ROAMING charges are on the way back, thanks to Brexit.
That’s the bad news. The good news is they won’t apply to northerners travelling south. At least not yet, with fears phone companies may eventually reintroduce cross-border tariffs now the UK has left the EU and is no longer beholden to its laws that protect consumers.
Last week telecommunications giant EE announced it was to begin charging UK customers extra to use their phones while in mainland Europe. This is directly a result of Brexit, with the company now no longer bound by the EU directive preventing companies from imposing roaming charges on EU citizens travelling within EU countries that was introduced in 2017.
There had been fears Brexit would see a full scale reintroduction of roaming charges, including between north and south here in Ireland, however initially all the major companies reassured customers they did not intend to do so. The latest move by EE has now caused concern other companies will follow suit.
Local MLA Jemma Dolan, pictured left, welcomed the fact EE will not be reintroducing roaming charges for northern customers using their mobiles in the south. However, she vowed to keep a close eye on any moves to extend the current roaming plan to Ireland.
Ms Dolan also slammed the company for “pumping up the price of calls for customers travelling to Europe.
“There was both bad and good news coming from EE’s announcement that they are reintroducing roaming charges,” she said.
“EE are the first mobile operator to announce they will reintroduce roaming charges for customers in the north while they are holidaying in Europe. But thankfully they will not charge for roaming whilst northern customers are in the south.”
Ms Dolan said the move to bring back roaming was “yet another cost of Brexit.”
“There was great work done across the EU to scrap this unfair charge and now these large multinationals are using Brexit to once again overcharge their customers. I’m sure it won’t be long until O2 and Vodaphone turn the nail on the customers too.
“I will be watching closely to make sure that they don’t impose roaming charges for cross border workers and travellers on the island of Ireland.”
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