Return of EU mobile roaming charges as UK’s biggest network O2 says it will now charge for each GB data over set limit

ROAMING charges are to return for Brits travelling to the EU, one of the UK's biggest phone networks announced today.

O2 told its customers that they will be billed £3.50 for every gigabyte of data used above a 25Gb limit from August.

In its email to customers, O2 said that the "changes to our roaming fair usage policy" would begin from August 2.

“As your monthly UK data allowance is over 25GB, you can still use your data in our Europe Zone,”

“But it’s now subject to a Roaming Limit of 25GB.

"Once you’ve reached this limit you’ll be charged an additional cost of £3.50/GB.”

In January, mobile phone operators said they would not bring back roaming charges for Brits.

These were scrapped in 2014 after the Rome Like At Home proposal was approved by the European Parliament.

This meant Brits could travel throughout Europe and not pay extra for calls, texts and data.

The Sun contacted each of the UK’s main providers in January to find out if any were planning to reintroduce roaming charges — and all pledged they would not do so.

Vodafone, BT, EE, Sky Mobile, Tesco Mobile, Three, Virgin and O2 all said they had no plans to reintroduce them at the time.

The Brexit trade deal did not include arrangements to continue the ban on roaming charges.

The agreement encouraged operators to have "transparent and reasonable rates".

An O2 spokesperson told The Sun Online: “Less than 1% of our Pay Monthly customers reach anywhere near 25GB during occasional travel to Europe. 

"If a customer’s UK monthly data allowance is over 25GB, from August 2 they will have a Roaming Limit of 25GB when roaming in our Europe Zone.

"This means they can use up to 25GB of their allowance at no extra cost – we’ll text them if they get close to the limit, and again if they reach it. 

"A customer can still use data if they reach our Roaming Limit, but will be charged £3.50/GB."