EU referendum, brexit and the aftermath

I thought they were doing the same to me recently. Pretty sure they will do soon. When I looked for alternatives everything was a lot more expensive.

I was on Three on a legacy contract with inclusive roaming for a decade or so. One day they wrote to tell me they were discontinuing the contract and I would be moved to a new one for about twice the price and without the roaming.

Switched to ID Mobile for less than my old contract and includes roaming. Same network so Three might have lost out.

I am with Smarty and roaming was free in November when I was in the Canaries

Been with 3 over a decade. I lost my roaming last year. Still unlimited everything else for a price no one else matches.

Have you looked at Smarty's prices? They do seem to be incredible good value for money. I switched from Vodafone about 18months ago and constantly recommend them.

I’ve been with Three since they launched around 20 years ago, and am on a ‘grandfathered’ all-unlimited contract with roaming and, bizarrely, tethered roaming included.

Not heard anything about them trying to bump me off it… yet…

I had the same "We no longer offer your contract, you have to move to this more expensive and shitter one" with 3.

Moved to O2 which was a similar price and includes free roaming for similar countries to 3.

I can't see that SMARTY offer a hotspot option which I need for the kids and my wife's failure to get a contract with sufficient data.
Anyway I'm only paying £19 a month so don't feel the need to move

I think I read free tethering, if I didn't have 11 months left on a contract it'd look a good deal.

I use my phone as a hotspot lunchtimes at work using my smart sim

EE and Vodafone have been doing the same over the last few years. Started with business customers, then announced a "roaming fair usage policy" and then introduced a daily roaming charge.

Not sure about O2

Our plans include
...
Unrestricted tethering in the UK

Using SMARTY right now from Lisbon and no roaming charges plus can hotspot to the laptop.

I liked Three. I could travel to EU, USA and Oz and not think about SIMs. They've gone to shit though after saying they wouldn't change, so on principal I will be moving away from them.

I'll check out ID Mobile and Smarty, thanks jellybaby and eskay.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/04/james-dyson-eu-common-agricultural-policy-subsidies?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Ah Dyson the Brexit lover who moved his production to Asia, but he still has a farm here, complaining the new government agriculture payment scheme is (predictable as due to lack of planning) not great.

O2 includes EU, USA and Oz as part of their free roaming.

I left O2 specifically because they fucked me on a plan change and it cost me £200 for a call to my mum afterwards so I'm loathe to switch back to them. I'd consider it though if they're now doing the same thing as Three was. How much are you paying?

Do you not need to be over a certain £ amount on your plan to qualify for the free roaming? Think it's possibly £20pm unless that has changed from when I was last looking around.

Think I'm paying about £20 a month although I get double data (it's not unlimited but something pretty substantial like 500GB) or something because I'm also with Virgin. The roaming thing is some kind of free bolt-on (you can choose one I think).

Saying that I've never used it because I signed up just before Covid so can't say how it works in reality. I remember 3's roaming being massively variable so wouldn't be surprised if this was the same.

Get an EU SIM. I can use my Vodafone one in UK no hassle.

EE is £2 per day for EU roaming, with a daily acceptable use policy for data.

^ as skinny says, an EU sim is best. Bonus points if you have a dual SIM phone.

And, fuck this, EE charge £1.35 per minute to make calls to a non EE number even if you pay the £2 per day charge to use your allowance.

Very glad I didn't make any calls when roaming as I missed that.

Hmm, I don't see anything that indicates free roaming.

https://www.o2.co.uk/shop/international/using-phone-abroad#1

"Our O2 Travel Bolt On is the perfect way to stay connected if you're travelling outside of our Europe Zone.

It costs £6 a day in selected destinations outside Europe. And that gets you all the data you need, unlimited minutes to make and receive calls and unlimited texts to send each day within your travel destination and back to the UK. There's no upper usage limit on data, but data speeds might vary. These allowances won't affect your standard UK allowances. Voicemail (901) is included.

If you’re travelling within our Europe Zone, your allowances will work as they do in the UK. However, data usage within our Europe Zone is subject to a Roaming Limit. Find out more."

When I was in Austria over xmas found out that GiffGaff offer 5GB of your data allowance can be used for roaming, but will charge you once that's used up. Found out it is remarkably quick to chew through that 5GB. Luckily my next plan started halfway through the hols