As much as I think this move is despicable by the UK operators, there is no chance when (hopefully) Scotland becomes independent and joins the EU, that roaming would apply going between Scotland and England. If as detailed in above it won’t apply going from the UK & Northern Ireland to Republic Ireland - it won’t apply Scotland to England and vice versa.We will welcome to Scottish with open arms
Too bad they will have to pay roaming charges when calling England.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Vodafone to Bring Back EU Roaming Charges for UK Customers Abroad
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
It really annoys me about British business, they are forced to enact something by law or regulation, and the following week you see TV ads portraying it as something the company is doing as a favour to you, as though it's something they offer over their competitors, no mention of the fact all business in its sector are doing the exact same as its law ie regulation. Broadband companies are particularly bad at it.
I do not know how roaming was setup but I would guess carriers offset each other's roaming so the net costs were zero.
Did teh UK see a price drop when they left?
TMob does that from the US as well, in quite a few countries. It's low speed data and text but there is no charge and it's fast enough for VoIP and light internet use. I can buy high speed data if I want.
TMob overall seem to be the best if you roam. I can use it when I am in teh EU, Africa or teh Middle East. VoIP is blocked in some countries to, as you say, protect their carriers and gouge people but VPNs fix that.
In general everyone did not pay for it, as carriers probably had roaming agreements that allowed others to roam on their network in exchange for their customers to roam on theirs; and offset the usage. It's no different in many ways than if yo can't get your carriers signal but can get Y's in your home area you don't get charged and the carriers simply worked a deal to allow this so customers don't lose coverage.
Because it doesn’t cost the providers any significant extra. They are charging people extra just because they can now. Roaming doesn’t actually cost 1 pound a day to providers. Contract prices didn’t go up when roaming became free in the EU, they stayed exactly the same. Just as they won’t go down for people not using roaming now it’s gone. It will just be an extra charge on top. Noone is ’subsidising’ anyone.
I guess i’ll use Teams/WhatsApp calling on WiFi or simply not bother then.
The impact from this is easily passed on.
It wasn’t so much the EU looking out for you, it was 447 million folks looking out for common interests and GB had a unique and major role in steering that.
Now except for trying to renege on deals like the backstop it doesn’t have quite as much leverage or any steering control of EU initiatives than any other 3rd party country.
As for the telecoms, they do this because they can. They do it slow at first to minimize howling but long term, it’s a boiling frog experiment for sure.
Yeah, and you’re 1 out of 800,000. Everyone else isn’t going to do a “staycation” at home because of some sort of political pouting. They’ll continue to travel to nearby destinations in Europe because it’s still the most accessible and convenient.
If it's an unreasonable charge and suppliers are mugging customers off then there's a great opportunity for competitors to do things differently and win the impacted business.
Here you go, from a research note by Enders Analysis (media consultants)
“
This move is somewhat inevitable as current arrangements leave operators exposed to up to €75 of monthly wholesale charges, and even more as legacy EU wholesale deals expire
Although the EU has regulated down the maximum wholesale rates that operators can charge each other for carrying roaming traffic, they nonetheless remain meaningful at €3 per GB (to fall to €2.50 from January next year). Of course, if traffic flows were even between countries, the absolute level of wholesale tariffs would not really matter. However, unfortunately for UK operators, the flows are uneven in favour of other EU countries and the disparity has worsened since the roaming premia disappeared in 2017, as UK tourists to Europe have increased their usage much more dramatically than the less price-elastic business visitors to the UK have. Negotiated rates between operators may be lower than these EU ceiling prices in many instances and several operators will benefit from having sister operations in other EU countries (Vodafone and VMO2 in particular), limiting their exposure. Conversely, once outside the EU, European operators are no longer obliged to abide by these ceiling rates, further increasing the UK operators' exposure. As discussed earlier, the expiry of these deals within the EU ceiling rates at the end of this year is a major factor in determining the timing of Vodafone's move today.”
Cue thousands of remainers complaining that they're mildly inconvenienced when travelling on holidays that many of the working classes never had and could never afford.
What's the Vodafone UK roaming partner network in Spain......? Well, of course, it's Vodafone ES.
I suspect that Vodafone are going to apply the European roaming charge to the less expensive plans (you can go as low as £11 per month). In the UK, we have lots of competition which keeps prices quite low. I'm on Vodafone and pay around £30 for totally unlimited 5G and free roaming in 84 countries (including the US) - it also includes my Apple Watch connection. I can't really complain.
I suspect that Vodafone are going to apply the European roaming charge to the less expensive plans (you can go as low as £11 per month). In the UK, we have lots of competition which keeps prices quite low. I'm on Vodafone and pay around £30 for totally unlimited 5G and free roaming in 84 countries (including the US) - it also includes my Apple Watch connection. I can't really complain.
They do it in Switzerland not belonging to the EU or the EEA, so why should there be any difference for the UK not being part of the EU or EEA.
Did they say that? I thought they were saying the UK should look to the UK government to regulate markets, not some parent government.
You do all know this is £1-£2 per day right? And there's a whole world going on outside the EU? You should visit, it's lovely.
Yes but the cellphone prices are even more outrageous. Rip off prices for me with my Swedish owned Norwegian sim card, in the US, China, Japan, Turkey etc. etc. So bad I have to invest in a local sim card.
For the Brits, this is what they meant when they said having your cake and eating it
Another reason not to visit the UK.
I know this may come as news to the working class that "never could afford to travel abroad", but the Spanish costas are not part of the UK.
Before that idiotic referendum I recall of those right wing wingnuts claiming that of course free roaming would remain after we left the world's biggest free trade zone and burnt every bridge imaginable. That, like everything else they said was a steaming pile of manure.
Truly the most dishonest, brainless, and truly sadistic bunch of psychopaths in political history. May they burn in hell.
Truly the most dishonest, brainless, and truly sadistic bunch of psychopaths in political history. May they burn in hell.
Even before the pandemic though the UK tourism industry was growing fast with latest stats suggesting it to grow 3.8% per year until 2025. The staycation sector is our fastest growing sector and this has taken some business off foreign resorts. When you consider a country like Spain receives most of their tourism from Germany and the UK, it’s having a drastic impact. Adding additional costs to tourists doesn’t help those reliant on tourism either.
The most popular destinations for UK tourists are:
1 - Spain (EU)
2 - France (EU)
3 - Italy (EU)
4 - USA
5 - Ireland (EU)
6 - Netherlands (EU)
7 - Greece (EU)
8 - Germany (EU)
9 - Portugal (EU)
10 - Poland (EU)
So yeah, leaving the EU was an act of such stupidity it's simply impossible to comprehend on any rational level. Truly the worst foreign policy mistake in British history. The sad thing is that the return of roaming charges is just a side story. The real issue is the near total collapse in exports to the EU due to crippling amounts of red tape, additional charges, and import tariffs.
If you were to try and come up with a way to sabotage a country's prosperity for decades to come in one fell swoop, Brexit would be it.
whoa, my t-mobile plan gives me the same conditions in canada(and mexico) as the u.s. (except high-speed internet is limited to 5gb, i think)