
The callback service can only be used when abroad and calling Estonian numbers (incl. Diil, Elisa, Tele2, etc. numbers). This service can be used in the networks of most Telia’s roaming partners.

How much does the callback service cost?

No ordering or monthly fee applies to the callback service. The call consists of two components:

For example, the price of the callback service in the Kyivstar GSM JSC network is as follows:

In total, a call made on the Kyivstar GSM JSC network in Ukraine with the callback service costs € 1.4952/min. An outgoing call would cost € 3.3120/min.
The call will be paid for by the person ordering the call. The call is free of charge for the number that is being called. If the recipient of the call happens to be abroad as well, they will pay a fee for receiving an incoming call while abroad based on Telia’s roaming services price list.