Brexit will not affect ”Roam like at home”: this and the other EU regulations on calls and SMS will continue to be applied in the UK, at least until end-2020

30 January 2020

„”Brexit comes into effect, but Romanians will continue to benefit from roaming at national rates in the UK, as well as from the tariff caps applicable at European level for calls and SMS initiated/sent from Romania to UK phone numbers, at least until 31 December 2020. The agreement on the withdrawal of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union (Brexit Agreement) provides for a transitional period until the end of the year, when most of the European regulations continue to apply in relations between the two parties. Subsequent negotiations between the European Union and the United Kingdom will determine what happens after 31 December 2020”, declared Eduard LOVIN, vicepresident of ANCOM.

Electronic communications on the territory and towards UK in 2020

The Brexit agreement provides for a transitional period, until 31 December 2020, in which most of the European legislation continues to apply in relation to the UK. This includes the European regulation "Roam like at home" and the one concerning the tariff caps for calls and SMS within the European Economic Area (EEA, which includes the Member States of the European Union, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein). In this context, Romanian users who occasionally travel to the United Kingdom will benefit, at least until 31 December 2020, from roaming at national rates ("Roam like at home"), despite the United Kingdom’s no longer being a Member State of the European Union as of 1 February 2020. Moreover, the (residential) users on the territory of Romania who initiate/send calls or SMS to telephone numbers in the United Kingdom will benefit from the tariff caps applicable within the EEA (0.19 Euro/minute, VAT not involved, and 0.06 Euro/SMS, VAT not included), at least until 31 December 2020. We remind that the aforementioned caps apply only to calls and SMS that are charged according to the actual consumption, not to those included in subscriptions/add-ons.

British territories outside the scope of European regulations

The EU regulations apply, at least until 31 December 2020, only to the territories of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland that actually lie in Europe, respectively to Gibraltar.

The European regulations do not apply to:

British Overseas Territories, excepting Gibraltar: Anguilla; Bermuda; British Antarctic Territory; British Indian Ocean Territory; British Virgin Islands; Cayman Islands; Falkland Islands; Montserrat; Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands; St Helena and St Helena Dependencies (Ascension and Tristan da Cunha); South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands; Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (Cyprus); and The Turks & Caicos Islands
British Crown Dependencies: the Anglo-Norman isles (Guernsey and Jersey) and the Isle of Man

Currently, providers may set certain roaming conditions in the EU/EEA (fair use policy) to prevent abusive or abnormal use of this service for purposes other than occasional travels outside Romania – e.g. to prevent permanent roaming in the EU/EEA. The fair use policy defined by the providers must observe the limits laid down in the EU regulations. After the consumption of the national allowance included, the tariffs applicable in Romania will be charged – namely, the off-net domestic rates for minutes/SMS, respectively for domestic data (MB/GB) consumption. ANCOM makes available a widget on its website, by means of which one can calculate the data volume he/she can consume while roaming in the EU/EEA, considering the applicable FUP limit.

However, mobile operators may offer tariff plans (subscriptions or prepaid cards) that are not roaming-enabled. Such tariff plans are designed for those who do not intend to use mobile telephony or data services when travelling abroad, but would rather benefit from a higher domestic allowance at advantageous price.