Business travellers visiting the EU after Brexit could face extra costs of £778 per month if data roaming charges return, it has been reported.
Roaming fees were scrapped across Europe last year, but they’re expected to make an unwanted comeback when Britain leaves the EU − possibly as soon as March 2019.
Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed last month that Brexit will involve the UK quitting the “digital single market”, and the government has said it will have to agree a special deal with the EU in order to prevent the return of roaming fees.
Now, the Best for Britain group and House of Commons Library have calculated how much extra cash business travellers could be forced to pay mobile operators after Brexit, “if prices return to the level before roaming charges were abolished”.
An “average” business traveller would chomp through data at a rate of 4.5GB per six days, the Independent reports, and would rack up roaming charges of £778 per month. That’ll be fun to expense.
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The horrifying scenario described above could happen if foreign mobile operators decided to charge UK-based mobile operators more to use their networks, and if UK-based mobile operators reacted by pushing up prices for their own customers.
So far, only Three has committed to not re-imposing roaming charges after Brexit, with other operators saying they’re assessing the situation and currently have “no plans” to bring roaming fees back.
“We’re committed to providing our customers with great connectivity and value when they travel overseas. We currently have no plans to change our roaming services across Europe. We’re engaged with the government with regards to what may happen once the UK officially leaves the EU,” an O2 spokesperson told Trusted Reviews.
“It’s too soon to assess the implications of Brexit on roaming regulation, however, we expect competition will continue to drive good value for customers. We currently have no plans to change our roaming charges,” a Vodafone spokesperson said.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
