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We are no longer in the EU so travelling to any country in the EU is like travelling to a country outside the EU. Pointless petition as the govt has no control over it and neither do the providers as they have to pay providers in the EU for the service. Nothing is free these days.
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I agree with Ian, Switch your phone provider to one that doesn't charge(at the moment). I changed from Vodafone to Tesco as Tesco said they have no plans to introduce roaming charges and they also don't put the prices up on 1st April every year.
Any government legislation on EU roaming would end up with prices rising for all. As pointed out best way is just to allow UK providers to compete for business including no roaming charges.
What’s the problem? When I visit family in NZ, I turn off mobile data. If I really need to do anything, I batch it up & pay a very very small extra for one day of unlimited use of mobile data. When I get access to free Wi-fi, I use the free iMessages & catch up on emails.
When we visited NZ just before the pandemic, we bought a very cheap local mobile phone and simcard, simply to provide us with acess to phoning the motorhome hire company. Seem to recall it only cost us about a tenner all in.
Then checked around the various local mobile providers and bought a data card for the ipad. That was more expensive, but it did allow me to call my brother back here, every day for a short chat and even some live footage of places we were visiting.
Much as I lament the passing of EU free roaming, I don't think there is any way the government can legislate for it's return because its is purely a business decision whether (or not) to pass on the roaming charges to customers.
Roaming charges have always existed between mobile carriers - they never went away. If for example a Vodafone (UK) customer roams on the Orange (France) network, Orange charges Vodafone the roaming fees. However under EU rules Vodafone weren't able to pass that charge on to the end customer.
Its helpful to understand the reasoning behind the abolishment of roaming within the EU: it was nothing to do with market forces and was a purely political decision taken by the EU to promote European unity. The regulations were forced onto the carriers - and in order to recover these costs elsewhere they more than likely simply increased their baseline prices (in effect meaning that baseline subscribers were subsidising those who roamed).
Sadly, as we decided to leave the club we no longer get to benefit from its advantages (in this case the protection from roaming charges) and mobile carriers are now free to re-impose the charges on customers. From a business point of view it makes sense for them to do so because they can reduce the baseline costs for all consumers and instead just charge those who roam for their usage. Which is much less risky in terms of covering their costs, and also you could argue is a much fairer way of doing things.
We are with O2 and they have told us that our normal usage limits apply in Europe, as we have unlimited txt, calls and a data usage that works for us it’s no problem.
It is interesting to look at the overall picture. Looking at monthly Sim only deals for a private individual the secondary providers that piggyback the main providers networks are very much cheaper than the main providers for Sim only deals. This suggests that the main providers are more interested in commercial customers & contracts that supply a phone as well rather than Sim only & they are happy to leave Sim only to secondary providers many of which offer only Sim deals & do not supply phones.
I get my Sim only from Plusnet £6pm for unlimited+6gb which is right for my needs. Rolling 30day contract & I do regularly check prices. Speaking to them they state they have no plans to re introduce roaming charges although of course that could change.
My guess is that the UK market will remain competitive & probably best way to avoid roaming charges in the future is with Sim only with 30 day rolling contracts & keep a close eye on the overall market place.
If you check on mobile providers websites in our near neighbour countries you will see that monthly Sim only deals available to residents of those countries are considerably higher cost than those we have so I don’t think we are too badly off. When roaming charges did apply in EU I always found that for light use it was still cheaper to stick with your own UK provider than buy a local pay&go Sim.
I think its more interesting that the same mobile operators here or abroad
have big shares in each other, so are basically the same company your paying here is charging you extra to use them abroad which is why roaming charges were banned by the eu originally' of course buying a cheap sim card abroad and using a vpn works for those who want to stay fully connected is probably the easiest way.
Quote: Originally posted by romany on 02/11/2021
I think its more interesting that the same mobile operators here or abroad
have big shares in each other, so are basically the same company your paying here is charging you extra to use them abroad which is why roaming charges were banned by the eu originally'
I'm sorry but that is incorrect.
The EU banned mobile roaming charges as a way to promote European integration and a feeling of unity. It was a political decision and was nothing to do with the fact that some operators are present in more than one country.
Also whilst some mobile operators are present in multiple countries, each one is actually an independent entity which is regulated in its operating territory. Although they may be owned by a central parent company there are not related on the operational or commercial side.
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Topic: Petition-banning mobile`s roaming charges
via mobile 30/10/2021 at 8:01pm
