I use Sim.de (fair warning, they are cheap but awful with customer service).

I pulled the JSON data from my Google timeline to show I was on the Austrian side of the border before I turned my phone off airplane mode while driving.

They argue that its my fault for not disabling roaming (but roaming had to be on to be able to connect in Austria) and that my phone automatically chose the strongest signal. One whatsapp call without video and receiving 3 messages cost me 47 euro.

My argument is that there is no way I could pull to the shoulder of the autobahn to navigate my settings, and even if I had, without any data, how could I research and figure out which providers were Swiss and which were Austrian?

I've read there is some obligation to provide Boarder Roaming Prevention, and my guess is that the EU Regulation 2022/612 doesn't apply on the borders somehow, even though I was on the Austrian side.

I DID have a swiss sim, but turned it off when I left Bern to just follow the highway out to avoid the charges I could incur once I hit Austria, but boom, they suck you back in!

by AdventurousText9311

4 comments

  1. It does not matter where you are geographically, but which network you are logged into. So no, that won’t work.

    >EU Regulation 2022/612 doesn’t apply

    Not that surprising as Switzerland is not part of the EU.

  2. NAL, but as far as i know you can’t do shit. It is your responsibility to control in what networks your phone logs in. If you are in the border region it is best to disable roaming all together and just turn it on when you need it and know its safe.

  3. You can always try, but it will be Kulanz on their side. You don’t have a leg to stand on per se.

  4. Next time: manual network selection to avoid this problem.

    No much you can do this time, the operator only cares which network was used, not where you were at this time.

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