roaming charges

[chrisp_1927]

Perhaps you can explain how the UK government can tell phone companies to keep scrapping roaming charges when we are no longer in the EU?

By updating UK law was my suggestion. It appears that has been done in terms of limiting roaming charges to £45 a month, seems like quite a high figure to me.



The other option of course, would have been for both sets of negotiators to look after their citizens and include it in the trade deal.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

By updating UK law was my suggestion. It appears that has been done in terms of limiting roaming charges to £45 a month, seems like quite a high figure to me.



The other option of course, would have been for both sets of negotiators to look after their citizens and include it in the trade deal.

Another one of those "have your cake and eat it" scenarios?

By my understanding of things, if you use a phone abroad you would likely use another company's signal. Under a common trade agreement as we had as members of the EU, it was decided that you could use a mobile within a fair usage policy on someone else's network. Now, if as part of Brexit negotiations, it was agreed to keep this, then great. It wasn't. As far as I know, there was an agreement on both sides that, if roaming charges were reintroduced, they should be reasonable.

The UK could have whatever laws it wants. It could ban roaming charges completely. Maybe mobile providers that operate in the UK would happily allow their networks to be used abroad, where they exist. However, there are plenty of mobile providers in Europe that don't operate in the UK and they would be free to charge what they want to piggyback on those networks, as long as it is reasonable. If those network operators chose to up their prices, UK operators might be forced to stop Brits using those networks. UK law wouldn't have any say in what foreign mobile operators do or charge.