Government to Protect Free EU Mobile Roaming Regardless of Brexit
The UK Brexit Secretary, Dominic Raab, has this morning confirmed that both Vodafone and Three UK have committed to retain free EU mobile roaming after Brexit and that the Government would “legislate for a limit on roaming charges” in the event of a no-deal outcome.
At present citizens of the European Union benefit from free mobile roaming via the “Roam Like At Home” regulation. As such anybody choosing to use their Mobile (SIM) to make calls, text or use 3G / 4G data while roaming around the EU should be able to do so for the same price as they pay their UK operator (i.e. no extra roaming charges), although there are some caveats for mobile broadband usage above a certain level.
Obviously Brexit, which is due to take effect from 29th March 2019 (ignoring the proposed transitional period thereafter until 2020), could change that situation. Indeed there had been fears that this might result in UK consumers facing higher charges, as well as a possible return to post-travel bill shocks.
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The Government hopes to secure a Brexit deal by mid-November, although Raab has now told the BBC that it would legislate to limit a return to roaming charges in the event of a no-deal outcome (here). One problem with this is that such legislation could take time to introduce and imposing a “limit” is not necessarily the same as a complete ban.
At the same time there would be nothing to stop some EU operators from raising their charges against UK providers. On the other hand EU operators would have to be mindful that EU citizens visiting the UK might also face higher charges, unless existing agreements between operators are retained.
Some operators, such as Vodafone, are large pan-European companies and so will find it easier to support free roaming than others, at least in the countries where they already have a presence.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Sorry, I don’t believe in promises this government makes.
Why isn’t EE on it?
A Tory / Conservative government telling private companies how much they may charge for products while simultaneously screaming ‘Socialist!’ at Labour. The irony.
I don’t support the Tories but in this instance it’s catch 22. If they did nothing people would rightly complain that a good thing has been lost, whereas some action is taken and they’re jeered for acting in a manner unbecoming of their party ideology.
As an aside, I hope that Brexit is absolutely savage. This benefit is a speck of dust compared to the magnitude of other issues it could or will cause. I’ve yet to bear witness to a single positive that has come of it, whilst it’s easy to see the damage that has been done and will continue for many years to come. What a mess.
@Wakeman
As an exporter of salt you should have seen a great benefit in the drop of the pound around Brexit 🙂
This was always going to be the case. I had roaming on my EE phone for a few years before it was compulsory. No one is going to drop this service in the UK. There is too much competition from the MVNO’s and the big networks.
Isnt the new iPhone able to take two sim cards so this would also be a potential solution?
That’s correct. Although one is for a physical SIM, the other is an eSim – Making a 2nd service dependant on whether or not you can find a provider offering eSim in the country you’re in.
Current eSIM support right now: Austria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, India, Spain, UK, and the US
France cannot be that far behind as it is an update in iOS12 which is due in the next month or so.