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

[ChrisL]

all of them had a monthly limit of about 25gb when in Europe

Except Tesco who allow you all your data whilst roaming in the EU even unlimited contract subject to fair use of two months in every four although some of us have done three months with no issues, but it must be used in the UK as well. The Tesco sim is a phone sim and will not work in home routers but will work in some mifi devices, there is a list of compatible devices on their website however my mifi is not listed as compatible but still works okay, I believe Tesco allow you a two week trial period in which it can be returned if it doesn't work in your device, in addition you must manually enter the Tesco APN or else it is unlikely to work or work reliably.

 

[Jerrywh]

Hmm. Wife and I get 5Gb each from EE for £5/mth each. With "gift your data" this is plenty for me, since wife uses approximately oMb/month ..

 

[MichaelT]

Signed up with tiekom . 200gb Europe, 400 Spain

I looked but could only see 25 or 50 gig sims?

 

[Treefitter]

I suspect the 600GB of data. I don’t think that’s the real truth but the proof will be in the the actual data used.

 

[slowdriver]

I guess it's all about how much you need at what time and on what devices,
In the UK and Europe all year but only for navigation and occasional email and web browsing use, I have an old iPad with an 8GB SIM from Smarty for £6.30 that I use in the van, and in the car.
Then a Smarty sim in my phone 12Gb/month all year for £7.20/month which is good for UK and Europe
Plus a Tiekom 400 GB/ €44/£36 a month contract for the MIFi that I switch on only for the 3 months I am away in Europe and switch off when I am back in the UK
So over three devices, over a full year over three devices and including three months in Europe with 400GB additional a month, I am paying £22.5 a month on average.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[MichaelT]

I guess it's all about how much you need at what time and on what devices,
In the UK and Europe all year but only for navigation and occasional email and web browsing use, I have an old iPad with an 8GB SIM from Smarty for £6.30 that I use in the van, and in the car.
Then a Smarty sim in my phone 12Gb/month all year for £7.20/month which is good for UK and Europe
Plus a Tiekom 400 GB/ €44/£36 a month contract for the MIFi that I switch on only for the 3 months I am away in Europe and switch off when I am back in the UK
So over three devices, over a full year over three devices and including three months in Europe with 400GB additional a month, I am paying £22.5 a month on average.

How do you get a Tiekom sim, I can't see anything on.their website?

 

[Marten]

Except Tesco who allow you all your data whilst roaming in the EU even unlimited contract subject to fair use of two months in every four although some of us have done three months with no issues, but it must be used in the UK as well. The Tesco sim is a phone sim and will not work in home routers but will work in some mifi devices, there is a list of compatible devices on their website however my mifi is not listed as compatible but still works okay, I believe Tesco allow you a two week trial period in which it can be returned if it doesn't work in your device, in addition you must manually enter the Tesco APN or else it is unlikely to work or work reliably.

Thanks Chris. I will check it out for the next trip.

 

[slowdriver]

How do you get a Tiekom sim, I can't see anything on.their website?

There is quite a lot elsewhere on MHF about getting the Tiekom SIm.
Emailing their sales team is a good route to go here:

<sales@tiekom.com>

This link also provides details of the product.

• Only Data 400GB EU

It's 400GB max a month in Spain 200GB of which can be used outside of Spain.
So if you need more than 200GB a month outside Spain you may need to look elsewhere.

 

[Skez]

How do you get a Tiekom sim, I can't see anything on.their website?

Data SIM

DATA SIM You asked for it now we have it Be Free With our 4G connection you will enjoy at an incredible speed. Whenever, wherever, and however you want it. Smart Networksconnect smart people When you don'tneed it,you can leavewithout anytypeof penalty.Don't worry about thetype of SIM. We have...

tiekom.com

There are 3 tabs on this page. 3rd one is 'Only Data 400GB EU



**Edit - Sorry, duplicates #38 - too slow!

 

[MichaelT]

There is quite a lot elsewhere on MHF about getting the Tiekom SIm.
Emailing their sales team is a good route to go here:

This link also provides details of the product.

• Only Data 400GB EU

It's 400GB max a month in Spain 200GB of which can be used outside of Spain.
So if you need more than 200GB a month outside Spain you may need to look elsewhere.

Thank you, I was looking at normal sim didn't see the data one. I'll order for our euro trip in January if IQ don't come up with anything.

I assume you can pause it when not in use?

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[Colin McCourt]

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

If you decide to go the Tesco route go into a Tesco Mobile shop with the MIFI, get the deal there and get them to set it all up.

 

[camoyboy]

For those interested in the Tesco 100 Gb sim deal, we were assured by the South Norwich store that it will definitely finish on the 31st of this month. They were not aware of what was coming next.

 

[Steve Gray]

Except Tesco who allow you all your data whilst roaming in the EU even unlimited contract subject to fair use of two months in every four although some of us have done three months with no issues, but it must be used in the UK as well. The Tesco sim is a phone sim and will not work in home routers but will work in some mifi devices, there is a list of compatible devices on their website however my mifi is not listed as compatible but still works okay, I believe Tesco allow you a two week trial period in which it can be returned if it doesn't work in your device, in addition you must manually enter the Tesco APN or else it is unlikely to work or work reliably.

