MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis is calling for regulation of mobile roaming charges as households face soaring living costs.
UK RPI inflation has climbed to 11.7 percent, the highest among G7 nations, and is expected to rise further later this year. As more families struggle to balance budgets, many feel the UK Government has not done enough to address the crisis.
Rising energy bills are the largest contributor to inflation and have rightly been a major focus for Lewis. However, he is also scrutinising the UK telecoms sector and its treatment of consumers on roaming charges.
Before Brexit, mobile providers pledged not to reintroduce European roaming fees. Since then, most operators have, to varying degrees, broken that commitment, with only a few exceptions.
“I have no faith in mobile firms to self-regulate. When we left the EU, they promised not to reintroduce European roaming charges… yet most of the big networks have broken that promise. So our report calls on Ofcom not to rely on voluntary promises – we need to restore formal, compulsory consumer protections,” Lewis said.
“It’s also time to define what a day means for roaming charges. Providers often levy a daily roaming fee for use ‘up to 11.59pm’ without specifying the time zone. We recommend that all providers define a roaming ‘day’ as a clear 24-hour period from first use, state that in the arrival notification, and warn customers at least an hour before daily charges end.”
Broken promises
The operator Three surprised many consumers by offering free roaming not only across Europe but in a broader list of countries before EU rules required it. At one point, Three allowed customers to use their allowances in 71 countries without extra charges.
But carriers are not the only ones accused of breaking commitments.
While serving as Brexit secretary, then-minister Dominic Raab said the government would step in to prevent operators from reintroducing roaming fees if they tried to do so.
“We would legislate for a limit on roaming charges to make sure in a no-deal scenario we would protect British consumers,” Raab told the BBC in 2018. “We’ve had some good news from businesses, like Vodafone and Three, they’ve publicly said they won’t introduce roaming fees for UK consumers travelling on the continent.”
MoneySavingExpert’s report, The Roaming Risk: How lapsed protections could cost consumers, sets out these concerns in detail and recommends regulatory action to protect users from unclear and unfair roaming fees.
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