Vodafone to Bring Back EU Roaming Charges for UK Customers Abroad

Vodafone is bringing back roaming charges for U.K. users traveling in Europe, the second mobile operator do so post-Brexit after originally saying they had no plans to re-introduce them.

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New and upgrading customers on "selected plans" will be charged at least £1 per day to use their mobile phone in EU destinations.

The rules will change for new and upgrading customers from Wednesday, August 11, though the charges will not apply until January, BBC News reports.

"Existing customers will not be impacted by these changes while they remain on their current price plan, and roaming in the Republic of Ireland will still be included for all customers," Vodafone said.

After January, affected customers will pay £2 a day to use their allowance in Europe, or £1 if bought in an eight or 15-day bundle. Fair-usage limits of 25GB of roaming data a month apply.

Before the U.K. formally exited the European Union, mobile customers generally didn't have to worry about roaming charges when using their phone in the EU, with most phone tariffs counting calls, texts, and data used in EU countries as equivalent to domestic use since 2017.

However, when the EU trade deal was signed in December 2020, mobile operators were once again able to charge customers when traveling in Europe with "transparent and reasonable rates."

EE was the first operator to announce new roaming charges in June. EE's charges go into effect in January 2022, and at first, only apply to new EE customers or customers upgrading their plan and contract from July 7, 2021.

Originally, EE, O2, Three, and Vodafone, representing the largest mobile operators in the U.K., stated they had no plans to reintroduce roaming charges after Brexit, but all have since announced changes, some under a "fair use" clause. O2 allows a roaming limit of 25GB, with any data used over that charged at £3.50 per gigabyte, while Three has cut its data limit from 20GB a month to 12GB.

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Top Rated Comments

willed Avatar
46 months ago
Yet another Brexit win ? Thanks guys!
Score: 82 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SmugMaverick Avatar
46 months ago
Taking back control ?

Cheers to all those morons who wanted “freedom”.

These disgusting networks were always going to do this, shame people didn’t want to accept that maybe the EU were looking out for us
Score: 50 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SmugMaverick Avatar
46 months ago

I don't know what's going on over there, but if you're looking to the EU to regulate your cell network pricing, that's pretty sad. Regards from your step-son country in North America.
They protected us from roaming charges across Europe, we were still ripped off in the uk.
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Substance90 Avatar
46 months ago
Good luck to all the UK tourists - 8 out of the top 10 holiday destinations for brits are in the EU.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
laptech Avatar
46 months ago
As others have said, it was always going to happen. It was the EU that put the pressure on the mobile network operators to do away with roaming charges. The network operators have never liked it because it cut off a very good revenue stream for the network operators. Having the UK leave the EU means the UK mobile network operators are no longer constrained by EU law hence the re-introduction of roaming charges.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mahasamatman Avatar
46 months ago

If those who have no need for EU roaming can genuinely get a better price than they are paying now on one of these new tariff's then I dont see this as so bad - although I suspect most company's who re-introduce these will just pocket the extra!
Except they can’t get a better price. This is on top of the standard monthly charges and because the carriers will all do it, there’s no competitive option where people can reduce their costs by switching, other than the competition in the market for UK only access. it’s in effect a cartel and not good for the consumer.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)