UK mobile operator EE has announced plans to charge customers more for using their subscriptions in Europe from January 2022, becoming the first operator to reintroduce roaming charges following the country’s trade agreement with the European Union (EU).

EE, owned by BT, said that those who join or upgrade with the operator as of 7 July 2021 will have to pay £ 2 extra from January 2022 to use their fare surcharges at 47 EU destinations

In 2017, EU-wide legislation was introduced that put an end to operators having to charge customers extra for using their tariff plans in EU countries. In particular, those rules will no longer apply to EE, Vodafone UK, 3 UK and O2, after Brexit.

However, after the signing of a trade agreement between the UK and the EU in January, all four operators declared that they had no intention of reintroducing roaming charges. EE explained that its change of course would “support investments in our UK-based customer service and leading UK network”.

The announcement comes after it was rumoured that O2 would be the first to reduce EU roaming charges. However, O2 only introduced a data limit of 25 GB per month.