Roam Like at Home has applied across the EU since June 2017, and the rules now run until 2032. On paper, your Irish SIM should work in Spain, Portugal or Germany the same way it does at home. In reality, EU roaming on cheap Irish SIM-only plans is where plenty of holidays begin with someone in an arrivals hall, holding their phone up to the ceiling and getting nothing.
I recommend budget networks a lot. 48 tops my roundup of the best SIM-only deals in Ireland, with Clear Mobile and GoMo close behind. So let’s not dance around it. The cheapest plans are brilliant value at home, but they’re more likely to need some fiddling abroad, and their roaming data allowances are smaller than most people realise.
The good news is that nearly every roaming problem comes down to one of three things. It’s either a setting on your phone, the way your network handles roaming behind the scenes, or a data cap you’ve burned through. I’ll go through each one, then give you a checklist to run before you fly.
Do cheap Irish SIM-only plans work in the EU?
Yes. Every Irish plan, budget ones included, has to let you use your calls, texts and a set amount of data across the EU, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein at no extra cost. Moldova and Ukraine were brought under Roam Like at Home terms from 1 January 2026 as well.
What changes from network to network is how smoothly your phone connects when you land and how much data you get before charges start. That’s where the budget brands and the main networks start to separate.
Why budget networks are more likely to trip up
Most of Ireland’s cheap SIM-only brands don’t own a network. They rent space on someone else’s. 48, Virgin Media and Lyca Mobile all run on Three. Clear Mobile, An Post Mobile and Sky Mobile run on Vodafone. GoMo is eir’s budget brand and runs on eir’s network.
At home, that makes no real difference to your signal. Abroad, it can. A budget brand doesn’t always roam through its parent network’s own agreements with foreign operators, and 48 is the clearest example. Its SIM carries a separate international roaming profile, and 48’s own help pages walk you through switching to it manually from the SIM menu if you land with no signal. 48 also roams at 4G, so don’t expect 5G abroad even if you get it at home.
More layers means more things that can go wrong. 48 has long advised customers whose SIM predates January 2023 to order a replacement if roaming keeps failing, which tells you this isn’t a rare glitch.
To be fair to 48, it’s not the only one, and it’s not a reason to write off budget networks. GoMo sits on eir, Clear Mobile sits on Vodafone, and each handles roaming its own way, so you can’t assume one cheap brand behaves like another. The main networks, Three, Vodafone and eir, manage their own roaming deals directly. That doesn’t guarantee a perfect connection, but fewer moving parts generally means fewer things to break.
How much roaming data do you get on a cheap plan?
Less than you’d think, and on the cheapest plans it’s often right at the legal minimum. Unlimited data at home does not mean unlimited data abroad.
EU rules let networks cap roaming data on cheap or unlimited plans using a formula based on what you pay. The floor is twice your monthly price excluding VAT, divided by the wholesale rate networks charge each other, which is €1.10 per GB in 2026. The European Commission’s Roam Like at Home rules set this out if you want to check your own plan.
Run that on a €12.99 plan. Take out Ireland’s 23% VAT and you’re at €10.56. Double it, divide by €1.10, and you land on roughly 19GB. 48’s 20GB of EU and UK roaming sits just above that line. GoMo gives 23GB on its €12.99 plan. Virgin Media’s €15 SIM-only for life plan comes with 37GB, well clear of its own minimum of around 22GB, and Sky Mobile’s €15 plan includes unlimited roaming data in the EU and UK. Both of those lock you into a 12-month contract, mind.
For a week in the sun with Google Maps, WhatsApp and the odd photo sent home, 20GB is plenty. It gets tight if you’re tethering a laptop, streaming every evening in the apartment, or working remotely from abroad for a few weeks.
Go over your cap and you’ll pay a surcharge. That’s capped at €1.10 per GB plus VAT, which works out at about €1.35 per GB in Ireland, and it’s exactly what GoMo lists on its EU roaming rates page. Not ruinous, but it adds up quickly on a long trip. Networks can also apply charges if you spend more time abroad than in Ireland over a four-month period, so this isn’t a route to a cheap Irish plan for a permanent move to Portugal.
What about roaming in the UK?
The UK is not covered by EU roaming rules since Brexit. Most Irish networks, 48 included, still bundle the UK in with their EU allowance, but they do it by choice rather than by law, and that can change. Check your plan before a trip to London or Manchester.
If you live near the border with Northern Ireland, keep an eye on which network your phone has picked up. It’s easy to drift onto a UK network without leaving the county.
How to fix mobile data not working abroad
Start with your phone, not your network. The single most common culprit is data roaming being switched off, and on plenty of phones it’s off by default.
On an iPhone, go to Settings > Mobile Data > Mobile Data Options and turn on Data Roaming. On Android, the path depends on who made your phone. On a Samsung it’s Settings > Connections > Mobile networks > Data roaming, and on a Pixel it sits under Settings > Network & internet > SIMs. Make sure mobile data itself is on too, because it’s surprisingly easy to flip one without the other.
If you have signal bars but no data, the problem is usually your APN, the setting that tells your phone how to get online through your network. Delete the existing entry and re-enter it using the details from your network’s help page. On 48, the APN is 48months.liffeytelecom.com, and 48’s guide to using your phone abroad covers the rest.
If you have no signal at all, go to your network selection setting. Try switching it from automatic to manual and choosing a local network, or the other way around. 48 customers can also do this through the SIM menu under When abroad, then Network selection. Once that’s done, restart your phone or toggle flight mode on and off to force a fresh connection.
Still nothing? Get on Wi-Fi and contact your network’s support team. If your SIM is a few years old, ask about a replacement before your next trip. And when you get home, set network selection back to automatic, because a phone left on manual can struggle to find its home network again.
What to check before you fly
Most of this takes five minutes on the sofa the night before, and it’s far less stressful than doing it at a baggage carousel.
Open your network’s app and check your roaming allowance, whether the UK is included if that’s where you’re going, and that your account is active and topped up. Switch on data roaming at home so it’s done. Screenshot your network’s APN details and support contact, because you won’t be able to load a help page if your data isn’t working. Download offline Google Maps for wherever you’re staying, so getting from the airport to the hotel doesn’t depend on your SIM behaving.
If you’re heading outside the EU, none of the rules above apply, and a travel eSIM bought before you leave will almost always be cheaper than your network’s roaming rates.
Should you choose a network based on roaming?
For most people, no. If you travel two or three times a year for a week or so, a budget plan is still the smarter buy. Five minutes of fiddling with settings twice a year costs far less than paying double every month for a main network.
That said, if you travel constantly, work abroad for weeks at a time, or you’re sorting out a phone for someone who won’t know an APN from an airport, the roaming allowance and a simpler setup matter more. That’s where a main network, or the bigger allowances on Virgin Media and Sky Mobile, earn their higher price.
Whichever way you lean, my roundup of Ireland’s best SIM-only deals is updated regularly with current prices and roaming allowances for every major network.
