best sim for wifi usage abroad

[Rachelc]

My head is spinning!
Does anyone have any knowledge of which sim is currently best for usage abroad?

 

[IanRJ]

I believe Vodafone are the only UK SIM allowing full use of all data allowance whilst in Euroland. Some excellent deals from mobiles.co.uk and fonehouse on Vodafone 100g b month SIM at the moment, though most are 24 month deals.

 

[9526]

We had Three for a few years in our MIFI, whilst it was a good deal (prepaid Sim) it was heavily throttled back and we never got 4G.

We have since been running our MIFI and phone on Vodafone and have had excellent coverage with 4G the norm (in France, Spain, Portugal) Streaming TV has been fairly reliable in most places.

We've just updated our phone and have stayed with Vodafone.

 

[rosalan]

I have had no problems with 3 but had poor results from Vodaphone on the south coast

 

[Wellington]

Vodafone. All the others limit. Are you looking for a contract or payg?

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[mikebeaches]

Vodafone. All the others limit. Are you looking for a contract or payg?

I think that's an important point to consider.

For Pay-as-you-go, the 12-month or 24-month 'Three' data sims with 12GB and 24GB respectively seem to be popular - here's the 12-month pay in advance one (chuck it away after a year or when the data has gone, don't top it up!):

SIM cards | 3G & 4G PAYG | MyMemory

MyMemory have a fantastic range of PAYG 4G sim cards. Find your perfect SIM bundle today.

www.mymemory.co.uk

And if you want a monthly contract, then Vodafone seems to be a good option. Likely to be best if you consume a lot of data eg watching TV.

We just use our monthly data allowance (2GB) on our cheap Virgin phone contracts. And have a 12-month 'Three' data sim in a mifi as a back-up. Normally, at least one of the networks operates fine wherever we are abroad.

 

[Norrie59]

I took a contract with 3 for 'unlimited' (100GB) data and I pop the sim into the MoHo 4G mifi router when abroad. It works well giving us wifi for my wife's mobile and the smart TV too.
We were told that Netflix doesn't eat into the data allowance (which is , or at least was, true - maybe still is) but we were not told that a 100GB allowance dwindles to 19GB when outside the UK but within Europe.
We were told by 3 on our return that all networks apply this 19GB cap. Or should that be crap?

Used car salesmen, double glazing salesmen and now data salesmen?

 

[IanRJ]

We were told by 3 on our return that all networks apply this 19GB cap. Or should that be crap?

Used car salesmen, double glazing salesmen and now data salesmen?

Not the case with Vodafone though. I regularly used the 100gb in Europe over 7 months last year. No cap or throttling.

 

[Rachelc]

I think vodaphone may have changed, at least that's what Motorhome wifi told me yesterday.

 

[IanRJ]

Nope

I think vodaphone may have changed, at least that's what Motorhome wifi told me yesterday.

Nope, was talking with them this week, and blazoned on their deals. Full use abroad and no cap.

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[orridge]

Nope

Nope, was talking with them this week, and blazoned on their deals. Full use abroad and no cap.

Would you have a link to those sims please ?

This is from their current sim cards Roaming data on all unlimited data plans: capped at 25GB per month

 

[webby1]

It would be good to get the Vodafone deal in e mail.
If they do have a 19gb limit then it will be really expensive to go over that, as we found out with 3.
AS far as I know 3 are the only company to state that there will not be any change after we leave the EU

 

[Rachelc]

Would you have a link to those sims please ?

This is from their current sim cards Roaming data on all unlimited data plans: capped at 25GB per month

Yes please, because I know for a fact that the unlimited sims are capped. Which ones aren't capped?

 

[webby1]

Just checked and there do seem to be mixed messages.......perhaps their intention.

On the opening page it states that unlimited plans are capped at 25 GB but later on it states that you can take your UK allowance abroad.

Perhaps it is only the unlimited that is capped. But it would be good to be clear.......anyone???

 

[dunnah01]

Vodafone unlimited is limited to 25Gb/month EU roaming according to some reviews which out me off

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[Pugsy]

I have a 100gb vodafone sim ,bought from mobiles.co uk. Last April on a £15 a month deal ,its now £21 .l can use full 100gb abroad,but vodafone told me any new contracts are now limited to 20gb a month, so it appears people are being told different things!!. No wonder we are all confused about sim cards. its a ploy i tell you,a ploy..
Cheers Cris.

 

[Rachelc]

I have a 100gb vodafone sim ,bought from mobiles.co uk. Last April on a £15 a month deal ,its now £21 .l can use full 100gb abroad,but vodafone told me any new contracts are now limited to 20gb a month, so it appears people are being told different things!!. No wonder we are all confused about sim cards. its a ploy i tell you,a ploy..
Cheers Cris.

I agree, I'm not easily confused but the lack of information available before you click the purchase button is telling.

 

[Ukbandit]

Would that be

I have had no problems with 3 but had poor results from Vodaphone on the south coast

the south coast of France, or Spain?

 

[SMB]

Voxi also let you use all your data but only on the limitless social media plans, the largest data plan is only 45gb but the SIM itself is cheap (budget company owned by Vodafone I believe)

 

[SMB]

Just checked and there do seem to be mixed messages.......perhaps their intention.

On the opening page it states that unlimited plans are capped at 25 GB but later on it states that you can take your UK allowance abroad.

Perhaps it is only the unlimited that is capped. But it would be good to be clear.......anyone???

