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posted by martyb on Friday September 14 2018, @03:19AM   Printer-friendly
from the when-in-Rome,-charge-as-the-roamers-do? dept.

Free mobile phone roaming 'not guaranteed' with a no-deal Brexit

Britons visiting the EU could be hit with mobile phone roaming charges in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said the government would try to force firms to limit charges but he could not give a "cast iron guarantee" on the issue. The EU directive which capped the prices mobile phone operators could charge each other will no longer apply to the UK after Brexit.

Mr Raab said that two mobile operators had agreed to keep free data roaming. And the government is proposing to cap any data charges at £45 a month.

In an interview with BBC Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg, the Brexit secretary said the government was trying to give the "reassurance that consumers need" on the issue of mobile phone roaming charges but admitted that European operators could pass on charges. He said: "No, I can't give a cast-iron guarantee. What I can say is that the government would legislate to limit the ability of roaming charges to be imposed on customers."


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  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Captival on Friday September 14 2018, @04:32AM (9 children)

    by Captival (6866) on Friday September 14 2018, @04:32AM (#734700)

    And here we have the MUCH bigger problem. Complete morons who think they know what's best for everybody else, despite being just as big of fucking idiots as the people they're looking down on. Nobody who voted leave was under the impression they would be getting free cell phone roaming when they're no longer part of the union. It's only clueless dipshits like yourself that are desperately searching for petty reasons to prove yourself right.

    And much like here in the US where you can buy cost effective plans that work in Canada & Mexico, there is no doubt that providers will offer new plans that cover the UK & EU together, with some minor additional bureaucracy fees tacked on.

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Whoever on Friday September 14 2018, @05:57AM (7 children)

    by Whoever (4524) on Friday September 14 2018, @05:57AM (#734717) Journal

    And much like here in the US where you can buy cost effective plans that work in Canada & Mexico, there is no doubt that providers will offer new plans that cover the UK & EU together, with some minor additional bureaucracy fees tacked on.

    Yes, just like they offered such plans before the EU limited roaming charges ..... what's that? They didn't offer plans that cover the UK and EU together before the EU forced them to?

    History. It's a bitch.

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by choose another one on Friday September 14 2018, @07:47AM (6 children)

      by choose another one (515) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 14 2018, @07:47AM (#734731)

      > Yes, just like they offered such plans before the EU limited roaming charges ..... what's that?
      > They didn't offer plans that cover the UK and EU together before the EU forced them to?

      > History. It's a bitch.

      Hell yeah, if brexit rewinds us all the way back to... 2017... that would be well scary - things were so different then.

      It's a long time ago (I mean 2017, right) and I don't remember too well, but I do remember it was total nightmare having a plan where for a small extra fee you could use your UK calls/texts/data allowance in Europe. Worse still, when roaming you used to get shunted from network to network depending on who had the best signal - absolute pain in the butt that was, much better now when you get free roaming but only on a limited set (like one) of partner networks, so if that network don't have signal where you are you're SOL, just like at home.

      I'm sure Brexit will prevent us buying an EU SIM and sticking it in our phones as well - definitely plenty of historical precedent for that one.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @09:50AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @09:50AM (#734759)

        That "small fee" was at best available with full plans, which in themselves are at least $10 more than a prepaid plan.
        On the prepaid plans, the price was $7/week for 400 MB.
        So if you were lucky, we are talking about $15 to $30/month extra! Maybe in the US that's considered a "small fee", after all some people there seem to think paying $80 and more a month for a mobile phone plan is normal, but around here that is more like doubling the price!

        • (Score: 2) by zocalo on Friday September 14 2018, @02:15PM

          by zocalo (302) on Friday September 14 2018, @02:15PM (#734828)
          Actually, it varied quite a bit even within full contracts or PAYG as to how much the add-on bundles cost and were applied. Some countries - especially where you were "roaming" between different branches of the same telco, tended to have much more economical packages (albeit still very stingy on call and data allowances), others were more expensive but could be managed by judicious use of flight modes, and the rest was generally a choice between getting a SIM on arrival (assuming that was possible without being a resident) or just leaving your phone at home. All of which required you to do your homework before hand, including pricing up the various options at your destination - which wasn't particularly hard, but still a far cry from the convenience of just not having to think about it at all.

          For USians, keep in mind that many UK citizens mostly vacation within the EU and have more vacation time (typically between 20-30 days per year), so this would be like having to check for roaming charges every time you crossed a state boundary, acquire any necessary SIMs, and having to pay (again, typically) as much as your standard contract again each time you did so, all with no refunds for unused credits. No, it's not much in the grand scheme of things, but it was quite a big deal for many in the EU at the time, and I'm pretty sure that a lot of those who really had to scrimp even to afford a discount package holiday for the family both appreciated the saving and won't like it should it return to how it was.
          --
          UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
      • (Score: 2) by Whoever on Friday September 14 2018, @01:50PM (3 children)

        by Whoever (4524) on Friday September 14 2018, @01:50PM (#734814) Journal

        2017 is long after the EU started limiting roaming costs, idiot.

        • (Score: 2) by choose another one on Friday September 14 2018, @02:50PM (2 children)

          by choose another one (515) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 14 2018, @02:50PM (#734847)

          The switch from pay-per-minute roaming to inclusive (free) was 2017, until then you could still get massive roaming bills especially for data.

          I can now get inclusive (free) roaming in way more countries than just the EU 27, the EU directive hasn't done that because it doesn't apply in those countries, the market has changed.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @05:58PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @05:58PM (#734937)

            He is talking about limits to roaming fees the providers ask for among each other.
            Those are what made the relatively cheap (which for data was still really expensive) special EU roaming package offers possible.

            • (Score: 2) by choose another one on Saturday September 15 2018, @09:08AM

              by choose another one (515) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 15 2018, @09:08AM (#735239)

              What made the free/inclusive roaming packages that cover a dozens of non-EU countries available then ?

  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday September 14 2018, @05:09PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Friday September 14 2018, @05:09PM (#734908)

    > much like here in the US where you can buy cost effective plans

    Only appropriate response [youtube.com].

    As the AC points out a few posts downthread, you have no clue how much you're getting gouged by US cell carriers.