Vodafone brings back EU roaming charges and you won’t like the price

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Vodafone customers traveling to Europe will soon be hit by the surprising new charges for using their smartphones. The UK network has just revealed that it is following EE with the reintroduction of this controversial fee which could add up to £56 to a family’s monthly mobile phone bill.

Vodafone has confirmed that the new fees will come into effect from next January and will apply to anyone using a smartphone plan or SIM card with the company after August 11.

This means that as long as customers stick to their current plan – or upgrade within the next few days – they won’t be charged new European roaming charges.

It was hoped, after Brexit, that EU roaming charges would not return after all major networks confirmed last year that there were no plans to bring those charges back to consumers, but Vodafone now says it is making changes to give people more choices. what they paid for.

“The majority of our customers are not regularly roaming,” said Ahmed Essam, CEO of Vodafone. “In fact, less than half of our customers roamed outside the Republic of Ireland in 2019. The reality is that including roaming – a service that costs us money to provide – in every plan means that more than half of our customers pay for something they don’t use. What is free for one person Someone else has to pay for it.”

Anyone affected by the fee will find £2 a day added to their bill when they use their devices in places like Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Germany.

Besides customers who have not changed their plans after August 11, some Xtra plan contracts that include access to 83 destinations around the world will also be available. This means that customers who sign up will not be charged extra for using their device abroad.

Vodafone has also confirmed that it will offer eight- and 15-day passes that can be purchased in advance and cost £1 per day instead of the standard £2.

Speaking about the changes, analyst Paulo Pescatore said: “The harsh realities of Brexit are becoming more apparent. Wholesale roaming rates will change due to the UK’s exit and this in turn will inevitably lead to higher prices without the protection of the EU. It is a very easy decision for UK telecoms.”

“All carriers are struggling with shrinking profit margins and are looking for ways to increase revenue while investing billions in costly fixed and mobile next-generation networks.

“The saving grace for phone users is that carriers have taken steps designed to avoid unexpected billing shocks.”

Of course, Vodafone isn’t the only network making changes to its roaming plans with EE also set to charge £2 per day from January 2022 for use of devices in Europe. Again, this price change affects all new customers and those who upgrade their existing deal – customers who stick to their current deal will not be affected by the new fee.

Finally, anyone with an O2 SIM in their phone will now be restricted to a fair use policy, which means they must not exceed 25GB of data while outside the UK.

As long as the user stays within that limit there will be nothing to pay but start watching movies again at the end of the two week break and things may start to pick up.

This is because a fee of £3.50 for each additional 1GB will be billed – as an example of how much this would cost, an HD movie is around 4GB, so one night in front of the movie would cost £14.

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