from the read-the-small-print-before-signing dept.
British travellers rage as Vodafone brings back data roaming charges:
British travellers in the EU were disappointed today as another mobile phone company reintroduced roaming charges.
Mobile phone operator Vodafone said it would reintroduce European roaming fees for new and upgrading British customers in January 2022, following the lead set by rival EE.
Roaming charges were completely abolished in the European Union in 2017, saving holidaymakers and business travellers millions of pounds a year in total additional fees for using their smartphones outside Britain. But fee-free roaming was not protected in the Brexit agreement Britain signed with the EU.
Vodafone's UK Chief Executive Ahmed Essam said the majority of its customers were not regular roamers - fewer than half roamed beyond Ireland in 2019 - and they were paying for something they didn't use.
"So we think it's fairer to give people more choice over what they pay for, either opting into a price plan that includes free-roaming or paying for roaming only when they roam," he said.
Eight and 15 day passes would be available at 1 pound per day, Vodafone said, adding that roaming would remain inclusive in the Republic of Ireland for all customers. From 11 August, all new and upgrading Vodafone customers will face roaming charges in the EU from January.
"Existing customers will not be impacted by these changes while they remain on their current price plan," said a spokesperson for Vodafone.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Friday August 13 2021, @04:13AM (26 children)
So Brexit didn't live up to its promises then? Who would have thought...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Friday August 13 2021, @04:22AM (3 children)
Not yet, no surprises there.
What's new: brits are no longer stiff-upper-lip-ing, on the contrary.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday August 13 2021, @10:47AM (2 children)
Oh, wait, ... https://news.sky.com/story/kfc-warns-customers-that-menu-will-be-missing-items-due-to-supply-shortages-12379625
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday August 13 2021, @12:06PM (1 child)
Mmmm... would they need a repeat of WWII to remember the meaning of a stiff lip? Or maybe a well placed stroke would suffice.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday August 13 2021, @01:23PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Friday August 13 2021, @08:22AM (2 children)
Or just Vodafone didn't live up to...
Actually I'm not sure (and can't tell from the hyped headline news) whether or not they have changed existing contracts or just put the charge onto new contracts, I can say that if it's the latter it's only _some_ new contracts - they still have contracts advertised (just checked now) with inclusive roaming including to some non-EU countries.
I left Voda some years ago, don't miss 'em. Oh, and I still have inclusive roaming in all EU countries and more.
Other mobile providers are available and you are entitled to switch under UK law, whether in teh EU or not...
(Score: 2) by drussell on Friday August 13 2021, @12:01PM (1 child)
Did you not even read the summary?!
Furthermore, it also states:
Now, I would argue that "fewer than half" is still probably a pretty big number, and that whole "paying for something they didn't use" is more of an excuse for a cash grab than really trying to help those customers who don't use roaming, but wouldn't most people who really want one of those urban-only discount phone plans or something already be on something like that? (Or, were even those types of things still operable in the EU without roaming charges, or do you folks even have those kinds of limited-area discount plans?)
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Friday August 13 2021, @01:28PM
Yeah, but I've also read plenty stuff elsewhere that implies it's all Voda customers affected - something I find very unlikely (there is such thing as a contract...) but it seems to make good headlines for some.
Limited area discount plans were in effect banned by the EU mandatory-free-roaming rules. In effect UK-only plans are now allowed, whether that'll save anyone any money... we can guess. UK itself is so dense in population it'd be hard to actually define local-area plans that made any kind of sense to anyone, and in any case all the actual networks are country-wide.
Main thing to me is that only those who really want to pay this charge will have to pay it, along with the rest of the cost premium for staying with Vodafone - not only are there plenty of other operators that still have free EU (and sometimes elsewhere as well) roaming, but some of those are even MVNOs using Vodas UK network (so no need to switch physical home network), so there is zero reason to bleat about this.
Oh, and if you are daft enough to try and go anywhere international right now the mandatory Covid testing or hotel quarantine charges will make the roaming fees look like small change.
(Score: 2, Informative) by PiMuNu on Friday August 13 2021, @08:44AM (18 children)
As a Brexit supporter - the cost of leaving EU is obviously going to be high, economically and socially, and this is one of them (but could be fixed by British legislature).
