Skip to main content

Roaming charges end in the EU, but Brexit confusion dampens celebrations

how to use find my friends woman using smartphone
peus/123RF Stock Photo
Update: Added news the EU roaming regulation is now in force.

Mobile roaming charges for Europeans traveling to other European countries are no more. From June 15, 2017, travelers making a call, sending a text message, or using data will pay exactly the same as they do at home. European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said in a statement: “Roaming charges will now be a thing of the past. As of June 15, you will be able to remain connected while traveling in the EU, for the same price as at home.”

The agreement was finalized in February, and had been a long time coming. Preliminary agreements were made in June 2015, but negotiations had been happening for a decade. What does it mean to you? If you’re an EU citizen, and travel to another EU country, you won’t pay extra for using your phone. The commission calls this a “roam-like-at-home” plan. The deal doesn’t mean everything will be free. Instead it means the services you use while roaming will be charged at the same rate you pay when on your home network.

It joins up with a previous rule where networks will let you use your included minutes and data abroad, and new caps will come into play if you go over the permitted use. The cost caps are 3.2 euro cents per minute for calls, 1 euro cent for SMS, and 7.7 euros per gigabyte of data. The data cap will gradually reduce over the coming years, eventually reaching 2.5 euros per gigabyte at the beginning of 2022. It’s the end of a successful effort to reduce the cost of roaming in Europe, which in February had fallen by 90 percent since 2007.

Concerns dampen celebrations

Excellent news, but with it comes some negativity from smaller operators, and confusion from anyone in the United Kingdom, which recently voted to leave the European Union. A response to the agreement from MVNO Europe, which looks after Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) in the region, believes the caps are too high, and smaller operators won’t be able to recover costs.

This may lead to some operators opting out of the agreement, which is possible if the company can prove it will reduce revenue by at least 3 percent. Networks in Estonia, Lithuania, and other Scandinavian countries have all applied for an exemption, according to Reuters. There are also concerns networks will raise costs for local subscribers to offset the roaming revenue hit, particularly in tourist-heavy regions.

For British travelers, Brexit uncertainty may dampen any rejoicing over the agreement. Scare stories spread at the end of 2016, warning networks in Europe may not have to honor any cost caps for U.K. visitors following Brexit, if a favorable trade deal isn’t reached. Worst case scenario is the return of massive phone bills for careless travelers, with a megabyte of data potentially costing up to 10 euros.

For now, European law still applies in the U.K. at least until it officially leaves the EU. However, the roaming agreement is an EU regulation, and won’t become part of U.K. law, so it will need to be adopted by the post-Brexit government to stay in place. Talks regarding the legal complexities of the split haven’t officially started yet, and because a transition deal is expected to take between two and five years to complete, the fate of “roam-like-at-home” for Britain will remain yet another unknown aspect of Brexit for quite some time.

Andy Boxall
Senior Mobile Writer
Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…
Google just redesigned one of its biggest apps, and it’s bad
Google Chat app on the Play Store.

Google Chat — Google's business-oriented messaging platform that is similar to Slack and Microsoft Teams — just got a big update for its Android and iOS apps. The update dramatically changes how you navigate the app and, uh, well, it sure is something.

Google Chat's mobile app used to be broken up into two pages: Chat (direct messages between you and other users) and Spaces (larger chat rooms for multiple people). As with most apps, you switched between these with a navigation bar at the bottom of your screen.

Read more
The Pixel Watch 2 just got a feature it should have launched with
The Google Pixel Watch 2 resting on a stone fireplace.

Google has heard everyone’s demands and has given in to a highly requested feature that should have already been a thing with the Google Pixel Watch 2: a fully charged notification. Yes, that’s right — you’ll now get a notification on your Android phone when your Pixel Watch 2 is fully charged. Hallelujah!

This new feature should be available starting today via the Pixel Watch app on version 2.1.0.576785526. Google did not formally announce this feature, so it seems to be rolled out quietly (and was first spotted by Android Authority).

Read more
There’s only one reason I’m still using an iPhone in 2023
A green iPhone 15 lock screen.

It's not an understatement to say I am an Android smartphone fan, as an Android phone has been my faithful companion ever since I started using the HTC Desire in 2010. I've bounced from phone to phone in the 13 years since, and I've experienced good and bad phones alike. But in all that time, I've never spent much time with an Apple iPhone. I'm obviously not unfamiliar with iPhones, having used them during my time as a tech writer grabbing screenshots, downloading apps, and testing games — but never having used one as my primary smartphone is something of a blind spot.

The Apple iPhone 15 is a good reason to end that. After all, if I'm going to use an iPhone, it might as well be Apple's latest. Two weeks after booting it up and transferring my data to it, it's been ... a journey. While I can see the iPhone 15 is an excellent smartphone, too many of iOS's idiosyncracies rub me the wrong way. However, there's one feature I've grown to really love, and I'm going to struggle to live without it.
The iPhone 15 is a mixed bag

Read more