MSE News: Vodafone to bring back mobile roaming charges in Europe from January

MSE_Petar

Vodafone is to start charging new and upgrading customers roaming fees of £2 a day to use their monthly allowance in Europe from January 2022 – though some will be able to cut the cost to £1 a day by paying for a multi-day pass.

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'Vodafone to bring back mobile roaming charges in Europe from January'

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redux

Has Vodafone encountered a breakdown in roaming agreements, or an increase in wholesale costs, or is it merely being cynically exploitative?

M4rtyman

This is going to be interesting. Especially for all of us on SIM-only plans.

After the 12 month contract runs out, I normally look to renew with the same or similar deal, in order to avoid the annual inflation linked increase. Looking at this, it appears that if we just let it roll on after the contract end date, we won't be hit with the roaming charges.

So it all boils down to sucking up the extra 50p or so per month in annual increases, if it is still cheaper than roaming charges for two or three holidays a year.

Of course, I fully expect them to close the "roll-over" loophole as well at some point

JenB79

Yet another Brexit benefit! On a serious note, is anyone really surprised that mobile operators are introducing EU roaming charges now that there is no legislation stopping them from doing so?

redux

JenB79 said:

Yet another Brexit benefit! On a serious note, is anyone really surprised that mobile operators are introducing EU roaming charges now that there is no legislation stopping them from doing so?

No. After all, while EU politicians and regulators were dragging mobile networks kicking and screaming towards no roaming charges, for part of the time the Cameron government was sticking up for the networks, not the customers.

JenB79

Brexit - now paying for stuff which used to be free. 

JJ_Egan

But it was not free for a long time .

M4rtyman

JJ_Egan said:

But it was not free for a long time .

Yes - but then, due to sensible regulation, we evolved.

We have now regressed.

redux

JJ_Egan said:

But it was not free for a long time .

The fact that Vodafone used to have some of the highest roaming fees doesn't exactly justify this move now.

Will Vodafone also pass on higher roaming charges to European visitors to here, forcing their rates up, or is this move entirely unilateral, to affect only its UK customers?

As I already asked:

redux said:

Has Vodafone encountered a breakdown in roaming agreements, or an increase in wholesale costs, or is it merely being cynically exploitative?

simax

Undoubtedly the UK networks will now increase their interconnect fees for foreign roamers travelling to the UK.

And we haven’t regressed @M4rtyman ….. Free EU roaming was never free. It was simply paid for via other domestic price increases. The networks were forced to provide free EU roaming at a loss. It’s an artificial entity and as already explained just pushes prices up elsewhere.

You have to pay to roam everywhere else….

M4rtyman

I don't buy that. Now that roaming charges are being re-introduced, will we see decreases in domestic prices? I very much doubt it.

The free market was meant to benefit the consumer, where competition would drive prices down. However, just like the utility companies, they operate like a cartel. One company will start raising prices, and then the rest will follow suit.

If it was a proper free market, one or two mobile companies would keep roaming charges free and customers would flock to them. But we know that won't happen.