However, the EU democracy is so weak I don't feel that Brits had any choice but to leave. MEPs are basically powerless, EU is a crushing bureaucracy. Meanwhile the EU has supreme legislative power over member states.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday August 13 2021, @08:49AM (8 children)
Just to make an example - if I don't like Conservative party pro-business tax policy, I can vote for someone else. If I don't like GDPR - then what? Vote for a different MEP? Would that change anything if a different MEP got in?
For those who don't know, the EU lower house is made up of appointees nominated by national government, with no accountability, who are the ones who propose legislation. The upper house is made up of directly elected MEPs who can block legislation. The presidency is made up of a (useless IMHO) one-year rotating post. The structure is designed so that the appointees hold all of the power, and they have no accountability. It's a broken system.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 13 2021, @08:58AM (1 child)
And also the directly appointed MEP's have ZERO power to make or propose new laws, only vote for them.
Also through the appointment of Ursula von der Leyen (and to a lesser extent Jean-Claude Juncker as Cameron voted no...) it is seen the commission can bypass the elected MEP's anyway.
Just look at how many "presidents" this instruction has.
President of the European Parliament
President of the European Council
Presidency of the Council of the European Union
President of the European Commission
Who's in charge (and the fiasco in Turkey shows this...)... its was created as a self-serving bureaucratic mess.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 13 2021, @05:49PM
Much better to have 1 Fuhrer to rule them all.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 13 2021, @09:57AM
As usual, not exactly [wikipedia.org]:
(Score: 4, Touché) by FatPhil on Friday August 13 2021, @10:51AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Insightful) by drussell on Friday August 13 2021, @11:33AM (3 children)
Well, you could vote Conservative, or not, while in the EU just as you can now, so nothing changed there. What is it about the Conservative's implementation of the GDPR regulation in your country that you don't agree with? What precisely about its implementations would you change? Alternatively, do you just not want any protection for what commercial enterprises do with your personal data and information?
You hear a lot of blather about "all those stifling EU regulations, directives and laws," yet rarely can someone articulate anything that they would actually change about said rules.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 13 2021, @04:30PM (1 child)
You do know the difference between a hypothetical example and making a statement of belief, right?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by drussell on Friday August 13 2021, @04:54PM
Yes, of course, but there has been nothing but hypotheticals strewn about since 2016, nobody ever seems to be able to point to any specifics.
Could you please point to at least one specific EU rule, regulation, directive or law that you would change, and what you would change or what you would suggest as an alternative?
I've yet to hear any brexit supporter actually point to anything specific instead of just rambling on about how terrible they perceive EU to be, with no actual examples.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 13 2021, @05:52PM
Weren't UKIP heavily represented as MEPs? So what's all the bleating about not having the batshit rightwing represented?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 13 2021, @08:52AM (4 children)
Exactly.
Also what isn't clear is whether it is EU-based providers that are pushing the cost onto Vodaphone to use their infrastructure or Voda and other UK providers after a quick buck.
Either way this cost increases and disruption is worth it in the long term. What is becoming more obvious is the vindictiveness' for the sake of it that the EU has demonstrated... Once Macron is out it should calm down a bit since he is literally only doing it to try to show he is for the French (while also scalping the French in the EU) and the Brits are the easy targets
(Score: 5, Insightful) by drussell on Friday August 13 2021, @11:47AM (3 children)
The EU isn't being vindictive.
They're treating the UK precisely as one would expect them to as a non-member. You left the club, even including the customs union and single market. You chose to leave the largest trading block in the world and now are being treated like any other nation outside the club. They should be doing everything in their power to help their member states, which no longer includes you. You're now a trading adversary. They should do whatever they can to give their member states the upper hand in any dealings with you. Good on them!
The UK is like the proverbial tail trying to wag the dog.
This isn't the 1700s, the colonial days of the "vast British empire" are over.
You can no longer just show up on someone's shores with your navy and say "Do you know who we are?! We're British and we're here, this is how things are going to be now."
To be blunt, you're simply not that important.
It is going to take quite some time before many of those in the UK really understand that, but I suspect there won't be much left of the UK by that point. I expect Ireland to unify and Scotland to leave the UK and rejoin the EU trying to get away from the asshats running whatever is left of the UK and their "Britain is God's gift to the world" mentality.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 13 2021, @04:37PM (2 children)
The EU is how Germany gets to tell the rest of Europe what to do. AGAIN.
