, Deputy Leader of the , today asked an “urgent
question” about mobile charges abroad in the event of a no deal
Brexit.
, Secretary of State for
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, said: "The government will
legislate to make sure the requirements on mobile phone operators
to apply a financial limit on mobile data usage while abroad is
retained in UK law." The limit would be set at £45 for monthly
billing, the same as is currently in place. Customers would
receive alerts at 80% and 100% of their data usage.
Regarding the issue of inadvertent roaming in Ireland, he said
the government intended to retain, through UK law, the EU roaming
regulation provisions that set out how operators must make
information available to their customers on how to avoid
inadvertent roaming.
Surcharge-free roaming for UK customers may continue across the
UK, as now, based on operators’ commercial arrangements. Leaving
without a deal would not prevent UK operators making and
honouring commercial arrangements with mobile operators in the EU
and beyond the EU. Many mobile operators, including those who
covered over 85% of mobile subscribers, had already said they had
no plans to change their approach to mobile roaming.
accused the government of trying
to sneak out an announcement without informing Parliament. This
announcement proved that this government “will cave to the
lobbying might of telecoms companies rather than listen to the
voice of consumers.”
He said the reason the EU introduced free roaming in the first
place was that the telecoms companies could not be trusted to
give consumers a fair deal. “Why has he decided that the price of
a no-deal Brexit is better paid by consumers than telecoms
companies?”
Mr Wright said the issue would be discussed by Parliament because
it would be an affirmative Statutory Instrument. He pointed out
it would not be possible after Brexit for the UK government to
enforce on EU mobile operators our rules and expectations. If
they chose to charge at a wholesale level British operators, one
of two things would happen: either that cost would be passed on
to those using their phones abroad, or the cost would be spread
across all mobile phone users on that network. The government had
decided to give consumers the best possible protection.
The full exchange will be available this afternoon
