Mobile users have been warned of fine-print conditions within the EU’s new roaming charge regulations that could lead to unexpected costs while travelling.

Under the Roam Like at Home rules, introduced last Thursday, mobile phone users pay the same price for calls, texts and mobile data whether at home or travelling in the EU.

European consumer groups, however, have advised users to be aware of the “fair use” limits imposed by operators on data use while roaming and the length of time for which they can use their phone abroad without incurring additional charges.

According to their published terms and conditions, all Maltese operators – Vodafone, Melita and Go – have imposed a four-month monitoring period on time spent roaming.

Roaming usage on such plans had been very minimal

If, within that time, you use your phone more while overseas than in Malta, you could be forced to pay extra after a notification period, meaning European trips of longer than two months could fall foul of the regulation.

For mobile data bundles, operators are also authorised to limit roaming data that is below one’s normal allowance in certain circumstances. If this limit is exceeded, normal roaming charges will apply.

Vodafone told the Times of Malta that customers on the Liberty Power plan would have a roaming limit of 5.5GB.

Limits would also apply to a small number of prepaid bundles with large data allowances while all other plans would be able to make free use of their full domestic allowance.

Similarly, Melita customers using the Data Sim mobile internet product will only be able to use 3GB out of their 10GB domestic allowance while abroad.

Go did not provide specific details on how the limits would be applied but referred to its standard terms and conditions.

For tariffs that include unlimited data, the EU regulations state that your operator must allow you a roaming data volume that is at least twice the volume obtained by dividing the rate of your tariff by €7.70.

Meanwhile, operators are allowed to offer tariff plans that can only be used locally, although they cannot offer roaming as an add-on to such packages.

Melita said it did not offer any such plans but Vodafone made its Liberty Plus and Max data plans local-only as of June 1.

Customers on these plans have been notified that they must swap to the more expensive Liberty Power plan (or a prepaid package) to use roaming.

A Vodafone spokeswoman said the change would not impact customers significantly as roaming usage on such plans had been “very minimal”.

Mobile users should also be aware of the countries covered for free roaming by their mobile operators.

Apart from the EU-28, all Maltese operators have included the European Economic Area countries of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

Go clarified that the Isle of Man, Channel Islands and Faroe Islands are non-EU roaming countries and therefore do not form part of the ‘Roam Like at Home’. Free roaming is offered in the territories of Reunion, French West Indies, Gibraltar and Monaco.

None of the operators allow free roaming in Switzerland.

The Roam Like at Home rules do not apply to calls or text messages from Malta to other countries.

Moreover, as Maltese mobile telephone networks only work within the Maltese islands, customers whose package includes special rates on calls to other numbers within their network will not benefit from these rates while roaming.

The Malta Communications Authority has published a comprehensive guide to the new regulations on its website.

The authority has also invited the general public to contact its customer care department for further details.

*Go did not provide specific details on these points when requested; where possible, information was taken from the company’s Terms and Conditions.

**For tariffs that include data bundles, the roaming data volume must be at least twice the volume obtained by dividing the rate of your tariff by €7.70.

Correction: The Isle of Man, Channel Islands and Faroe Islands are non-EU roaming countries and therefore do not form part of the ‘Roam Like at Home’, as mistakenly stated in an earlier version of the article. Free roaming is offered in the territories of Reunion, French West Indies, Gibraltar and Monaco.