Phones and data home and abroad. (1 Viewer)

[Mr porky]

I'm sure this has been covered a lot as the providers of data and phone sims keep moving the goal posts when it comes to travelling abroad.

We currently have in my Samsung tablet a smarty unlimited sim which works very well for us to stream TV whilst in the uk but drops to 12gb when in mainland europe.
We both have a phone with RWG we use for uk and abroad and have had very little issues however now they have dropped our allowance from 200gb then to 100gb then to to 20gb a month in Europe, so its pointless staying with RWG.
We do usually end up in mainland Europe up to 3 months at time.

We use esims if travelling to Asia as it works perfect over there but Europe doesn't seem to have cost effective esims.

So do we go back to a mainstream provider or is there an independent company that works in giving decent service at home and abroad.

Thank you in advance for any advice or recommendations you have.

 

[Millcourt]

IQ Go is working well for us in our MoHo router. If you have not seen it, worth having a look at……

IQ Mobile reviews? vs RWG and Popit

Hi, looking at some of the challenges people are having with the RWG SIM cards I wondered if anyone is using IQ mobile? they offer a 3 month data only sim with 100gb a month for £60 and an IQgo sim with annual fee and monthly data as required. Can use all the data EU roaming Seems to use EE as a...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

 

[Mr porky]

IQ Go is working well for us in our MoHo router. If you have not seen it, worth having a look at……

IQ Mobile reviews? vs RWG and Popit

Hi, looking at some of the challenges people are having with the RWG SIM cards I wondered if anyone is using IQ mobile? they offer a 3 month data only sim with 100gb a month for £60 and an IQgo sim with annual fee and monthly data as required. Can use all the data EU roaming Seems to use EE as a...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

Thank you, its always nice to get a first hand positive response.

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[Next Stop]

I can second IQ, just come back from 2 weeks in Europe, faultless, even works in Switzerland, which got us out of trouble as I didn't realise that Lebara doesn't unless you pay extra.

£20 to keep active for a year, then £20 for 100gb, if you run out just top up again, you don't have to wait until the following month.

Only drawback is to top up you have to buy a top up through their website and it doesn't get activated right away, it appears that they manually activate it the following day, so make sure, if you are a heavy user that you check your data regularly.

 

[Mr porky]

I can second IQ, just come back from 2 weeks in Europe, faultless, even works in Switzerland, which got us out of trouble as I didn't realise that Lebara doesn't unless you pay extra.

£20 to keep active for a year, then £20 for 100gb, if you run out just top up again, you don't have to wait until the following month.

Only drawback is to top up you have to buy a top up through their website and it doesn't get activated right away, it appears that they manually activate it the following day, so make sure, if you are a heavy user that you check your data regularly.

Is this just a data sim or a phone and data ?

 

[Lenny HB]

Is this just a data sim or a phone and data ?

Data sim.

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[Next Stop]

Is this just a data sim or a phone and data ?

Like Lenny said, data only, but they also do a sim with 100gb full roaming data, unlimited texts and calls for £25. But I think they have a min term of 3 months.

 

[starquake]

Worth noting the comparison in price to just having a UK sim and swapping when abroad.
We still are paying £60 a year for unlimited Three contract (data)
and approx £180 a year for unlimited EE .

Former via Three business, latter via a scancom sim via amazon.

Neither of above work outside UK at all... we have our French friend sending us a Free.fr sim via post on a prepay deal for EU given it's a considerably better deal than any UK provider seems to offer (250Gb in France) for around 19.99 euro, no contract, you get 35Gb of that to use in non French countries. Given our plans this year abroad are France and France alone, it's not a bad deal (for us). If we were going to Spain we would do similar with a Spanish provider.

 

[berni109]

Popit 100gb
Make sure you read their terms and conditions.

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[stevewagner]

Tesco - no restrictions in the EU

 

[Millcourt]

Worth noting the comparison in price to just having a UK sim and swapping when abroad………

Yes…. It can be a little cheaper. However with IQ Go you also have some advantages. Firstly, you can buy blocks of data only when you want them. Secondly, if you run out of data within the 30 day period, you just buy another block of data online, rather than either waiting to the next month or buying supplementary data at extortionate rates per Kbyte. Thirdly, you can stream UK TV without needing a VPN, which you will need when using a non-UK based SIM.

 

[Millcourt]

Tesco - no restrictions in the EU

Not exactly. Tesco’s “Home from Home” roaming is currently being promoted as being available up to 2025. They also have a “Fair Use” policy for data when roaming, although this seems less rigorous than some other service providers. Details at…… https://www.tescomobile.com/content...sco-mobile-fair-usage-policy-january-2021.pdf

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[Manic]

Tesco - no restrictions in the EU

Depending how much you’ve used it in uk.
That’s what I was told and 2month at a time.

 

[Neil S]

another vote for Popit mobile
100gb for 25 notes a month - no restrictions and you can use your full quota in the EU
with one proviso you must activate the sim in the UK at least 6-7 days before leaving and use a small amount of data .
Then your good to go for up to 90 days

 

[Manic]

I had a chat with IQ and was told you could only use it for 3 months per year.

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[daventess]

I had a chat with IQ and was told you could only use it for 3 months per year.

Beat me to it. I just chatted with them on their WhatsApp number and they said the same. The blurb implied to me it was a max of 3 continuous months, but it is 3 months in any 12 (ie the term of the subscription) when roaming max.

 

[Mr porky]

I had a chat with IQ and was told you could only use it for 3 months per year.

Well that's no good then, oh well.

 

[Mr porky]

Not exactly. Tesco’s “Home from Home” roaming is currently being promoted as being available up to 2025. They also have a “Fair Use” policy for data when roaming, although this seems less rigorous than some other service providers. Details at…… https://www.tescomobile.com/content...sco-mobile-fair-usage-policy-january-2021.pdf

Tescos seems to not allow full use in the eu either.

