IO540 -
I cannot recall a time when I was under an FIS in the UK and got traffic info, but I gather it has happened. Scottish Info have passed traffic information to me on numerous occassions. Perhaps because they are not so busy up here
However even if I'm just bimbling around I prefer to be on someone's frequency - one less thing to think about if the engine goes all quiet on you.
A couple of times this week I've heard foreign commercial traffic coming in to the oil capital:
ATC - Scandinavian xxx what type of service do you require?
SAS - What have you got?
ATC - Deconfliction service, similar to radar advisory
SAS - That'll do fine
Same with a KLM a couple of days later.
And there was me thinking the new system was another piece of European nonsense we have been forced to adopt. Nope, it's all of our own making.
In practice we are getting the same or similar service as we had previously, it just needed a couple of flights to get comfortable with the new phraseology on initial contact.