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Glossary

Fair Use Policy

A Fair Use Policy (FUP) caps how much of your data allowance you can use while roaming, even on "unlimited" plans.

A Fair Use Policy (FUP) is the small print on most "unlimited" or "all you can eat" mobile plans. It caps your usage — particularly while roaming — to prevent customers using their home plan as a long-term substitute for a local SIM.

Typical EU FUP

Most UK carriers cap data roaming in the EU at somewhere between 5GB and 25GB per month, even on otherwise-unlimited plans. Once you hit the cap you either get throttled to slow speeds or charged per MB.

Why it exists

Networks pay each other for roaming traffic. If a customer roamed permanently on a £20/month plan, the home network would lose money. FUPs are the limit that keeps the maths working.

How to check yours

Carrier websites publish their FUPs — usually buried in roaming pages. Fuse publishes its FUP openly on every roaming-included plan page.

See also

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