(Score: 5, Touché) by drussell on Friday August 13 2021, @05:07PM (1 child)
Is that why Germany uses the Euro instead of the Mark and yet the UK decided to continue using their pound?
Germany told them to?
Is that why the UK maintained options to opt-out of various EU legislation implementation in areas like the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union or the various areas of freedom, security and justice, etc?
Germany told them to?
Do tell... Do tell...
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 14 2021, @05:11AM
Not the poster above, but there is some rationality to believe Germany would want to trade in the Mark for the Euro to gain power, trading power that is. In a free floating exchange, when a country is debt burdened (e.g. Greece) their currency falls in value. That is to say, it buys less stuff from foreigners. When a country is doing well, selling stuff, the currency goes up in value, meaning it buys more stuff from foreigners. If Greece's currency fell relative to Germany's Mark, then Greece's exporters would do really well, while internal producers in Greece would be able to better compete with German producers. If both countries are on a gold standard, where the currency does not free float but rather are backed by x gold per dollar, over time Germany's efficiency would overtake Greece, causing Greece to go into more and more debt all while causing more producers in Greece to go out of business. This was at least one part of what caused two world wars (it also is part of why "empires" made more sense). To be clear the Euro is not backed by gold, but it is just as binding as the gold standard is because no country owns the printing press or can default on the debt without impacting everyone else.
In the USA, every state has this problem, being on a "gold standard" known as the dollar. To fix this, you use taxation, pork barrel spending and redistribution. That is why California (a strong producer) pays more taxes in than it gets out, to allow producers in Alabama a chance to compete. That is why you have military spending in all 50 states. Etc.
So yes, there is an economic argument that Germany is taking the benefits of a European empire in having a fixed exchange, but they are not taking up the responsibilities of redistribution as can be seen by the way they treated Greece in ~2012 or how Italy has fared in the last 20 years.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Friday August 13 2021, @11:04AM (3 children)
The cost of Brexit isn't some silly roaming charges. It's the Good Friday agreement fraying at the edges and Scotland possibly organizing a new referendum.
What a stupid, stupid thing Brexit was. If you think a bunch of fishermen in the Channel, shortages here and there and cellphone charges are the problem, you're dreaming. The UK has become a weaker and more problematic country because of it.
(Score: 2) by drussell on Friday August 13 2021, @11:49AM (2 children)
Indeed!
+1 :)
It seems that many there still have no clue as to what they've actually done to themselves!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 13 2021, @01:32PM
They have declared independence from the kings in Brussels.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 13 2021, @05:59PM
I think some of them like doing it to themselves.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Mykl on Friday August 13 2021, @04:14AM (9 children)
What the hell did these idiots think Brexit would mean? Everything about the relationship with Europe to be completely different, yet remain the same?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Friday August 13 2021, @04:22AM (5 children)
It's in the article:
Meaning: "I didn't want to follow rules made up by someone I didn't vote for, but I liked the rules."
Yeah, they didn't vote MEPs in, but they enjoyed what MEPs voted for. Now they're just realizing. But vaporous populist talks about sovereignty unfortunately sold Brexit to the British public.
The best commentary I've ever heard on Brexit was made by James Acaster on Mock the week: priceless and totally accurate [youtube.com].
(Score: 2) by drussell on Friday August 13 2021, @04:36AM (3 children)
Yep...
Both of those Steve Bannon-style media blitzes brought Trumpism and Brexit...
Gee, who would have thought?!
Those same group of people essentially trying to avoid having to do things like actually paying anything in taxes, have somehow successfully convinced a large group of misguided regular citizens to vote for things which are actually totally against their own best interests, as is obvious to many of us outside observers from other countries...
I find the lack of awareness (or perhaps willful ignorance?) of some of these people to be absolutely astounding! 🤦
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Friday August 13 2021, @04:48AM (2 children)
I find it depressingly samey.
It takes education, critical thinking and some effort to actually apply it to cut through clever populists' bullshit. Unfortunately, as educated as people are in developed countries today, they still fall for the same tricks that brought Nazis and Bolsheviks to power.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 13 2021, @05:25AM (1 child)
It is actually a different issue, the real problem are all the lies that emotionally compromise their audience which is why those that should know better still buy into the lies. Emotional loyalty is much easier than critical thinking.
