Two of the four major UK operators have already announced that they will reinstate roaming charges for customers traveling in the European Union.

This is the new concrete effect of Brexit. Millions of Britons will soon have to pay another roaming charge if they want to use their phones in the European Union. Four major operators across the channel had promised to maintain free “roaming” after the divorce between London and Brussels. But two of them eventually decided to back off.

Earlier in the week, Vodafone announced that it would reinstate these “roaming” charges for new customers from January 2022. If they live in the European Union (excluding the Republic of Ireland), they may choose to pay 2 2 per day or take an 8 or 15 day package at 1 1 per day.

To justify the refund of roaming charges, Vodafone Great Britain chief Ahmed Essam explained that most customers rarely use their phones outside the UK. In addition, the fee will allow his company to “invest”, especially in the “rapid deployment of 5G”, mobile coverage in rural areas and on the mobile network, reports The cross.

Ceilings in O2 and three

Announcing the end of free roaming, Vodafone follows the initiative launched by EE, a subsidiary of British Telecom, which has decided to bill 32 million subscribers per day for telephone usage in the European Union. Operator O2, for its part, has indicated that customers will be charged extra if they use more than 25 GB of data per month. Eventually the three reduced its range from 20 to 12 GB, charging an extra 3 gigabytes.

In the European Union, billing has been banned for customers on roaming charges since 2017, which has enabled travelers from 27 member countries to make significant savings in recent years. However, this free roaming is not part of the Brexit agreement between London and Brussels, which was finalized by the end of 2020 to confirm their divorce. So UK operators are free to decide to re-invoice these costs to their customers.

But what will happen to the Europeans who walk through the channel? In France, operators have assured that by the end of 2020, there will be no re-establishment of roaming charges. A position was again confirmed this week on the orange side indicated by the main operator BFM Business “No additional billing is anticipated for roaming in the United Kingdom”.