Vodafone is the latest mobile company to reintroduce roaming charges for users travelling in Europe.
From January, new customers and those upgrading their phone will be charged at least £1 a day to use the mobile network in European destinations, on a variety of tariffs.
This follows similar plans from rival EE, announced last June.
Following Brexit, all UK operators said they would not reintroduce a roaming charge despite having the option of doing so.
Vodafone’s approach is to limit those that include roaming in Europe to “selected plans” – including its more expensive options.
New and upgrading customers will be subject to the new rules from Wednesday, 11th August, though the charges will not apply until January.
Vodafone announced “Existing customers will not be impacted by these changes while they remain on their current price plan, and roaming in the Republic of Ireland will still be included for all customers”.
After January, customers will be able to purchase bundles that allow them to use their allowance in Europe at a discounted rate of £1 per day if they buy it as an 8- or 15-day bundle. Otherwise, the charge will now be £2 per day.
Fair-usage limits also apply at 25GB of roaming data per month.
The EU trade agreement signed in December 2020 opened the door to users being charged when travelling overseas, as of 2017, UK consumers have been able to use their mobile-phone tariffs as freely in the EU as they do at home.
The agreement encouraged operators to have “transparent and reasonable rates,” but it did not ban the charges outright.
EE was the first to break ranks with its £2 daily charge to 47 European destinations, which will also start from January. Its customers won’t be charged for using their phones in the Republic of Ireland either.
Currently, Three UK, has cut its fair-use data limit from 20GB a month to 12GB when in Europe. It charges £3 per gigabyte above that, so if you do not want to be charged for any additional usage while roaming, while O2 UK allows a roaming limit of 25GB, with any data used over that charged at £3.50 per gigabyte.
Uswitch spokesperson, Ernest Doku said, “In the aftermath of Brexit, the UK’s biggest mobile providers all said that they had no immediate plans to change their charging models for consumers roaming within the EU”.
“It’s disappointing for consumers to see that the situation looks to be shifting, with a risk that roaming at no additional cost could soon be a distant memory for UK residents, travellers should check the small print if they were due an upgrade in coming months”.
“Always use hotel and cafe wi-fi when on holiday, where possible,” Mr. Doku added.
