EE to reintroduce roaming charges across Europe

[Condi]

£2 per day to use your data on the continent, but not Eire which will remain free.

Suspect that this will not be a very popular move, especially when other operators are (at the moment) not doing the same. EE said the move would "enable them to keep investing in the network" which roughly translates as "we think it will make some more money for shareholders".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57595913


EDIT - this was EE's statement less than 7 months ago....

EE said:

EE said: "Our customers enjoy inclusive roaming in Europe and beyond, and we don't have any plans to change this based on the Brexit outcome. So our customers going on holiday and travelling in the EU will continue to enjoy inclusive roaming."

Edited by Condi on Thursday 24th June 13:11

[gavsdavs]

Is this a surprise to anyone ?

[Bluemondy]

Obvious consequence is painfully obvious.

£28 for two weeks in Spain isn't exactly terrible though, just sign up one phone and turn it into a hotspot!

[lastofthev8s]

Not altogether surprising, but as my EE contract is due up in September give more thought to move elsewhere if this is brought in.

Tbh I’ve never found EE’s own upgrade ‘deals’ to be competitive and have always upgraded via a third party such as Affordable Mobiles so this gives more reason to change provider.

Edited by lastofthev8s on Thursday 24th June 13:05

[CustardOnChips]

People will happily spend £14 on a Stalla and a bacon butty in the airport. But not on being able to use their mobile abroad for a week. Ah well.

[WonkeyDonkey]

lastofthev8s said:

My EE contract is due up in September so will likely look elsewhere if this is brought in.

Tbh I’ve never found EE’s own upgrade ‘deals’ to be competitive and have always upgraded via a third party such as Affordable Mobiles so this gives more reason to look elsewhere.

EE's upgrade options on their website are a joke. You can usually get the same phone and contract plan for about £20pm cheaper from somewhere like mobiles.co.uk or affordablemobiles. I even have a discount through work and it's still overpriced.

[Condi]

gavsdavs said:

Is this a surprise to anyone ?

Not really, no, but as they did say ahead of time they had no intention of doing it it does come across as a very "greedy" change of policy.

CustardOnChips said:

People will happily spend £14 on a Stalla and a bacon butty in the airport. But not on being able to use their mobile abroad for a week. Ah well.

People don't like paying for something the used to get for free, simple as that. If the bacon butty used to be free and then went to £14 no doubt they would sell far fewer of them, and from the consumers POV you don't get anything extra for that £14 compared with what you used to get.

It will definitely make people shop around a bit more, and suspect EE will end up "throwing it in" to a lot of contracts at renewal time.

[lastofthev8s]

WonkeyDonkey said:

EE's upgrade options on their website are a joke. You can usually get the same phone and contract plan for about £20pm cheaper from somewhere like mobiles.co.uk or affordablemobiles. I even have a discount through work and it's still overpriced.

I know what you mean as have seen some of the so called ‘deals’, particularly with the early upgrade charge - no thanks!

I always look for the upgrades via third parties, but there will be many who just upgrade direct and pay through the nose.

[PurpleTurtle]

Yet another Brexit dividend, hey?

To be honest 2 quid a day is a piffling amount to someone like me who does a couple of European holidays a year, as a single user, but it adds £112 to the cost of a family of four going for their 2 weeks in the sun, assuming all using their data every day.

This is surely EE's soft landing, though? Watch it creep up over the years. Once it becomes a fiver a day people will be complaining.

[hotchy]

Oh well will change network.

[Pixelpeep Z4]

That's a bargain.

If we gotta pay, then at least it's reasonable.

[Chozza]

O2 are doing a variation ... they are only charging once you go over the 25Gb limited ( if your package is bigger )

Part of the problem is that the UK tariffs are too cheap - so i'd expect others to follow.

People are buying UK sims packages when they don't live in the UK - as its cheaper data than they can locally source ( plus roaming normally gives you better coverage as you arent locked to the local providers network)

The best solution i've seen requires connectivity to the home RAN at least once every 21 days , which then resets the clock and data is just used from the package ( proper RAN connection rather than femto or wifi to actually confirm physical presence )

[hyphen]

gavsdavs said:

Is this a surprise to anyone ?

The consumer were always paying, one way or another. This just means the customer will pay upfront and not elsewhere. If the mobile company can generate income from travel, then other prices can be subsidised to compete with their competitors.

The UK mobile market is massively competitive and plans will pop up suited to frequent travellers/travel sims. Many phone now take two sims, or esims.

And with WiFi so widespread now, you don't need to use huge data abroad and even calls/messages can be done via wifi.

Not a big deal.

Edited by hyphen on Thursday 24th June 14:51

[mmm-five]

Condi said:

gavsdavs said:

Is this a surprise to anyone ?

Not really, no, but as they did say ahead of time they had no intention of doing it it does come across as a very "greedy" change of policy.

They used a boilerplate response of "We currently have no plans to..." for when they don't want to answer in the negative, or truly have no 'current plan'.

Plans come & go, and now they realise they can make more money, so now have a plan to do what they hadn't planned to.

For example:

• I have no plans to ever get married, but I won't have broken an oath/promise if I decide to get married at some time in the future.
• AstraZeneca had no plans to produce a COVID-19 vaccine...until COVID-19 became a pandemic.

[55palfers]

Have EE's costs to provide such a service increased lately?

Probably not I expect.

Just another chance to profiteer.

[camel_landy]

It'll be interesting to see if the EE MVNO (eg BT Mobile) also follow suit...

M

[anonymoususer]

Mexican standoff

EE drew first
They will all do it within 3 months from now

This never ages - one of the best moments in cinema
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXMcff7z51w&ab...

Edited by anonymoususer on Thursday 24th June 16:30

[DodgyGeezer]

My understanding was it only affected new customers?

[untakenname]

The Three network has had free roaming in most the EU for over a decade now so just get a payg sim when abroad.

[RizzoTheRat]

PurpleTurtle said:

To be honest 2 quid a day is a piffling amount to someone like me who does a couple of European holidays a year, as a single user, but it adds £112 to the cost of a family of four going for their 2 weeks in the sun, assuming all using their data every day.

We'd be on about £700 so far this year So far very few phone companies seem to actually enforce their "fair use" policy, I wonder if they might start to if other firms are starting to charge.