The UK Government will not enforce the ban on mobile roaming charges for British citizens travelling in the EU after Brexit, a cross-party committee of MPs has warned.
The EU's ban on mobile roaming charges for voice, text messages and data has meant using a smartphone on the continent is the same cost as using it at home. But the House of Commons EU Scrutiny Committee said in a report that this is unlikely to remain in place for the UK following withdrawal.
It will mean that network operators will be the ones to decide whether to re-introduce roaming charges on UK customers, following their abolition last year across the whole EU.
UK consumers will also not benefit from proposed price caps for international calls between EU countries, due initially to be set at 16p a minute for calls and 5p for a text message.
The EU decided to introduce the cap after finding that telecoms companies were charging mark-ups for international calls that were "not justifiable", said the report.
"It is probable that mobile roaming charges – abolished on an intra-EU basis – will return, and that, even where they do not, increased wholesale roaming costs incurred by UK providers may be passed on to UK consumers indirectly," the cross-party committee warned.
"Post-exit, consumers should consider the roaming policies of their mobile operators extremely carefully before signing new contracts or using roaming services, as there will be potential for roaming charges much higher than those which preceded the EU's latest regulatory intervention to be applied."
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...-a8609271.html