SIM cards for use in EU. EE free roaming SIMs.

[Colin McCourt]

Over the last three days I have had a SIM card delivered from Tescomobile for my WIFI and upgraded my EE SIM for my phone.

Firstly the Tescomobile SIM was for 100GB on a two year deal for £14/mth which includes EU roaming of the full 100Gb. Now the blurb says no roaming charges until after 2025 but, today I was in a Tesco Mobile shop, as my MIFI working and they told me that the free EU roaming is for the length of your contract, and that if you took out a three year contract it would cover the whole three years. The good thing with Tesco Mobile is that they keep the same monthly cost for the length of your contract. Incidentally the guy in the shop was struggling to get my MIFI to work on the internet. I suggested that the APN might be the issue. He googled something, and suddenly he had cured my problem. He admitted he had used information from something called Motorhome Fun!

Now I have EE WIFI as well as an EE SIM which was on an old contract with 160GB which I could use on roaming for free. My wife also had a phone contract which was coming to an end, but we were reluctant to end it as she also had free roaming. However on the MyEE App, which EE customers use to control their contracts they were offering new deals for those with multiple products (broadband and phone). They were offering an unlimited data SIM with free EU roaming and a choice of one other add on (I chose Netflix) for £22/month on a one month rolling contract! When I asked the EE customer operative if there was any cap on the data for this unlimited data, he said “Yes, but it’s 600Gb”. My wife took a slightly lesser package as she didn’t get the Netflix add on, for £16. She had been paying £44 for her phone contract and I had been paying £28 for my SIM. So we have cut our bill from £72 to £38 per month with 600GB each for Roaming. I’m happy with that. I think that 1300GB of data per month should just about cover us when abroad.

Incidentally they also do a similar package for the EU and beyond!

Just thought I would put the info out there for everyone and thank those who put the info about the Tesco Mobile APN out there. More than paid for my membership.

 

[Madmag]

Can I ask what mifi you have please

 

[Colin McCourt]

Can I ask what mifi you have please

HUAWEI 5577

 

[matbic]

Over the last three days I have had a SIM card delivered from Tescomobile for my WIFI and upgraded my EE SIM for my phone.

Firstly the Tescomobile SIM was for 100GB on a two year deal for £14/mth which includes EU roaming of the full 100Gb. Now the blurb says no roaming charges until after 2025 but, today I was in a Tesco Mobile shop, as my MIFI working and they told me that the free EU roaming is for the length of your contract, and that if you took out a three year contract it would cover the whole three years. The good thing with Tesco Mobile is that they keep the same monthly cost for the length of your contract. Incidentally the guy in the shop was struggling to get my MIFI to work on the internet. I suggested that the APN might be the issue. He googled something, and suddenly he had cured my problem. He admitted he had used information from something called Motorhome Fun!

Now I have EE WIFI as well as an EE SIM which was on an old contract with 160GB which I could use on roaming for free. My wife also had a phone contract which was coming to an end, but we were reluctant to end it as she also had free roaming. However on the MyEE App, which EE customers use to control their contracts they were offering new deals for those with multiple products (broadband and phone). They were offering an unlimited data SIM with free EU roaming and a choice of one other add on (I chose Netflix) for £22/month on a one month rolling contract! When I asked the EE customer operative if there was any cap on the data for this unlimited data, he said “Yes, but it’s 600Gb”. My wife took a slightly lesser package as she didn’t get the Netflix add on, for £16. She had been paying £44 for her phone contract and I had been paying £28 for my SIM. So we have cut our bill from £72 to £38 per month with 600GB each for Roaming. I’m happy with that. I think that 1300GB of data per month should just about cover us when abroad.

Incidentally they also do a similar package for the EU and beyond!

Just thought I would put the info out there for everyone and thank those who put the info about the Tesco Mobile APN out there. More than paid for my membership.

They have a fair use policy that basically limits you to using the SIM card away from UK for no more than 2 months in every 4. So it’s useful for some but not others!

 

[HKF]

...

He admitted he had used information from something called Motorhome Fun!

...

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[Colin McCourt]

They have a fair use policy that basically limits you to using the SIM card away from UK for no more than 2 months in every 4. So it’s useful for some but not others!

Fair point, but would suit the majority I would think.

 

[Joethejoiner]

Fair point, but would suit the majority I would think.

Certainly would
Is this an indication that the restrictions on roaming are relaxing?

 

[matbic]

It does seem Tesco mobile which is selling the O2 network have a more relaxed view on roaming than some other operators. Probably due to the very global nature of their owners Liberty Global and Telefónica.

I have found that O2 is better than most other UK networks when it comes to roaming allowances. However I fear the trend is not good, as they have definitely tightened up their roaming fair use policy recently. A few years ago I could use an O2 SIM in Europe for as long and as much data as I needed even though they said I could not! But unfortunately not now.

Anyway let’s use it for 2 months in 4 until they change again it seems to be the best of the bunch at the moment! I will probably cancel my SIM and rely on eSIMs when my contract runs out. Paying for a contract when not travelling is a waste of money.

