Vodafone to Bring Back EU Roaming Charges for UK Customers Abroad

[MacRumors]

Vodafone is bringing back roaming charges for U.K. users traveling in Europe, the second mobile operator do so post-Brexit after originally saying they had no plans to re-introduce them.

New and upgrading customers on "selected plans" will be charged at least £1 per day to use their mobile phone in EU destinations.

The rules will change for new and upgrading customers from Wednesday, August 11, though the charges will not apply until January, BBC News reports.

"Existing customers will not be impacted by these changes while they remain on their current price plan, and roaming in the Republic of Ireland will still be included for all customers," Vodafone said.

After January, affected customers will pay £2 a day to use their allowance in Europe, or £1 if bought in an eight or 15-day bundle. Fair-usage limits of 25GB of roaming data a month apply.

Before the U.K. formally exited the European Union, mobile customers generally didn't have to worry about roaming charges when using their phone in the EU, with most phone tariffs counting calls, texts, and data used in EU countries as equivalent to domestic use since 2017.

However, when the EU trade deal was signed in December 2020, mobile operators were once again able to charge customers when traveling in Europe with "transparent and reasonable rates."

EE was the first operator to announce new roaming charges in June. EE's charges go into effect in January 2022, and at first, only apply to new EE customers or customers upgrading their plan and contract from July 7, 2021.

Originally, EE, O2, Three, and Vodafone, representing the largest mobile operators in the U.K., stated they had no plans to reintroduce roaming charges after Brexit, but all have since announced changes, some under a "fair use" clause. O2 allows a roaming limit of 25GB, with any data used over that charged at £3.50 per gigabyte, while Three has cut its data limit from 20GB a month to 12GB.

Article Link: Vodafone to Bring Back EU Roaming Charges for UK Customers Abroad

 

[willed]

Yet another Brexit win 🍾 Thanks guys!

 

[NightFox]

Please put a "due to the political nature..." posting restriction on these comments or it's going to get very predictable and boring very quickly!

Edit: Damn, too late.

 

[SmugMaverick]

Taking back control 🤣

Cheers to all those morons who wanted “freedom”.

These disgusting networks were always going to do this, shame people didn’t want to accept that maybe the EU were looking out for us

 

[sudo-sandwich]

Taking back control 🤣

Cheers to all those morons who wanted “freedom”.

These disgusting networks were always going to do this, shame people didn’t want to accept that maybe the EU were looking out for us

I don't know what's going on over there, but if you're looking to the EU to regulate your cell network pricing, that's pretty sad. Regards from your step-son country in North America.

 

[SmugMaverick]

I don't know what's going on over there, but if you're looking to the EU to regulate your cell network pricing, that's pretty sad. Regards from your step-son country in North America.

They protected us from roaming charges across Europe, we were still ripped off in the uk.

 

[simps100]

I see 2 sides to be fair - it was never really "free" roaming, everyone just paid towards the costs of roaming if you actually used it or not.

If those who have no need for EU roaming can genuinely get a better price than they are paying now on one of these new tariff's then I dont see this as so bad - although I suspect most company's who re-introduce these will just pocket the extra!

 

[revs]

Of course they will charge more if they can, regardless of brexit. It's a business, and brexit is a great excuse for all sorts of charges - nobody will question it.

Any reason the UK Gov can't ban roaming charges? As a previous poster mentioned, they'd likely just increase tariffs to make up for it.

Hoping Three keep it free. They have had free roaming outside of the EU in some countries, so might make a 'because of brexit' argument a bit harder for them to use.

 

[N1noodle]

Roaming charges on data sux but honestly , you should be able to work around it by either paying extra fee that in end will be cheaper than using roaming
Or if you can use wifi instead .

 

[diddl14]

Would be nice if the EU operators offer the same for traveling to non-EU countries!
Example:

Austrian operator: no roaming fees throughout EU
Driving via Serbia/North-Macedonia (both non-EU) to Greece (so leaving EU for a day during transit): €10,- per MB (!)

 

[Kylo83]

I’m cool with that

 

[inket]

ITT people trying to justify getting screwed by companies

 

[aknabi]

Would be nice if the EU operators offer the same for traveling to non-EU countries!
Example:

Austrian operator: no roaming fees throughout EU
Driving via Serbia/North-Macedonia (both non-EU) to Greece (so leaving EU for a day during transit): €10,- per MB (!)

