Surcharges and tighter fair usage policies as fewer travellers have dented revenues
In the UK, operators EE, O2 and Three all announced changes to their tariffs for when roaming in Europe. From January 2022, EE will apply a £2 daily surcharge (or £10/month) for new and upgrading customers from this summer. O2 and Three announced changes to their fair usage policies (now down to 25GB and 12GB respectively). Vodafone is yet to make any changes, but could be waiting to see how the reaction to these goes down. Alternatively it may adopt the more consumer friendly response and leave them unchanged as it did with no premium for 5G (a break from what would’ve been traditionally expected from them). The justification for EE’s surcharge has been the need for continued network investment in the UK, rather than in response to any increase in the underlying wholesale prices the UK operator faces. With these no longer protected by the regulation, there was every chance that prices for consumers would eventually change. It’s undoubtedly been a difficult year for all operators with less travel to all roaming destinations (including those outside of Europe where prices are higher), and limited prospect of a significant uptick in travel until next year.
