Will EU roaming charges return after Brexit?
In June 2017, the EU eliminated roaming charges on smartphones when residents used them while travelling in another EU country.
Before the EU changed the rules, it was expensive for UK residents to use their mobile phones in other EU countries, with many people finding charges for hundreds, and occasionally even thousands, of pounds on their mobile accounts when they returned from their trips.
Assuming that the UK and the EU negotiate a Brexit agreement and the UK’s departure from the EU takes place on 29th March 2019 as planned, no changes to the current roaming policy will take place immediately, as all current EU rules and regulations will still apply to the UK until the transition period ends on 31st December 2020.
What will happen to mobile roaming charges beginning in January 2021 is still unclear. Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit announcement in March 2018 revealed that after the UK withdraws from the EU, the UK would no longer be part of the EU’s Digital Single Market. This means that the current policy on roaming charges in EU countries will no longer be part of UK law unless the EU and the UK reach an agreement on mobile roaming charges as part of the Brexit negotiations.
Of course, mobile operators could decide not to reimpose roaming charges in EU countries after Brexit even if they might have the authority to do so.
Three, Vodafone, EE and O2 have said that they currently have no plans to reintroduce roaming fees after Brexit. The four companies combined provide mobile services to more than 80 million active mobile phones in the UK.