Yesterday, Vodafone UK confirmed that it plans to reintroduce roaming charges for its customers when they use their mobile phone in Europe, as of 6 January 2022. Since 2017, mobile customers in the United Kingdom have largely been able to use their tariffs – including calls, texts and data – freely when travelling inside the EU. But the EU trade deal signed in December 2020 opened the door to the resumption of charges. 

Off the back of Vodafone’s move, YouGov polled 1,000 British adults to get their thoughts on having to pay roaming charges, with the data weighted by age, gender, education level, region, and social grade.

71 per cent of those polled said they through the reintroduction of roaming charges was unfair, while 26 per cent said they would be very likely to switch networks if their current network reintroduced a roaming charge while in the EU, with another 26 per cent saying they would be somewhat likely to switch.

When asked how much influence a roaming charge would have on their choice of tariff, 29 per cent of respondents said it would have “a lot” of influence, with a further 40 per cent saying it would have “a little” influence and 25 per cent it would not influence their choice of tariff at all.