They do in some cases... my T-Mob Dutch contract includes unlimited data/voice roaming in the EU and US... for 35Eur/mo... in my prior life I do know many countries (UAE, Serbia included) really "protected" their carriers who want to gouge foreigners coming in and roaming... that may have changed, but greed can explain a lot.

 

[Substance90]

Good luck to all the UK tourists - 8 out of the top 10 holiday destinations for brits are in the EU.

 

[dz5b609]

Yet another Brexit win 🍾 Thanks guys!

This is the same amount of populist dumbness as the people who voted for Brexit.

 

[fondacio2020]

They do in some cases... my T-Mob Dutch contract includes unlimited data/voice roaming in the EU and US... for 35Eur/mo... in my prior life I do know many countries (UAE, Serbia included) really "protected" their carriers who want to gouge foreigners coming in and roaming... that may have changed, but greed can explain a lot.

But funnily enough, T-Mobile NL is the only Dutch provider who does not count Switzerland (a non-EU state) as an EU member so if, for example, you drive from the Netherlands to Italy you will face roaming charges for the Swiss bit of your trip. As for the grandparent: mobile operators were indeed forced by the EU to abolish roaming charges, so you'll have to wait until Serbia and North Macedonia join the EU, or they get so far in the process that the earlier agreements already provide for the abolition of roaming charges.

As for the British operators reinstating roaming charges, this was obviously always going to happen. When they were forced to get rid of them, they were happy to take the credit, but it was always EU rules that forced them to and many operators throughout Europe complained and conjured up nightmare scenarios about how this would lead to higher prices for consumers, but as far as I can tell this hasn't happened anywhere in the EU.

 

[jmh600cbr]

Canada here - $7 a day if in the US, $15 a day in Europe.

 

[Mahasamatman]

If those who have no need for EU roaming can genuinely get a better price than they are paying now on one of these new tariff's then I dont see this as so bad - although I suspect most company's who re-introduce these will just pocket the extra!

Except they can’t get a better price. This is on top of the standard monthly charges and because the carriers will all do it, there’s no competitive option where people can reduce their costs by switching, other than the competition in the market for UK only access. it’s in effect a cartel and not good for the consumer.

 

[darkpaw]

This isn't so bad. £2/day adds just £14 to a 7-day EU holiday. It's worse than £0, yes, but it's not terrible.

EE were already trying to charge my niece £5/day to use her allowance in the US. She switched to Three and it was £0.

It's a joke anyway; the cost of supplying data services while abroad is minuscule compared to the amount they charge you. Even £2 is about 40x the cost.

 

[wanha]

I see 2 sides to be fair - it was never really "free" roaming, everyone just paid towards the costs of roaming if you actually used it or not.

If those who have no need for EU roaming can genuinely get a better price than they are paying now on one of these new tariff's then I dont see this as so bad - although I suspect most company's who re-introduce these will just pocket the extra!

Sure, it’s not “free” just like nothing is “free” but compared to the old roaming prices where the operators charged you through the nose, it’s pretty damn close to being “free”.

Another way to look at this is to ask “did cell phone plans go up in price after the EU outlawed roaming charges?”

Anecdotal evidence indicates that they did not, or they went up very moderately.

 

[Expos of 1969]

I don't know what's going on over there, but if you're looking to the EU to regulate your cell network pricing, that's pretty sad. Regards from your step-son country in North America.

If you are in Canada your prices are scandalous compared to here in the EU.

 

[5232152]

Should have watched Planet of the Apes, just once. Just like any business in the world the more people/money the more global say, importance and strength. Now the UK is gonna loose Scotland rather soon (I predict) which leaves them even more alone. Good luck, you're gonna need it.

 

[wanha]

I don't know what's going on over there, but if you're looking to the EU to regulate your cell network pricing, that's pretty sad. Regards from your step-son country in North America.

You don’t think the role of governments is to regulate markets?

 

[troublador]

Yet another Brexit win 🍾 Thanks guys!

This is the same amount of populist dumbness as the people who voted for Brexit.

How on earth is that "populist"?

 

[laptech]

As others have said, it was always going to happen. It was the EU that put the pressure on the mobile network operators to do away with roaming charges. The network operators have never liked it because it cut off a very good revenue stream for the network operators. Having the UK leave the EU means the UK mobile network operators are no longer constrained by EU law hence the re-introduction of roaming charges.