Sheesh, the latest Brexit disaster
It strikes us that there does seem to be a certain amount of umm, reaching, over the disasters that will befall us once Brexit actually takes place:
British tourists will face crippling mobile phone roaming charges in Europe after Brexit, leaked EU plans revealed today.
EU lawmakers banned phone operators from charging holidaymakers roaming charges - the extra fees for making and receiving calls when abroad.
And from June this year consumers will be able to send texts and surf on their mobile at the same price they pay at home.
But European Parliament documents on the new rules say they should not apply to British travellers after the UK officially leaves the EU - expected to be in spring 2019.
So the situation post-Brexit will be exactly the same as it is today and has been for the past decade or two. This does not strike us as an agonising problem.
As to why this will be true:
However, a leaked analysis on UK withdrawal from the EU confirmed this would not apply to Britons post-Brexit.
The document was drawn up earlier this month by the European parliament’s committee on industry, research and energy, and endorsed by MEPs. It states that “regulation (EU) No 531/2012 on roaming will no longer apply with respect to the UK, impacting business and other travellers to and from the UK”
Why would this be so? Because the various levels of the EU will no longer have the power to impose regulations upon doing business in Britain. It does not mean that roaming charges musty be imposed, it just means that a certain set of government will not be able to insist that they're not., Something really rather different. For:
Other companies have voluntarily dropped them as they sought a competitive edge before the expected 2017 ban.
Really? Izz'at so? There are enough British consumers who are worried enough about this that not charging roaming gains a provider a competitive advantage? And why would we expect this not to be so even in the absence of governmental insistence?
And if there aren't enough people who think it important enough that offering the option would not provide a competitive advantage then roaming charges or not does not actually matter, does it?