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Bristol’s Green MEP, Molly Scott Cato, has warned that roaming charges for those travelling to the continent could again hit consumers post-Brexit. The warning comes as the European Parliament this week approved plans to secure lower prices and enable smaller providers to compete with big telecommunications corporations. However, the plans only relate to EU member states and will not be fully implemented until 2022, so a UK outside the EU could once again face roaming charges. She said:
“Roaming charges – a long term scourge for mobile phone users – could once again hit UK consumers just as they become a thing of the past for EU countries. This is another example of one of the many benefits of our EU membership; benefits the EU has rightly said cannot be as generous for those outside the club as those who are members.
“The European Parliament has put the interests of consumers above those of telecom giants and from mid-June, roaming costs will decrease annually and should be a thing of the past by 2022. However, by that stage the UK plans to be outside not only the EU but also the single market. Consumers should therefore expect again to be clobbered by these annoying and expensive charges in post-Brexit Britain.”