Vodafone UK is reintroducing roaming charges in the EU for customers on certain plans. Following the UK's exit from the EU, the mobile operator is no longer required to offer 'roam like at home' in the region. As such, the feature will be included only with certain Vodafone Xtra plans from 11 August.
Vodafone said the change applies only to new and renewing postpaid customers. Prepaid users and existing postpaid customers will see no change as long as they stay on the same plan. The Republic of Ireland is also excluded and will continue to benefit from free roaming. Furthermore, the new roaming charges will be applied only from 06 January 2022.
Roaming in Europe and selected destinations will be included with the Xtra postpaid plans that come with four Xtra benefits. For other customers, the operator is introducing new roaming passes at GBP 2 for a single day, GBP 8 for eight days or GBP 15 for 15 days.
Vodafone said most customers were not regular roamers so it was not fair to make everyone pay for the service even if they did not use it often. According to CEO Ahmed Essam, "the reality is that including roaming – a service that costs us money to provide – in every plan means more than half of our customers are paying for something that they don’t use."
Vodafone is the second UK operator to reintroduce roaming charges since Brexit, and the operator follows a similar pricing strategy to EE. The latter said in June that it would start charging GBP 2 per day from January 2022 for customers to roam at domestic rates in Europe. The EE charge will apply to new or upgrading customers from 07 July 2021.
