UK Gov Warns – No More FREE EU Mobile Roaming from 2021, Maybe

In a somewhat unsurprising development the Government has again warned UK people that the current “guarantee of free mobile phone roaming” throughout the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway “will end” on 1st January 2021, which marks the conclusion of the imminent 11 month Brexit transition period.

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 data (mobile broadband) 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 data usage above a certain level.

One obvious casualty of Brexit was thus always predicted to be free roaming, which could result in UK consumers once again having to face higher charges for using their mobile while travelling around the EU. So far we’ve seen nothing that would protect this agreement in the current Brexit deal, although it’s entirely possible that the issue may yet come up as part of the future trade negotiations.

Nevertheless for now the UK Government’s official guidance seems to serve as more of a warning and the only protection is a legislated cap of £45 on roaming charges (first proposed in 2018), which fails to address the underlying issue.

Government Position on Mobile Roaming

From 1 January 2021, the guarantee of free mobile phone roaming throughout the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway will end.

Check with your phone operator to find out about any roaming charges you might get from 1 January 2021.

A new law means that you’re protected from getting mobile data charges above £45 without you knowing.

Once you reach £45, you need to opt in to spend more so that you can continue using the internet while you’re abroad. Your phone operator will tell how you can do this.

On the other hand both Vodafone and Three UK have previously committed to retain free EU mobile roaming after Brexit (example), while EE (BT) has previously indicated that they too have “no plans” to change how they do things (one caveat when an operator says “no plans” is that such positions can change). Meanwhile it’s unclear where O2 stands on all this but they’d probably have to follow what their rivals are doing or risk losing customers.

Admittedly the issue here is that there would be nothing to stop some EU operators from raising their charges against UK providers. However EU operators would still have to be mindful that EU citizens visiting the UK might also face higher charges, unless existing agreements between operators are retained.

Meanwhile some operators, such as Vodafone, are extremely large pan-European companies and so will find it much easier to support free roaming than others, at least in the countries where they already have a presence.