After Brexit: Are There Any More Roaming Fees?

Status: 07/07/2021 9:06 AM.

Great Britain has been permanently out of the European Union since January. However, this hasn’t changed anything for German mobile phone users yet. There are currently no roaming charges in the UK islands. Will it remain like this?

As of June 15, 2017, mobile phone users in EU countries will no longer have to pay any additional charges compared to their home country. Telephone calls, SMS sending and Internet surfing are billed like home. This also applies to talks in Great Britain until the end of June, although the country no longer belongs to the European Union since the beginning of the year. Will it end soon?

For example, British provider EE (British Telecom) has been charging roaming charges for calls, SMS and data usage in the EU since the beginning of the month. At the moment, nothing will change for customers of the four major German network operators, Telekom, Telefonica, Vodafone and 1&1. They also allow free roaming in the island nation.

Vodafone and Telecom all clear

According to Vodafone, there is no indication yet that Great Britain will leave the EU roaming regulation. The company assures that at the moment nothing will change for German customers, so that they will not incur any additional costs when making calls and surfing in Great Britain.

Deutsche Telekom also wants to comply with roaming regulation. “With us, Great Britain remains in the EU tariffs, just as Switzerland is already involved in,” the Bonn-based company announced. So everything remains the same. Telekom points out that in addition to Great Britain and Switzerland, other non-EU countries are also participating in roaming regulation: Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

Great Britain on the same level as Switzerland

Customers of the network operator Telefonica / O2 do not have to fear any additional charges if they use their mobile phones in Great Britain – at least until the end of the year. “Nothing will change for O2 customers: EU roaming terms will apply as usual,” the company said. However, the O2 classifies Great Britain in the same country area as Switzerland, Andorra and Gibraltar. There are usually more charges. However, until the end of the year, the terms will remain unchanged for O2 customers traveling to Great Britain. It is not yet possible to say whether it will be more expensive from next year, as there is still no follow-up agreement with Great Britain regarding roaming regulation.

Provider 1 and 1 similarly express themselves. “EU roaming rules for 1&1 customers will still apply in Great Britain after Brexit until further notice,” the company said. This means there is no additional charge. If you want to be sure that the statements by mobile phone providers are indeed correct, it is best to re-read your SMS notification after logging into the UK mobile network when traveling to Great Britain.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *