Falling roaming revenues as a result of COVID-19 have brought forward the inevitable return of some roaming charges in Europe for UK travellers
All operators have tweaked their tariffs, but so far only two have reintroduced premiums: Vodafone UK became the latest UK mobile operation to mark a return of some roaming charges. It means all UK mobile operators have now announced some form of change to their tariffs for when roaming in Europe. From January 2022, EE will apply a £2 daily surcharge (or £10/month) for new and upgrading customers from this summer. Vodafone have essentially matched this £2 daily premium from next year (reduced to £1 with 8 and 15 day roaming passes). So far O2 and Three have only changed their fair usage policies (now down to 25GB and 12GB respectively), but it’s worth noting that only last week Three, for whom roaming was a source of competitive advantage in the past, did not rule out further changes, saying they continue to review all propositions to ensure they are market competitive. The justification for surcharges has been the need for continued network investment in the UK, rather than in response to any increase yet in the underlying wholesale prices UK operators face. But it has undoubtedly been a difficult year for all operators with less travel to all roaming destinations (including those outside of Europe where prices are higher), and limited prospect of a significant uptick in travel until 2022. The temptation for O2 and Three to follow suit with price rises is surely too appealing.
While price rises were probably inevitable, bill shock should remain a thing of the past: With wholesale prices no longer protected by regulation following the UK’s departure from the EU, there was every chance that prices for consumers would eventually change. Most operators are now negotiating agreements but without the protection at the wholesale level. The regulation of wholesale prices was a key element of the success of the EU’s roaming regulation. Between June 2017 and January 2021, the regulated cap fell from €7.70/GB to just €2.50/GB. Despite increasing volumes of data consumption, wholesale prices have sat well below the price cap and operators have still been able to recover costs. With that safety net falling away, UK operators were always going to have a harder time negotiating low enough wholesale prices to avoid reintroducing retail surcharges – especially with operators in the most popular destinations for UK travellers. Consumers will at least continue to have some protection. In 2019, the Government legislated to introduce a £45/month cap so consumers have to actively decide to spend more once they reach that limit. This mirrored the cap set in the EU roaming regulation (€50) and should avoid the most eye-watering bill shocks.
