So it only applys to new contracts and they are giving nearly 9 months notice of the changes, stick with your existing contract and phone if its part of the deal and it wont affect you.

Anyone choosing a new contract/phone will be looking at what they need from the deal, data, roaming etc, if the latter is their priority they will choose from one of the others.

Will the UK service providers start charging more to EU providers (Orange, Free etc) for when their abonnées use their phones on UK networks? That may have far more effect on many of us.

I am using Free while in the UK and perversely because of the roaming can make calls free that would be chargeable were I in France, its mainly being used as a hotspot for the internet like now.

I did get €10 of charges last month, first time ever and it turned out to be a 3 minute call to DFDS Newhaven Dieppe booking line, an 0800 number and a 13 second call to their 0871 which was a recorded message saying they were closed. I fell foul of something similar a decade ago but not to the order of €3 per minute to a Freephone number, I should have called the Dieppe booking number as thats where the call went but they make a point that when in the UK you must use the UK 0800 number to contact the (not) Newhaven booking office.