Following in the footsteps of EE, Vodafone is the latest UK network to reintroduce roaming charges to its customers after Brexit.
From January, new and upgrading Vodafone customers will be subject to roaming charges of at least £1 a day when they travel to European countries according to the network’s updated terms.
The costs will be either £2 per day for customers to use their allowance, or else £1 a day if they should pay for an 8-day or 15-day bundle.
On its website, Vodafone announced the changes with the following statement:
We’re changing the number of Vodafone Pay monthly plans that include roaming in our European Zone, for our personal and business customers. If you’re on a Pay monthly plan that started before 11 August 2021, there will be no change while you stay on that plan.
Related: EE reintroduces data roaming charges for customers travelling in Europe
Vodafone is not the first network to have introduced the fees, with EE having already introduced a £2 daily charge for roaming in the EU back in June, while O2 has also introduced heavier fair use surcharges for customers who exceed a stated fair use limit.
Following Brexit, the UK’s major mobile networks (also including Three) had issued a joint statement that they had “no plans” to reintroduce roaming charges, but now that the dominoes are falling and two of the big players have already reversed their policy it only seems more likely that other networks will follow this unwelcome trend set by EE.
It was always unlikely that these companies would absorb the new costs themselves rather than passing them on to customers, but there is understandably a wave of disappointment at the timing as much as anything, seeing as international travel is only just beginning to open up once again following the worldwide pandemic.
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