The Hidden Costs of International Roaming - Even with a Roaming Plan

Many enterprises assume that adding an international roaming plan like Travel Pass, Day Pass, or a monthly roaming bundle will protect them from surprise bills. Unfortunately, that's not always the case.

In our mobility audits, we routinely find significant roaming overcharges, even when a plan is in place. These costs often unnoticed until they show up as a spike on the invoice, sometimes weeks or months after the trip. By then, disputes require extra time, documentation, and follow-up and in some cases, the cost is simply absorbed.

Why Roaming Overcharges Happen

International roaming plans can offer substantial savings compared to standard pay-per-use rates, but they're not a guarantee. We've seen overcharges happen for several reasons:

1. Plan Activation Failures

Even when carriers can provision free or low-cost roaming plans in advance for all eligible lines, real-world gaps still occur. For example

• A plan is dropped during a device or SIM change and not re-added.

• A plan is active on most lines, but certain exceptions slip through, especially for infrequent travelers.

  
  

The key risk isn't that the organization "forgot" to turn it on for an individual, it's that processes and carrier systems can fail in ways no one notices until the bill arrives.

2. Carrier System Errors

We frequently see situations where:

• The correct roaming plan is active, but the usage is rated at retail rates.

• Contracted rates aren't applied correctly.

• Free or discounted roaming plans that should automatically apply are omitted, requiring manual disputes.

These are not one-of anomalies. They're systemic billing issues that large organizations simply don't have the capacity to monitor line-by-line in real time.

3. Usage Outside the Plan's Coverage Zone

Not all countries are included in every roaming plan, and coverage list can change. Common issues include:

• Travelers visiting countries assumed to be covered but excluded from the plan.

• Border or costal regions where devices connect to a non-covered country's network.

Common Overcharge Scenarios

From our audits, here are examples of how overcharges still occur with roaming plans:

• Plan Removed During Device/SIM Upgrade - A employee receives a new device, but the roaming feature is dropped and never re-added.

• Incorrect Rating of Covered Usage - A traveler uses their phone in a covered country, but the billing system charges retail rates due to coding errors.

• Partial or Limited Coverage Gaps - The plan covers "Europe," but a trip segment in a non-EU country generates unexpected charges.

• Throttling vs. Overcharging - Most plans simply reduce speeds when data cap are reached, but we've seen exceptions where over-cap usage is billed separately, creating cost spikes.

The Financial Impact

Even for large enterprises with negotiated roaming rates, a single incorrectly billed international trip can add hundreds or thousands of dollars in overcharges. Across an organization with frequent travel, these errors can quietly build into six-figure annual losses.

These costs often go undetected because:

• Charges are buried deep in itemized billing.

• Travel-related spikes are assumed to be legitimate business expenses.

• There is no practical way to monitor each traveler's plan status in real time for tens of thousands of lines.

How to Reduce the Risk at Scale

For large organizations, the goal isn't to monitor every traveler's plan daily. It's to put systemic safeguards in place:

• Enforce Default Roaming Features on All Eligible Lines: Work with carriers to ensure the most cost-effective roaming feature is defaulted for every line, regardless of current travel patterns.

• Contractual Safeguards: Include language in contracts requiring carriers to auto-apply the lowest available rate for international usage and to proactively credit rating errors.

• Targeted Post-Trip Audits: Rather than monitoring every line, focus reviews on high-cost invoices or accounts with recent international usage spikes.

• Ongoing Dispute Process: Maintain a streamlined process for identifying, documenting, and disputing overcharges with carriers with clear escalation paths.

• Traveler Education at Key Touchpoints: Focus training on frequent travelers and those traveling to high-risk destinations where coverage issues are common.

  
  

Final Thoughts

Roaming plans can significantly reduce international mobility costs but only if they're correctly provisioned, rated accurately, and contractually enforced. In large-scale enterprise environments, overcharges often slip through simply because no one is looking for them in the right way.

A structured mobility audit process, supported by analytics and automation, can uncover these hidden charges and recover substantial savings without the impossible task of manually tracking every line.

If your organization has frequent international travel, let's connect to discuss how a targeted audit can protect against these hidden roaming costs and ensure your carrier billing is accurate.