Mobile industry warns of massive increase in EU roaming charges for UK customers post-Brexit

[Exterminator]

Earlier this year, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in its 'Brexit' referendum. The impact on the economy was immediate, with the pound sterling quickly falling to a 31-year low against the US dollar, increasing costs for many international companies doing business in the UK. As a result, numerous technology firms - including Microsoft, Dell, HP, HTC, and OnePlus - have raised their prices there.

The UK's exit from the EU is still years away from actually happening, despite the referendum result, as the country must enter a lengthy period of complex negotiations with its current European partners. The mobile industry is now warning that phone-users face the prospect of a particularly raw deal, as the EU-wide roaming framework announced last year - which has already slashed the cost of using mobile services in European countries for those on UK networks - will no longer apply to British customers post-Brexit.

A few years ago, it was common for UK travellers to European markets to face charges of around £6-£8 per megabyte when using mobile data abroad. Such huge costs still apply to those travelling to many countries outside of the EU; for example, EE, the UK's largest mobile network, still charges up to £7 per megabyte in dozens of markets around the world, as you can see in this PDF from the network's website.

As the Financial Times reports, some carriers are already preparing for the 'worst case scenario' in which European networks would significantly raise their wholesale prices for calls and data. Industry officials warned that with the UK outside of the EU, European carriers would be free to charge whatever they wish for British customers roaming on their networks.

Negotiating favourable deals between the UK and Europe isn't as simple as it sounds. Günther Oettinger, the EU's commissioner for telecommunications policy, said that "there are obvious constraints" to establishing such agreements under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. Unless a wider free-trade deal is in place between the UK and EU, any bilateral arrangement on roaming between the countries would also have to be made available to other members of the WTO.

The FT notes that some countries will feel little incentive to provide the UK with a good deal, given the imbalance in the numbers of people travelling between them. While 13 million Brits visited Spain in 2015, the number of Spanish travellers heading to the UK was much smaller. If few Spanish customers will benefit from such a deal, Spanish operators may not be minded to offer low prices to British customers visiting the country. Negotiations with Spain and Italy took more than a decade before those countries finally agreed to the current EU-wide roaming agreement.

A simpler approach may be for UK networks to negotiate directly with their European counterparts on commercial terms; Three has already made similar deals with several networks both within the EU and beyond as part of its Feel At Home roaming service. But without a legislative mandate to cap costs for consumers, there is no guarantee that EU carriers will offer wholesale pricing to UK operators at favorable rates.

Virtual operators (MVNOs) - such as Virgin Mobile, Sky Mobile and TalkTalk - are also likely to get a raw deal, according to one official, since their services are dependent on other networks' infrastructure, leaving them with no leverage to negotiate with European networks directly on access charges. MVNOs may therefore be more limited in providing attractive pricing on roaming services, limiting their ability to compete with the largest UK networks, and potentially driving up prices for consumers.

Source: Financial Times

 

[MalwareBlockerYT]

I seriously don't understand why we left... Well I do but you know what I mean.

 

[ttto]

In that cases, only rich win, average people always lose

 

[Cortex]

I travel to the EU a fair bit from Britain & wi-fi is now plentiful & the likes of whatsapp are free makes the need to pay roaming rare. I was in Canada & US recently & never paid a penny in roaming charges thanks to whatsapp - As for leaving the EU contrary to those who wanted to stay lots of those who wanted to leave were aware that a period of difficulties would occur & was expected, though I still feel that it was & is a good idea with bells on.

I work closely with a company in Italy & if they don't leave the EURO soon I can't see them being able to carry on as it's crippling the economy, lots of those in Italy think that too. There isn't a single good reason for roaming charges in the EU, traveling over the border from Northern Ireland to The Republic Of Ireland makes that abundantly clear where within a couple of miles large roaming costs & a ridiculous cost of SMS ensue if you are daft enough to pay it that is.

 

[Handsome Recluse]

I seriously don't understand why we left... Well I do but you know what I mean.

From Tactical Investor
"Sentiment data reveals that the majority are still in the anxiety zone; they believe that this market should have crashed long ago and are waiting for a crash like an event to say I told you so. Bears and neutrals add up to 77% this week; a number that’s simply too high for the markets to crash; a strong correction is always a possibility, but the odds of a crash are low. Markets never crash when the crowd is uncertain, and those in the neutral camp are usually the most confused players out there. We would gladly welcome a strong pullback
If you repeat the same thing over and over again, eventually you are bound to be right. The markets as we stated are now ripe for a pullback; whether it will be strong or mild remains to be seen. Pay attention to how the experts react when the markets start pulling back; will they react in the same way, or will some of them change the song slightly."
Freakonomics also has a podcast about experts being always wrong and they talk about incentives saying that they face very little consequences about being wrong and much rewards about "prophetic and the flashy" as I paraphrase especially when they're right. Broken Science also discusses the same about scientific research and that's why science is so broken as evidence by the lack of replicability of a majority of research. Besides, government workers aren't forced to be efficient since no consequences, taxpayer money still keep coming in and there is generally one mind in the government since governments are a single entity unlike businesses which could have many viewpoints since there are many of them.

 

[jamescv7]

I seriously don't understand why we left... Well I do but you know what I mean.

Simply because the people are already confident that UK can stand with its own hand without the help of any organization.

The purpose of having EU is not only for unity but also the balance of economy changes, however on Brexit then expect definitely massive downfall and high inflation rate because of different issues.

 

[Vipersd]

If I remember correctly it was said roaming would be terminated in EU in couple years. Possibly in other european countries also.