I messed around with Smarty sims in my MIFI for ages and came to the conclusion that Smarty in Europe is as much use as a chocolate teapot!!!
Changed to O2 PAYG data (£15 for 25Gb) £1.00 a month more, but it works A better alternative to buying a local Sim card. MIFI is Huawei.

 

[wfdTamar]

This is one of the hardest aspects of travelling around. I need sims only for the time I'm in Europe (4 months over summer), so a Tesco contract is no good.

Tiekom - Although good in that it covers the EU (Zone 1), €43.90 for 200Gb isn't cheap. If you are only going to a limited number of countries a sim from the country you're going to could be a better option.

I've used a Free.fr €20 for 300Gb one (it's 350Gb now). Only 35Gb outside France. Coverage was better than the IQGo.

I've also seen Reglo mentioned for France.

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mobile.free.fr

 

[matbic]

I am confused as none of the information above tally's with my plan, taken out last year, and my recent research. I have just been on mainland Europe for a month and needed to use a lot of data. I am with EE and have three sims in one package (one in a router and two in phones.) The router sim is on a plan where I get free unlimited roaming as a free add-on that would normally cost £25.00 pm. (could have chosen Netflix etc.) The phone sims have no incuded roaming. I can either pay £25 per month or £2.47 per day to use my data allowance abroad. I looked into buying SIM cards from other networks and regardless of the amount of Data included, all of them had a monthly limit of about 25gb when in Europe.

This if from EE website : “

Good to know​

If your plan comes with more than 50GB of data per month, a fair use policy of 50GB will apply when roaming abroad.”

So that put me off - it’s quite expensive for 50G per month. Also not sure it’s “Good”!!!

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[Kups]

This is one of the hardest aspects of travelling around. I need sims only for the time I'm in Europe (4 months over summer), so a Tesco contract is no good.

Tiekom - Although good in that it covers the EU (Zone 1), €43.90 for 200Gb isn't cheap. If you are only going to a limited number of countries a sim from the country you're going to could be a better option.

I've used a Free.fr €20 for 300Gb one (it's 350Gb now). Only 35Gb outside France. Coverage was better than the IQGo.

I've also seen Reglo mentioned for France.

Forfait mobile Free sans engagement : Internet 5G illimité

Un réseau mobile Free 4G/5G de qualité présent dans tous les départements de France metrop. Des prix avantageux. Pour toute la famille.

mobile.free.fr

We're sticking with POPIT at 25gb in EU per month plus you can pause the sub for £1.60 per month. On sites we use our Starlink with a VPN, pricey but reliable. "You can't take it with you ".

 

[wfdTamar]

I wouldn't touch Popit again with a 10 foot pole. They're horrible to deal with and 25Gb is useless.

Yes Starlink is looking like the only long term reliable option, but jeez the price (£96 pm now and limited to 2 months outside the UK). From the FAQ:

• If you use Starlink Roam in a country different from your shipping address for over two months, Starlink may require you to update your registered address to your new location. If your new location is not in an authorized territory (marked "Available" or "Waitlist" on the Starlink map), your service may be immediately suspended. See Terms of Service for more information.

At least you only have to pay for when you're using it. Also by the time you fart about getting sims that stop working or multiple sims for multiple countries....

 

[DerfelUK]

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!

For sure, a friend on month 3 in Spain got an £85 bill for daily charge over fair use!

 

[ChrisL]

For sure, a friend on month 3 in Spain got an £85 bill for daily charge over fair use!

That's interesting myself and others have had 3 months with no issues, did your friend not get a text message warning him of impending charges? I can read text messages sent to my mifi by logging into it and checking for them.

 

[Marten]

This if from EE website : “

Good to know​

If your plan comes with more than 50GB of data per month, a fair use policy of 50GB will apply when roaming abroad.”

So that put me off - it’s quite expensive for 50G per month. Also not sure it’s “Good”!!!

EE coverage was pretty good while we were away - from France through to Croatia.

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[Peregrinator]

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.

Read the small print, I think you will find one of two scenarios, 1: free roaming only covers 63 days, or 2: EU roaming you will only have 30Gb max, there are other providers that will give you more, if your not sure then best bet would be to buy sim in the country your visiting, good luck.

 

[Colin McCourt]

Read the small print, I think you will find one of two scenarios, 1: free roaming only covers 63 days, or 2: EU roaming you will only have 30Gb max, there are other providers that will give you more, if your not sure then best bet would be to buy sim in the country your visiting, good luck.

Two months in four, which will cover most people, with two weeks grace on that. See other comments discussing already above.

 

[jerryz]

Problem with O2 network is that its coverage is so patchy in UK ,half the time the calls drop and it barely gets 4g , Im planning to change my UK sim to EE for better results but UK is a Mobile dinosaur through lack of investment

Im in Thailand now and my AIS 5g works everywhere even in the of the beaten track rural areas and gives 100mbps in most towns and 50 mbps in the sticks ,, nothing in UK can match that ...