Mobile roaming: EE prompts anger as it increases price by 150% | Mobile phones | The Guardian

fne8w2ah@lemmy.world to Mildly Infuriating@lemmy.world – 130 points –
Mobile roaming: EE prompts anger as it increases price by 150%
theguardian.com
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Brexiters knew what they were voting for.

Only for their own pockets or even their pride at the expense of everyone else.

I think it’s long past time we stopped blaming brexit for everhthing

I don't blame Brexit for everything, but don't you think the price hike for roaming for UK consumers is one of those direct consequences of Brexit?

Everything, maybe. As we can more widely blame 13 years of Tory failure.

EU roaming is definitely a direct result of Brexit however. EU roaming charges were only removed because of the EU, so leaving the EU they were obviously going to return.

I'd argue the opposite. Socio-economic effects take a long time to properly realize from low-key but widespread changes. It's only starting to actually have a real effect, basically. And there's so many secondary and tertiary ripple effects, like even more medical professionals trying to leave whenever they can, further depleting the health care system, etc.

Of course, it's not necessary to specifically focus on people voting for Brexit to, we could expand this and say that the Tories were kept in power long enough to ensure they could completely fuck over the UK economy and society. Brexit is just one - albeit big - part of that.

If the UK was still in Europe the operator would not be allowed to charge anything for roaming.

So this would not have happened without Brexit

I was wondering when someone would attempt that.

The free roaming has worked well since Brexit only because nobody dared introduce it again.

Most companies dropped free EU roaming almost right away.

I don't know about your country, but in mine, most if not all mobile data providers include free EU roaming if not in all plans then at least in some.

I don’t know about your country, but in mine, most if not all mobile data providers include free EU roaming if not in all plans then at least in some.

Well, it's not about any country but the UK which left the EU. Free EU roaming is an EU legislation, so obviously the UK is no longer covered by it.

Free EU roaming is an EU legislation, so obviously the UK is no longer covered by it.

There's actually a lot of EU laws that still apply to the UK, so if the UK government had wanted to be kind to its citizens, they definitely COULD have retained free roaming too.

so if the UK government had wanted to be kind to its citizens, they definitely COULD have retained free roaming too.

UK has no say in EU regulations any longer and cannot mandate EU network providers to give access to anyone. The only thing the UK government could mandate is to allow free roaming of EU mobile customers within its borders.

Then I'm curious in which EU country you're living. As far as I know, only EU/EEA and 3 EFTA countries have free roaming in EU. According to Wikipedia that is.

UK wanted out, completely out, so that what happened to UK provider, they are out and get charged. No wonder that customers now get charged as well. Nothing to do with Greed, just the result of leaving and the Anglo-Saxon economics, the user pays.

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I'm in Northern Ireland and haven't heard of a single company that dropped free EU roaming.

Then you must not have read the linked article, which mentions three companies that have done just that.

Roaming charges made an unwelcome reappearance for UK mobile users heading to mainland Europe after Brexit. EE, Three and Vodafone were all quick to reintroduce the daily or monthly charges to use their mobiles while in the EU – which typically add £2 a day.

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Try living in Canada. Pretty much all the providers charge $15/day for roaming! No monthly plans available.

My experience is that EE are pretty decent - pretty decent and well-supported network, and brilliant customer service. Even the £2/day charge to use your package allowance while roaming wasn't brilliant, but wasn't terrible either.

I took both my contracts elsewhere this month after 13 years though because price-wise, they just take the piss. I've got a phone that's almost brand new after an insurance swap, so I only wanted a SIM-only month-to-month contract, and they were easily at least 50% more expensive than the rest, even without the other sneaky shit like throttling, 4G-only provision, and such like on some packages.

Fuck that. They've gotten greedy. Quelle surprise.

Jumped to Lebara once Three started charging for EU roaming. Uswitch have a nice plan with 21GB/month for about £8–9/month. Includes EU roaming. No lock-in or contract. I think it also includes some free minutes to dial EU numbers. Pretty much better in every way.

Basically the same story here, but I moved from Vodafone to Smarty. £15/mo for unlimited data and includes free EU roaming (10GB limit, IIRC). It's weird that Smarty, a budget subsidiary of Three, offers free roaming but Three doesn't.