In some ways I’d say that surprise in ordinary Leave voters that relationships have soured - after all they were told how simple it would all be, and how great.
Frost has no excuse of course - it is his (and Johnson’s) bellicosity which is causeing the downturn in relations.
The trouble is that the UK is just acting the bully at the moment - it doesn’t like bits of the agreement that it signed so it is just doing as it likes, knowing that the EU will never want to be seen to be the aggressor and will do feck all about it.
The issue around roaming charges can be laid at the feet of the actual mobile operators. There is an EU regulation that within the single market rates cannot penalise cross border traffic.
Now that the uk has left, carriers in the UK are no longer part of this and carriers can charge more for “International calls” to the EU. Similarly EU telcos (SFR, Orange) whose network will often transit last or first leg of calls and on which a uk account holder will roam can now charge a uk network whatever interconnect charge it wants, and I understand these charges have been increased.
It’s a return to a free for all as as far customers of UK networks calling into the EU, with operators seeing the opportunity to increase revenue and margins.
@strudball
John, I agree with you that it is the mobile operators’ decision, but the bigger issue is that they were all complicit in the false narrative that “Everything will be better after Brexit, or at least not any worse off”.
They would have done their cost-benefit analyses at mere mention of the referendum, and yet they were particularly quiet during the Brexit negotiations.
A factor may have been business’ understandable reluctance to get dragged into the polarised brexit politics. I can well imagine any company that warned of increased prices drawing an attack from some ERG extremist, amplified by the murdoch/tabloid media, and losing customers as a result.
Very simple…UK network operators are no longer bound by the rules of cross border tariff equalisation of the EU.
So can price as they wish…for example if an operator wished to increase market share at the expense of their bottom line and to increase subscribers they can offer a more attractive (cheaper) to do this…its a return to true market forces and supply and demand
I was…not good for us and the result is that the four UK networks will most likely all do it, so we are unlikely to have the choice of avoiding these roaming charges…as my ideal is to have my dual Sim phone with both a French and uk network.
@strudball
John, I agree with your prediction that roaming charges will resume eventually (well, until the UK re-joins the EU and ditches £ for Euro in 20 yrs).
It’s just a shame the telcos weren’t more open about Brexit changing things.
I agree, I have a dual-sim Samsung which works quite nicely.
@ChrisM …which French network do you use?
O2 my uk network have wised up to the fact I haven’t been in uk for 18 months so politely have told me this breaches their fair roaming policy and in future each text will carry an additional charge of 1p, calls 3p per m and each mg of data £5. Given my usage (low data) its about £7 a month…not too bothered as long as they keep my account open
Prospect, One of the best politico/current affairs magzine in the UK.
Signed up for a special offer in January which made no extra charge to send to EU, will be interesting to see if and when I get the current issue published on 12 July.
I found the article interesting. They seem to be taking Boris Johnson at his word though about the uplevelling. I think it is just that- words. Yes Covid has put the brakes on the extreme free-marketeering but I unfortunately I think it is still there bubbling away under the surface.