(Score: 2) by drussell on Friday August 13 2021, @05:13PM
That's part of that Bannon-style magic.
Did you see him clapping yesterday at Mike Pillow's Cyber Symposium when when the speaker said media outlets like CNN need to "stop fact checking and start reporting" their bogus narrative. That's the whole plan, and so far it has essentially just all worked according to plan.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 13 2021, @05:00PM
Speaking of Youtube videos, I always liked this Brexit one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptfmAY6M6aA [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday August 13 2021, @06:25AM (2 children)
Hold on, let me look this up .... [npr.org]
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday August 13 2021, @11:03AM (1 child)
Oh, how I laughed. I left the UK in 2000 because I considered it to be an unimaginably backward country compared to the frozen wasteland full of inbred wannabe vikings I moved to. Just in time too, as it got progressively worse after I left. My schadenfreude lobe is bigger than my skull - I need popcorn with the news nowadays.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday August 13 2021, @11:23PM
Frozen wastelands are starting to sound better and better, what with the global warming and all. Are you talking about, like, Minnesota, Canada, or one of the Scandinavian regions?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Friday August 13 2021, @04:24AM (11 children)
Should've been something on the Schadenfreude theme, I don't expect any comments offering sympathy.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Troll) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Friday August 13 2021, @04:38AM (10 children)
You should have some sympathy for the 48.1% of remainers. They must be hopping mad.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday August 13 2021, @04:50AM (3 children)
Relocate away from England then secede.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday August 13 2021, @08:15AM (2 children)
Scotland? Republic of Ireland?
Jersey?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Friday August 13 2021, @08:34AM
If I were to choose, probably I'd go with the British Virgin Islands. (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 13 2021, @10:20AM
Gibraltar!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by pTamok on Friday August 13 2021, @08:09AM (5 children)
I don't think remainers are angry any more, but sad. Remainers see a lot of benefits from EU membership that have now been lost.
Brexiters are angry that remainers are not working hard enough (in the brexiters' view) to make brexit a success, and blame many things on remainer disengagement or even active subversion.
It illustrates that 'winning' a vote is not enough: you really need to have positive engagement from your opponents, or very little happens. Democrats and Republicans notice this in the USA.
It is going to take many, many years to resolve things; and I can't even begin to guess how things will play out in Northern Ireland. It is entirely possible that a future referendum (border poll) there will result in 51.89% vote to unite with Ireland, but not in the near future. The ongoing problems of having the Single Market border in the Irish Sea could well move sentiment.
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/irish-reunification [instituteforgovernment.org.uk]
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday August 13 2021, @09:43AM (4 children)
> I don't think remainers are angry any more, but sad
My observation is that many Remainers still don't really understand what Brexit is all about. They think it is some sort of xenophobic/anti-migration thing, so then this "Brexiteers are idiotic bigots" or "Brexiteers were misled by the Tories and didn't really want to leave" attitude can thrive, which for me is wrong.
I, personally, went into Brexit eyes open. It is a choice for democracy against oligarchy.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by drussell on Friday August 13 2021, @11:17AM (3 children)
No, you just chose the more local oligarchy and made it far easier for them to exploit you.
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Friday August 13 2021, @11:43AM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 13 2021, @06:37PM (1 child)
That is a special level of stulud, even for you shallow.
(Score: 1, Disagree) by khallow on Saturday August 14 2021, @03:39AM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by drussell on Friday August 13 2021, @04:27AM
Welcome to the Brexit, sir!
(Score: 4, Touché) by Opportunist on Friday August 13 2021, @10:26AM (3 children)
Now get the fuck out.
Don't let the door hit your ass on the way. Or let it, if you prefer. We don't kinkshame here in Europe.
And yes, if you insist, you may have another one.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 13 2021, @04:40PM (2 children)
Fuck off European imperialist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 13 2021, @06:35PM
Right, that crazy kind of imperialism that lets a vassal country just leave their great empire!
You are a joke, your worldview is sad, and we will get so much popcorn time watching you bitch about the problems you gave yourself. True slapstick comedy.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Saturday August 14 2021, @10:40AM
Gladly. Take your island and shove it.
Just stop holding the Scots hostage. The only reason they voted stay with your crumbling "empire" is that they feared that what happened now would happen if they vote leave: That they'd have to get out of the EU.
If they hold that referendum now, watch your hat fly off.