Three to introduce £2/day European roaming charges from May 2022

Former_MSE_Sophie

Three is to start charging new and upgrading pay monthly and Sim-only customers roaming fees of £2/day to use their monthly allowance in Europe from 23 May 2022.

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'Three to introduce £2/day European roaming charges from May 2022'

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bagand96

It shouldn't really be surprising. It was inevitable as soon as there was no longer a law. 

Wonder how long O2 will hold out...

IvanOpinion

I thought all these roaming charges were meant to just be project fear?

glasydorlan

Three's usp has been roaming,  preceeding the EU regulation.
I would imagine, like I, many will be re-considering remaining with Three once roaming charges are re-introduced. 

jbrassy

It's true that Three's USP was roaming, but this change in policy is symptomatic of the lack of competition between the 4 mobile network operators. Why bother to offer free roaming if none of your rivals are? It's unnecessarily eating into your profit margin. 

I think Brexit opened the door to operators scrapping free roaming. EE walked through first, now they're all following. I might set up a sweepstake where people pick the date when O2 will announce they are scrapping free roaming. 

bagand96

Whilst they may have seen roaming as their USP, when they set up free roaming in the EU, the EU legislation was already well on the horizon, so they just stole a march on it for the good PR.  That said their Go Roam outside of the EU was very useful and I've made good use of that.

According to the MSE article Three say that if you don't renew and let your contract roll on then you'll keep the benefit.  How long before they start writing to people saying the product is ending and here's our new offers....

Rich2808

Just to provide some comparison three Ireland charge 40 euros per month for unlimited data and calls in Ireland (but restricted to 19 GB in the rest of the EU) or £34 sterling a month. Three UK charges only £20 per month - for a similar 12 month unlimited data contract. In otherwords £14 extra a month or £168 extra a year if you live inside the EU.

So yes you may get free roaming daily abroad in the EU - but you would need to be on holiday abroad for 84 days or 12 weeks per year to be better off with Three in the EU than Three outside the EU!

Three Ireland also offer no go roam outside the EU and charge 10 euro per MB of data outside the EU/EEA area (capped at a mere 30 euro PER DAY) - three UK offer go roam outside the EU in 22 nations for just £2 a day and calls/texts to the UK are included. So outside the EU you pay 15 times as much for being with three in the EU!

One might suggest why should people who don't travel abroad for several weeks a year have to subsidise those who do?  If you like paying more of course - £168 more a year - you are free to move to Ireland and thus live in the EU anytime!

Tantalus86

Rich2808 said:

Just to provide some comparison three Ireland charge 40 euros per month for unlimited data and calls in Ireland (but restricted to 19 GB in the rest of the EU) or £34 sterling a month. Three UK charges only £20 per month - for a similar 12 month unlimited data contract. In otherwords £14 extra a month or £168 extra a year if you live inside the EU.

So yes you may get free roaming daily abroad in the EU - but you would need to be on holiday abroad for 84 days or 12 weeks per year to be better off with Three in the EU than Three outside the EU!

Three Ireland also offer no go roam outside the EU and charge 10 euro per MB of data outside the EU/EEA area (capped at a mere 30 euro PER DAY) - three UK offer go roam outside the EU in 22 nations for just £2 a day and calls/texts to the UK are included. So outside the EU you pay 15 times as much for being with three in the EU!

One might suggest why should people who don't travel abroad for several weeks a year have to subsidise those who do?  If you like paying more of course - £168 more a year - you are free to move to Ireland and thus live in the EU anytime!

But we don't live in Ireland. 

Before we left the EU three customers were charged £0 per day to use their mobile data in Europe. After we left the EU three customers are being charged £2 per day.

Comparing different mobile phone charges between countries isn't relevant.

Upsidedownandaround

Comparing costs between different countries is relevant in the context of people complaining about having to pay an extra £2 a day.

Tantalus86

If people were complaining about their gas & electricity going up by £50 a month, the argument " well it's still cheaper than Singapore" isn't a valid one.

Upsidedownandaround

It would be if they were complaining the rise was because of Brexit and Singapore was in the EU.