I think that the unlimited data Vodafone plans are restricted but not the Vodafone red plans with a fixed amount of data, I saw a post on mhf the other day and there was a reply from motorhomewifi stating this was the case for Vodafone and Voxi (their unlimited data plan is also capped at 25gb abroad)

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[ctc]

If these contracts were made plain and simple you would buy the best. Only in the UK can these companies get away with such poor service, I.e. technically impossible for everyone to use the nearest mast. Works throughout the rest of the EU.

 

[Hymerbell]

Not the case with Vodafone though. I regularly used the 100gb in Europe over 7 months last year. No cap or throttling.

The only one Vodafone absolutely guarantee not to cap is the 60GB data only one. The 100GB one which is not data only they may cap/throttle depending on their mood. In Europe that is....so I went for safety and took the 60GB data only one.

 

[Hymerbell]

I did a it of testing with regards to streaming speeds if anyone is interested...on different devices and different media. This is only for tablets and laptops....didn’t have a TV at the time. I don’t watch much TV when travelling but thought it was an interesting exercise and must have had nothing to do that night. This was based on my 50GB that I had at the time.

Streaming speed and ability to change bit rate. Of course if you lower the speed then your definition will be worse. And of course NEVER set to Ultra High Definition.

ITV/C4/C5 640MB an hour. Can’t change.

BBC 640MB. Can set to 320MB. Set at time of watching on laptop. Can’t change on iPad.

Netflix Low 300MB. Medium 700MB. High up to 3GB. Ultra HD 7GB ! Change settings in account sign on

Amazon

Low 300MB. Medium 600MB. High 900MB.

Change in Settings/playback on iPad.

50GB Simm

BBC or Netflix on laptop 5 Hrs 20 Mins per day (low)

BBC or Netflix on laptop or iPad 2 Hrs 40 Mins per day (Medium)

C4/ITV/C5 on Laptop or iPad 2 Hrs 40 mins

Netflix on iPad 5 Hrs 20 or 2Hrs 40 per day

So basically

Watch BBC on Laptop

Watch Netflix on Laptop or iPad

and for radio uses 5gb a month for 3 hours radio a day

 

[Rachelc]

has anyone purchased a data sim whilst in Europe to use there, is that an option?

 

[Roger20]

Could someone help me with a few questions please - new to using mifi. We are only likely to be away in Europe for 4-6 weeks this autumn. If you use a Vodafone 30 day rolling contract (say the 40Gb Red - 60Gb seems to have gone) can you pause it when you come back or do you have to stop and restart the process again when you go away again - say next spring? When does the 30 day period start - when you sign up or when you activate the card? If you can cancel/pause and used it for 6 weeks presumably you would pay for 2 months but give notice before the second month.

Looked at the Voxi website and their 45Gb plan looks a bit better at £20/pm and pausing seems easy with them.

I understand Vodafone use a UK ISP so you can watch iPlayer abroad. Is this also the case with Three? My experience using WiFi abroad last year with a VPN (Tunnel Bear but also another) was that the BBC blocked and so we gave up.

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[Metamorfosis]

has anyone purchased a data sim whilst in Europe to use there, is that an option?

Simyo (uses orange) is a Spanish SIM, 32gb per month for €17 prepay. SIM was €10 to buy. Cannot top up with UK card online so have to get top up voucher in repsol garage or similar. Could be purchased by anyone, not just Spanish nationals if you show passport. Unused data rolls over and you can roam into Portugal or France for instance no problem. I just googled simyo and it appears it is now 35gb
Jay from www.ourtour.co.uk wrote a bit about it here

Our 2020 Motorhome Roaming Internet System

This post describes how we're accessing the internet while roaming abroad in our motorhome in 2020 and how we've bought a Spanish SIM

ourtour.co.uk

More info here for Spanish cards

Spain

This article is about Spain including the Canary Islands in the Atlantic, the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean and the small enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta in Northern Africa. Spain has 4 network operators: Movistar (owned by Spanish Telefónica) Vodafone (UK-owned) Orange (French-owned)...

prepaid-data-sim-card.fandom.com

 

[Rachelc]

Simyo is a Spanish SIM, 32gb per month for €17 no contract. SIM was €10 to buy. Cannot top up with UK card online so have to get top up voucher in repsol garage or similar. Could be purchased by anyone, not just Spanish nationals if you show passport.

thanks, that's great and may prove the better option for us.

 

[Badknee]

I believe Vodafone are the only UK SIM allowing full use of all data allowance whilst in Euroland. Some excellent deals from mobiles.co.uk and fonehouse on Vodafone 100g b month SIM at the moment, though most are 24 month deals.

We use Virgin in mainland Europe and as a test I hammered it for a month and used 122gb out of my 150gb allowance.

Edit: We tether our iPads to our phones hotspot 4G signal. 100Gb per month with up to 50Gb rollover £10per month but it is an old deal (2yrs).

 

[webby1]

To make it even more confusing there will probably be different rates for phones and mi fi devices with data only sims ............although some/all of the phones can be used for tethering.........but that's a different thread altogether.

I guess they think you may sit for hours streaming TV on a laptop but not on a phone. I forgot about these differences as we only ever use the Huawei mi fi device and do not have a smart phone.

So we need to be clear which deals on which sims we are talking about. My old maths teacher used to remind us that you can't add apples and oranges together

 

[Tykatem]

I have the SMARTY 30GB (capped to 20GB when roaming in EU) commitment free SIM plan, unlimited UK calls & texts, 1 month plan, no contract cancel anytime. For £10 per month.
SMARTY doesn't enforce any data shaping or network throttling.
Three owns SMARTY and they both share the same network. However, SMARTY is a distinct and standalone brand with its own mission and values. It doesn't enforce any data shaping or network throttling.

Pete

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