Nearly one in six Cypriots who travelled within the European Economic Area last year experienced some difficulty with mobile roaming, according to a survey published by the Commissioner of Communications, underscoring the uneven implementation of the EU’s “Roaming Like Home” regime more than eight years after its introduction.
The research, conducted by Pulse Market Research in December, surveyed 2,014 people who together accounted for 3,869 trips across the EEA over the preceding twelve months.
Greece remained by some distance the most popular destination, cited by three-quarters of respondents, followed by Italy, Austria, France and Germany.
The overall picture was one of gradual improvement rather than serious dysfunction.
Eighty-three per cent of those surveyed reported no connection difficulties on arrival, up marginally from 81 per cent the previous year, and most who did encounter a problem said it was resolved either automatically or after contacting their provider in Cyprus.
A small minority — 2 per cent — remained unable to connect to a local network for the duration of their trip.
Where issues did arise, they were generally matters of degree rather than outright failure.
Just over a fifth of respondents reported slower internet speeds than they would expect at home, and a similar proportion found their handset had reverted to an older-generation network, typically dropping from 5G to 4G.
Smaller numbers reported difficulties accessing data, poor call quality, an inability to make calls, or dropped calls and failed text messages; four per cent reported a complete loss of service at some point.
There was a marked geographical pattern to the complaints. Travellers reported the greatest difficulties in Latvia, Sweden, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway, whereas those visiting Denmark, Estonia, Croatia, France and Greece reported the most reliable service.
Taken together, 77 per cent of respondents judged the quality of their roaming service to be broadly comparable with what they receive in Cyprus, with 5 per cent rating it better and 16 per cent worse.
The Commissioner of Communications described the results as an improvement on the previous year’s findings, while acknowledging that further progress was needed in both network performance and the reliability of roaming connections.
The regulator said it would continue to monitor the operation of the Roaming Like Home framework and would consider issuing recommendations to mobile operators where its regulatory powers allowed.