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[Carpmart]

Garath and Phil

Speaking from experience of long term Euro roaming, we are 7.5 months into our current tour, Popit is our choice for our phones. We get good 5G everywhere it is available.

Our 30Gb per month is £18 each. They have a six month roaming policy and we did fly home for 20 days over Christmas where we avoided wifi and used as much phone data as possible. We probably average 15-25Gb of data per month and it’s been faultless as phone sims over the last two years.

WRT heavily lift internet, Starlink is hard to beat. If the cost puts you off, Camino is still doing her Tiekom SIMs (400Gb in Spain, 200Gb rest of zone 1). Alternatively popit have a 100Gb SIM but it is a phone tariff and NOT a data tariff.

HTH’s?

 

[matbic]

I'm sure this has been covered a lot as the providers of data and phone sims keep moving the goal posts when it comes to travelling abroad.

We currently have in my Samsung tablet a smarty unlimited sim which works very well for us to stream TV whilst in the uk but drops to 12gb when in mainland europe.
We both have a phone with RWG we use for uk and abroad and have had very little issues however now they have dropped our allowance from 200gb then to 100gb then to to 20gb a month in Europe, so its pointless staying with RWG.
We do usually end up in mainland Europe up to 3 months at time.

We use esims if travelling to Asia as it works perfect over there but Europe doesn't seem to have cost effective esims.

So do we go back to a mainstream provider or is there an independent company that works in giving decent service at home and abroad.

Thank you in advance for any advice or recommendations you have.

Airhub eSIM unlimited data all of Europe for 30 days $32 seems like a good deal if you plan to use a lot of data. It works very well for me.

 

[Jez1966]

Data sim.

Remembering you can use Skype/WhatApp (other data based comm. options are available) for communications
on Data only.

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[daventess]

Airhub eSIM unlimited data all of Europe for 30 days $32 seems like a good deal if you plan to use a lot of data. It works very well for me.

Do you have a link for that offer? I just went on their website and can't find any data above 25g 50g/month (might have missed it),

 

[Mr porky]

Airhub eSIM unlimited data all of Europe for 30 days $32 seems like a good deal if you plan to use a lot of data. It works very well for me.

Can you use it as a hotspot

 

[Millcourt]

I had a chat with IQ and was told you could only use it for 3 months per year.

Beat me to it. I just chatted with them on their WhatsApp number and they said the same. The blurb implied to me it was a max of 3 continuous months, but it is 3 months in any 12 (ie the term of the subscription) when roaming max.

This is not what I was told. The IQ Go website says……

We do not have a "Fair use policy" when abroad which is pretty unique. If you order 100GB, you get 100GB in UK or EU. We do however state we can't permit more than 3 months in a row EU usage without use in the UK breaking it up.

If this is correct, with the 90-in-180 day restrictions in Schengen, I do not have a problem. I will email them tomorrow, so that I have a written response.

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[daventess]

This is not what I was told. The IQ Go website says……

We do not have a "Fair use policy" when abroad which is pretty unique. If you order 100GB, you get 100GB in UK or EU. We do however state we can't permit more than 3 months in a row EU usage without use in the UK breaking it up.

If this is correct, with the 90-in-180 day restrictions in Schengen, I do not have a problem. I will email them tomorrow, so that I have a written response.

This is my chat with them :

Hi David,

You're correct in finding it is EE as the MNO!
Our SIMs have one restriction which is no more than 90 days or three months roaming in a rolling year. So if you activate or buy a SIM in April, then you're not allowed to use it for more than 90 days abroad until the following April where that counter will reset.

 

[Jez1966]

Not the best website!
Look via Regional Europe and you get different options to Monthly Plans Europe.

eSIM Data - Airhub App-an exquisite esim experience for travellers

To stay connected wherever you may be, get your data eSIM plans on your eSIM device within minutes.

www.airhubapp.com

 

[daventess]

Not the best website!
Look via Regional Europe and you get different options to Monthly Plans Europe.

eSIM Data - Airhub App-an exquisite esim experience for travellers

To stay connected wherever you may be, get your data eSIM plans on your eSIM device within minutes.

www.airhubapp.com

Thanks.
Now, does my MH wifi have an eSIM option ..... ?

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[gus-lopez]

We have multiple Digi.es sim cards. They allow use in all eu +uk . I will be buying an unlimited data & calls sim for router use next month for use travelling to the UK & in it.
The 'unlimited ' is restricted to 25Gb in uk & rest of europe but all calls to landlines & mobiles are treated as the same as here in spain.all included in monthly cost"roam like at home". Additionally I was in the UK using it for 6 months a couple of years ago with no problems . Might not be of use to you but if in spain for prolonged periods it is one of the cheapest for 'unlimited' data.

 

[daventess]

Just got this back from AirHubApp support, the absolute second I bought a HelloIQ SIM :

It truley unlimited and you can use as hotspot!

We understand the inconvenience this may have caused, and we apologize for any frustration.

Thanks and regards,
Karlton Ramsey
Customer Service Associate
Email : support@airhubapp.com
Web : https://www.airhubapp.com/

I may have to do a road test between the two ...

 

[Manic]

S

This is my chat with them :

Hi David,

You're correct in finding it is EE as the MNO!
Our SIMs have one restriction which is no more than 90 days or three months roaming in a rolling year. So if you activate or buy a SIM in April, then you're not allowed to use it for more than 90 days abroad until the following April where that counter will reset.

Similar reply I got-

HI, It's 90 days in a rolling year, not a Calendar year. I.e. if you buy and use Mar 24 to Mar 25 that would be the 90 day rolling year period.