Mobile Data in Europe

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  zfa on 14/08/2014 - 14:18

  Maybe you could buy one of the 3 prepaid SIMs, think I paid £15 for a month with unlimited data (rep said I couldn't tether but my tablet was fine through it). 3 then have European roaming included on many of their deals - just check if this one has it. If it has then you're set.

  Edit: just checked and the 'feel at home' roaming is only available if your plan has been active 30 days before you roam… Maybe get someone to activate early and send you the sim?

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  casval on 14/08/2014 - 15:10

  Heathrow has SIM vending machines. Have a look at those when you arrive. Don't know about CDG or Schiphol.

  When I was there, I got a vending machine sim for the UK for £10 I think and you can top up everwhere, the other countries, I just relied on hotel and public wifi.

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  theh3ro on 14/08/2014 - 15:22

  http://www.globalgig.com.au/HomeAndAbroad.aspx

  check these guys out.

  • 

    chooky91 on 19/08/2014 - 11:20

    Have you used these guys? I'm also in the same boat (leaving beginning in Oct) so I'm trying to find the best option and buy in the next few weeks (if I have to order online).

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  Orion on 14/08/2014 - 19:15

  Do you need google maps for finding your way round europe? If so why dont you but a refurb GPS off amazon, ebay etc. complete with european maps? Much easier than relying on various sims etc.

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  mustkill on 14/08/2014 - 22:06

  Just been back from Europe.

  Once you get to London, buy a 3 (Three) Network prepaid SIM with "All you can eat data" for 15 pounds + 1 pound for SIM card.

  You can roam it anywhere in France, UK, Italy, Switzerland with unlimited data. That should solve SOME of your problems…

  http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phones/Feel_At_Home

  While the store reps will say data roaming won't work, the call centre will confirm that it will and is activated for prepaid as well.

  • 

    OzFrugie on 14/08/2014 - 22:24

    Is this the one that you talked about?

    http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/phones/feel_at_home#checkall…

    It says for SIM only phone customers, I need to be with 3 UK for more than 30 days (as zfa user also pointed out above), which is not practical for me. How were you able to get it?

    • To benefit from Feel At Home, SIM only phone customers must have been with Three for more than 30 days.
      If you're on Pay As You Go, all you need to do is convert your credit into an Add-on. You can then use the allowance in any Feel At Home destination.
    • 

      mustkill on 14/08/2014 - 22:31

      "If you're on Pay As You Go, all you need to do is convert your credit into an Add-on. You can then use the allowance in any Feel At Home destination."

      Use the credit to buy a "all you can eat data" add-on. The SIM is a Pay As You Go SIM.

      The Pay As You Go SIMs are automatically activated for international roaming. No need to wait 30 days.

      You can give 3 UK Customer Service a call if you would like to confirm. It's exactly what I did and I roamed all over Europe with this SIM.

      • 

        OzFrugie on 14/08/2014 - 22:44

        no issues with coverage and speed?

        which countries did u go to in europe?

      • 

        mustkill on 14/08/2014 - 22:48

        @firefoxy:

        Coverage was okay. Could roam on 2 networks on Italy and France so it was mostly fine.

        Speed was restricted depending on how much you are abusing it.
        One SIM used 12GB+ and was restricted to 40KB/s down. The other was used mildly and was relatively fast.
        Absolutely blazing fast in the UK though.

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        OzFrugie on 14/08/2014 - 23:10

        @mustkill: oh they cap the speed after u reach certain quota? out of curiosity, what did u use 12GB for?O_o

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        mustkill on 14/08/2014 - 23:32

        @firefoxy:

        Not sure what the exact quota was but you get "unlimited" up to 25GB says the T&C.

        I was backing up my photos.

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        OzFrugie on 14/08/2014 - 23:50

        @mustkill: ah i see.. do u know any other plans like this that cover more european countries?

        i can only use this in 3 (uk, italy, swiss - I arrive in france first before UK) out of 8 countries i am going to visit.. have to find solutions for the other 4 countries otherwise..

      • 

        mustkill on 15/08/2014 - 11:27

        @firefoxy:

        I would suggest just buying a Lyca or Lebara SIM in each country otherwise. They are usually the cheapest for data.

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  StuffnStuff on 15/08/2014 - 20:03

  I've just returned from Europe, Spent most of my time in the UK and got myself a O2 sim. Over the years I've tried different companies, all seem to work well in / near most cities. You tend to loose coverage as soon as you hit the country roads. I purchased a UK$10 bundle that game me 1gig data, 200 txt, 200 mins for a month. The only problem with any of these bundles is that they only work in the country you buy them in. If you need to call overseas or text overseas you need normal credit on the sim too. Its worth noting that unlike Australia where you pay premium rates when travelling, this is not the case if you have a UK sim card. I was able to travel in Europe with it and paid only 5p to send texts to any number in Europe and paid only 18p to make calls in europe or 4p to receive calls. You can of course opt into the UK$2 per day for calls/text/data similar to Vodafones pay $5 per day here only on the days you use it. The downside of this is that if you only send 1 text message or turn on your data for 1 min, you will get stung the fee for that day. If you are just looking at Data for Google maps then here is what I did….

  I have never found Google maps to work well on a phone. most of the time it looses where you are or is way out. The best thing I did was purchase Tomtom Western Europe for my phone. It DOES NOT use Data at all unless you want to use the HD traffic service which we found very useful in the UK. The only downside is that all the maps for Europe for tomtom is about 2.4gb so make sure you have enough space on your device.
  It was on sale for AU$35 (Its back to AU42), it covers 23 countries, and can be set to walking mode too. I found it very accurate and never got lost. It also comes with lifetime updates of maps too.

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  charlotto on 19/08/2014 - 22:16

  The free app City Maps To Go and many other offline maps apps helped me through Europe so I didn't need a sim. All you need is GPS capability on your phone plus the memory for the maps.