Three follows Vodafone and EE in bringing back mobile roaming charges in Europe

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Three has followed Vodafone and EE and become, ironically, the third UK mobile phone company to bring back roaming charges in Europe.

We covered EE’s introduction of roaming charges here and Vodafone’s introduction of roaming charges here.

From 23rd May 2022, Three will charge to use your existing minutes and data allowance in Europe. This applies to contracts signed or upgraded from 1st October 2021, so if you sit tight on your current deal you will not be impacted.

The changes are outlined on the Three website here in a press release which states that “there are now too many unknowns” to continue offering it for free. This is despite the fact that Three offered free roaming in many countries in Europe and worldwide before the EU directive ever came into affect.

A lot of Three’s customers will have joined the network in order to enjoy free roaming despite the shaky mobile signal in many parts of the UK.. Now that the benefit is being scrapped many are likely to look at other networks which have better UK coverage.

The new charges will be:

£2 per day in the EU (the same as EE and Vodafone will charge, by amazing coincidence)
£5 per day outside the EU

It is worth noting that EE and Vodafone will begin charging in January, so Three customers get an additional four months of free roaming.

‘Pay As You Go’ customers are not impacted by this change.

If you are currently under contract with Three, you will not pay until after your next contract renewal. Any contracts renewed during September will continue to include free roaming after 22nd May where it is a published benefit – it will only be added to the T&C on contracts issued from 1st October.

Three Brexit Bus — That didn’t last long – “if the law changes we’ll give you free EU roaming just the same”…

Don’t believe what you read on buses…

O2 – the remaining holdout – has said that it has no plans to reintroduce roaming charge. It is introducing a ‘fair use’ cap of 25GB per month in the EU, with additional charges for any usage above this level.

Under the Brexit trade agreement, it was stated that the UK and EU would “co-operate on promoting transparent and reasonable rates” for mobile charges but no guarantees were made on roaming charges. At the time, the four major UK mobile networks said that they had no intention to introduce roaming charges which may have influenced the Government in deciding not to push for including it in law.

You can read more on the Three website here.

Category

General

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

VINZ says:

9 Sep9 September 16:24

The government was meant to spend £350M p/w on the NHS thanks to Brexit, but we ended up footing the bill. Now this.
I can afford both but I wonder how those hardline brexiters are doing…
- Richie says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 16:34
  
  They’re wondering where the Brexit dividend is.
Harrier25 says:

9 Sep9 September 16:35

I do hope Three have already paid Chelsea for the shirt sponsorship upfront because if not, they may struggle to find the funds in the months to come!
James Harper says:

9 Sep9 September 16:39

Great to see all these benefits of Brexit rolling in, some people were stupid enough to vote for them.
- Stu says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 17:55
  
  My Brexit voting sister loves it when I call her from far flung corners of Europe … I’ll be telling her soon that won’t be happening any more after May, and why!
- Joe says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 20:33
  
  Wait till the Euro collapses. It’s only taking forever because of illegal fiscal intervention by the ECB. Doesn’t fundamentally change the fact that several EU countries are bankrupt.
  
  Look at the 10 year bond yields:
  
  Italy 0.65%
  Greece 0.85% (lol)
  US 1.3%
  
  Doesn’t that just tell the whole story about the corruption. Where would you park your cash out of those 3 options?
  - Andrew H says:
    
    10 Sep10 September 07:16
    
    None of them. Your money is much more at risk from exchange rate movement. Or could gain. You’d be playing the exchange rates not investing.
  - James Harper says:
    
    10 Sep10 September 16:07
    
    This is a prediction that has been made since the first Euro note was printed. Please start holding your breath until it happens.
Paul Pogba says:

9 Sep9 September 16:44

Its incredible that of all the legislation that was copied or carried from our time in the EU a piece that protects consumers was omitted/repealed. I can’t help but feel that as much as Brexit allows this to happen it’s a sign of inflationary pressures within the telecoms industry, this is the service equivalent of cutting a portion/pack size.
- Rui N. says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 22:22
  
  They couldn’t force EU operators to accept the prices for roaming charged in the EU. You know, EU countries being sovereign and all.
Guy Incognito says:

9 Sep9 September 18:01

I’ve been with 3 on a sim only plan for over 10 years. Originally on an unlimited data, texts and calls tariff at £15 (think it was called the One plan if memory serves). They grandfathered that and increased the prices so currently am paying £18 instead of £20 for the same plan. Was abroad recently and used data with no problems, but as I spend a fair amount of time abroad I’ll look for a company that offers a better deal. And then change the 5 contracts we have to that provider. Short sighted by 3.
Lou says:

9 Sep9 September 18:10

This, ironically, is almost good news for me. I’ve been with Three for years, sucking up their crap service because I could get free roaming in exchange. Now I have a good reason to get rid of them at contract end and go with someone else. Every cloud…
Cats are best says:

9 Sep9 September 18:41

Only reason I have had a Three contract for years was Go Roam.

Fortunately I renewed my contract back in July, if I won’t be able to renew with Go Roam in 2023 it’ll be time to switch.

Odd timing to kill off their USP, with travel down, Go Roam usage/cost must be lower.
- John says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 19:39
  
  … or lots of people with UK SIMs “permanently” roaming, though they already shut that down last month unless you connect to a UK cell tower once every 60 days
Eshaq Choudhury says:

9 Sep9 September 19:42

Who knew a video I made about esims would come in handy. This looks like the only reasonable solution now.

https://youtu.be/24xG2upVp9U