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Roaming charges were completely abolished in the European Union
in 2017, saving holiday makers and business travelers millions
of pounds a year in total additional charges for using their
smartphones outside Britain.
"If we were to say to mobile network operators in this country
'You may not impose roaming charges on your customers who travel
to the European Union', that cannot prevent European mobile
network operating companies charging UK mobile network operating
companies money," he told lawmakers.
"Now that money has to be paid by somebody and if we are saying
to the mobile network operators in this country that they may
not pass it on to customers who are roaming, they will
undoubtedly pass it on to all their other customers instead."
However, Wright said that operators that provided services to 85
percent of British consumers had said they would not bring back
roaming charges for travel in the European Union.
The government will legislate to retain limits for using data
abroad, currently set at 45 pounds ($58) for each monthly
billing period, he said.
Operators would also have to inform customers when they reach 80
percent and 100 percent of their data usage allowances, he said,
and warn users about the risks of inadvertent roaming, for
example on the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.
There could also be changes affecting roaming for EU visitors to
Britain, a committee paper for the European Parliament said in
September.
Britain's biggest networks, including EE, O2, Vodafone and
Three, all said last year they had no plans to bring back
roaming charges.
($1 = 0.7757 pounds)
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Andrew MacAskill and
Alison Williams)
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