The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Lord Ashton of Hyde)
(Con):...However, leaving without a deal would not
prevent UK mobile operators making and honouring commercial
arrangements with mobile operators in the EU and beyond to deliver
the services their customers expect, including roaming
arrangements. The availability and pricing of mobile roaming in the
EU in a no-deal exit would be a commercial question for the mobile
operators. I am pleased to repeat that the main mobile
operators—Three, EE, O2 and Vodafone, which cover more than 85%
of mobile subscribers—have already said they have no current plans
to change their approach to mobile roaming after the UK leaves the
EU. The Government and, I am sure, the whole House welcome those
statements. We want to reassure consumers further by giving them
the best possible protection in the event of leaving the EU with no
deal. We are doing that by retaining those protections not
dependent on our membership of the single
market...
(LD):...The
Minister referred to the technical note that was issued on 13
September last year and which was updated subsequently, in which
it says, interestingly and perhaps rather overoptimistically:
“In the likely event of a deal, surcharge-free roaming would
continue to be guaranteed during the Implementation Period”.
However, it goes on to say—the Minister has referred to this
already—that in the event of no deal:
“Some mobile operators (3, EE, O2 and Vodafone—which cover over 85% of mobile
subscribers) have already said they have no current plans to
change their approach to mobile roaming after the UK leaves the
EU”.
Can the Minister explain exactly what “approach” means in this
context?
:...The
noble Lord, Lord Foster, asked who we have consulted. We have
consulted the big four operators O2, Vodafone,
EE and Three, the mobile virtual network operators Sky, Virgin
Media and Lebara, trade bodies Mobile UK, the Broadband
Stakeholder Group and many consumer groups. He also asked what
were the views of the mobile network operators. They expressed
similar concerns about this scenario. Of course they were
concerned about not being party to the EU roaming regulation, but
that is a function of leaving the single market. They did not
believe that the regulation mandating surcharge-free roaming
could and should endure, for the reasons I mentioned, but I
confirm that they said that, because of customer demand, they
have no current plans to reintroduce roaming surcharges. That is
not an unlimited guarantee forever, as I think I said...
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