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UK cell phone operators ought to be pressured to make their guidelines round knowledge roaming within the EU clearer, Martin Lewis has mentioned.
Shopper group MoneySavingExpert.com, led by shopper rights champion Mr Lewis, has known as on telecoms regulator Ofcom and the federal government to tighten the principles after some post-Brexit shopper protections expired.
In a brand new report, Mr Lewis warned that as a result of a spread of authorized obligations for operators round roaming ended on 30 June this yr, companies now not must ship clients a textual content message with pricing particulars once they start roaming; function a month-to-month cap on knowledge roaming charges; or present protections in opposition to inadvertent roaming.
A few of the UK’s largest networks have reintroduced knowledge roaming prices in Europe after the UK left the EU.
Mr Lewis mentioned the cell operators couldn’t be trusted to self-regulate as some operators had promised to not reintroduce roaming charges post-Brexit however had now completed so, and so known as on the federal government and regulators to step in.
“I’ve no religion in cell companies to self-regulate. After we left the EU, they promised to not reintroduce European roaming prices… but a lot of the huge networks have damaged that promise,” he mentioned.
“So our report calls on Ofcom to not belief voluntary guarantees – we have to reintroduce the formal, obligatory shopper protections.”
MSE’s report additionally raised issues round totally different suppliers utilizing totally different definitions of a ‘day’ of roaming, which it mentioned was inflicting confusion and risking sudden prices.
The report mentioned that whereas some operators outline a day as 24 hours from first use, others outline it as something as much as 11.59pm UK the identical day, which the patron group claims means somebody who indicators up at 11.58pm would solely get a minute’s value of knowledge earlier than needing to pay once more.
It says this isn’t defined in arrival texts.
“We have to ban a each day roaming payment charged to be used ‘as much as 11.59pm’ with out even mentioning wherein time zone,” Mr Lewis mentioned.
“As an alternative, we suggest all suppliers should outline a roaming ‘day’ as a 24-hour interval from first use, clearly clarify that within the arrival textual content, and alert clients no less than an hour earlier than the each day prices finish.”
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