JT, Sure and Airtel-Vodafone say that the landmark decision made by the European Parliament yesterday to abolish data roaming in EU countries by 15 June 2017 would not apply to Jersey as it is not part of Europe.
But today, the Jersey Consumer Council criticised the move and called on the Island’s operators to ‘spell out’ their reasons for not following the European mandate.
Roaming charges are added by mobile operators for calls, texts and internet browsing when phone users are abroad.
The new EU legislation was finally voted in yesterday following two years of negotiations after member states raised concerns about the financial implications on their national telecoms groups.
It means that UK holidaymakers who travel within Europe will pay the same price to use their mobiles as they would at home.
However, Islanders will still face roaming charges when abroad and visitors to the Island will also face the extra costs.
Ann King, executive officer of the Jersey Consumer Council, said: ‘We are very disappointed that it appears local operators on this occasion will not be adopting the EU legislation.
‘In the first instance we need to have spelt out why operators can’t do this and what steps they can take.
‘I think we have to recognise this impacts people coming to the Island as well as people travelling away from the Island.
‘It is sad that we are isolating ourselves in this technological revolution.
‘We are part of a global playing field with regards to things like finance but we are not part of this initiative when it comes to data roaming.’
Today, Michael Byrne, chief executive of the Channel Islands Competition and Regulatory Authorities, said that CICRA would continue to remind operators to communicate appropriately with their customers and ‘to ensure that those customers are fully informed of the costs of using their mobile device when abroad’.
Mike Fawkner-Corbett, head of product at Sure, said that because the Channel Islands were outside of the EU and were not regulated by EU bodies, islands operators would not have access to the regulated rates that become mandatory for operators within the EU in 2017.
He said that Sure would continue to negotiate roaming rates with each EU operator individually and therefore could not guarantee that it would be able to match EU pricing which requires EU operators to charge the same price for data when customers are on the home network and roaming.
Mr Fawkner-Corbett said: ‘We expect to continue cutting the price of data in the future.
‘We have also ensured that all customers using data roaming have a usage limit in place to protect them from unexpectedly high bills, giving them peace of mind when travelling abroad.
A spokesman for Airtel-Vodafone said: ‘We have nothing to add to this news other than the Channel Islands is not part of the EU.’
JT declined to comment.