All the best!

 

[steve69]

It does seem Tesco mobile which is selling the O2 network have a more relaxed view on roaming than some other operators. Probably due to the very global nature of their owners Liberty Global and Telefónica.

I have found that O2 is better than most other UK networks when it comes to roaming allowances. However I fear the trend is not good, as they have definitely tightened up their roaming fair use policy recently. A few years ago I could use an O2 SIM in Europe for as long and as much data as I needed even though they said I could not! But unfortunately not now.

Anyway let’s use it for 2 months in 4 until they change again it seems to be the best of the bunch at the moment! I will probably cancel my SIM and rely on eSIMs when my contract runs out. Paying for a contract when not travelling is a waste of money.

All the best!

Can you advise me please? I have to make decision soon. For 3 weeks in Spain/France...iQ Go or Tesco?

 

[ChrisL]

Can you advise me please? I have to make decision soon. For 3 weeks in Spain/France...iQ Go or Tesco?

I would suggest that it might depend on what mifi device you have, the Tesco sim does not appear to work in all mifi devices and definitely not in home routers, it works in mine and as above works in a Huawei E5577 but didn't work in Madmag Huawei mifi, it must have the correct Tesco APN added manually, i've been very happy with mine and I think Tesco allow you a trial period so you could get one and if it doesn't work cancel it. The major plus for Tesco is all of your data allowance in the EU and although fair use is two months in four, myself and others have had three months with no messages or charges, you must use it in the UK as well though.

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[steve69]

I would suggest that it might depend on what mifi device you have, the Tesco sim does not appear to work in all mifi devices and definitely not in home routers, it works in mine and as above works in a Huawei E5577 but didn't work in Madmag Huawei mifi, it must have the correct Tesco APN added manually, i've been very happy with mine and I think Tesco allow you a trial period so you could get one and if it doesn't work cancel it. The major plus for Tesco is all of your data allowance in the EU and although fair use is two months in four, myself and others have had three months with no messages or charges, you must use it in the UK as well though.

I was thinking of having it in my phone as a second SIM and using that as a hotspot.

 

[ChrisL]

I was thinking of having it in my phone as a second SIM and using that as a hotspot.

That would work, it might connect through an O² APN by default which may or may not work in the EU so definitely check that it's using the Tesco APN and if not add it manually.

 

[BikerGraham]

I was thinking of having it in my phone as a second SIM and using that as a hotspot.

thats simialr to what I did when it stopped working in my 5577 MiFi. ITs in a spare phone as a hot spot.

However, my business phones contracts recently came to an end and I switched them from vodafone to Tesco. They were so much cheaper and included EU roaming. Vodafone charges were ridiculous.

 

[Solwaybuggier]

They have a fair use policy that basically limits you to using the SIM card away from UK for no more than 2 months in every 4. So it’s useful for some but not others!

Yes, but after 2 months they then give you 2 weeks “grace” period - so effectively that makes 10+ weeks. (& in reality lots of people have found they have gone significantly over the 2 months with no warning message - obviously that could change at any time.)

 

[VXman]

1300GB per month!? What are you using it for? Is it for work purposes?

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[Colin McCourt]

Certainly would
Is this an indication that the restrictions on roaming are relaxing?

Only from EE as far as I can see. It is strange as Popit used EE but their allowance was cut drastically. Maybe this is a move by EE to get more customers coming to them instead of using third party providers.

 

[Colin McCourt]

It does seem Tesco mobile which is selling the O2 network have a more relaxed view on roaming than some other operators. Probably due to the very global nature of their owners Liberty Global and Telefónica.

I have found that O2 is better than most other UK networks when it comes to roaming allowances. However I fear the trend is not good, as they have definitely tightened up their roaming fair use policy recently. A few years ago I could use an O2 SIM in Europe for as long and as much data as I needed even though they said I could not! But unfortunately not now.

Anyway let’s use it for 2 months in 4 until they change again it seems to be the best of the bunch at the moment! I will probably cancel my SIM and rely on eSIMs when my contract runs out. Paying for a contract when not travelling is a waste of money.

All the best!

The EE deal is a monthly contract so can assume you can cancel and renew whenever you want.

 

[Colin McCourt]

1300GB per month!? What are you using it for? Is it for work purposes?

Not at all. Just saying that I will have all this which will mean I never run out. We need the SIMs for our phones and we have the motorhome WI-FI as we go to many places to hike, where phone signal strength can be low but we are covered with the extra sensitivity of the antenna on the roof. Personally I love going places with no phone signal but my Co-driver does not.

 

[Joethejoiner]

Only from EE as far as I can see. It is strange as Popit used EE but their allowance was cut drastically. Maybe this is a move by EE to get more customers coming to them instead of using third party providers.

That would indicate popit etc were getting a healthy share of the market

 

[pagey]

My 2 year tesco contract ran out in June 100 gig data calls etc I phoned them and they said i could stay out of contract on the same terms it was working fine in france,Belgium and Luxembourg since

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