pre-paid SIM + data in Europe

[tehuringa]

Has anyone found a recent good deal on a SIM card for Europe?

I'll be taking over an iphone and would like to check email and make and receive calls to Australia...and also access Skype via WiFi.

I'll be visiting Germany, France & Spain..the majority of the time I'll be in France.

Cheers

Dave

 

[openseat]

Try this site:

Home - Prepaid Wireless Internet Access

Not sure if it does a EU wide, but certainly there are options for the individual countries in the left hand menu

 

[vbap]

That's a useful link - uncovered some options I didn't know about.
Thanks

 

[drewbles]

Try ekit, phonecards, prepaid sim cards and international cell phones for international travelers for pre-paid mobile and 3G/GPRS data.

*disclaimer - I am one of the tech's at this company*

The Data rates are about the best you'll get from most places and fall in with the new EU cap on roaming data charges.

 

[Silver]

I use a service called Travelsim. I got one at Aussie Post and used it in the UK and France (and briefly in HK on the way over)...no worries at all and I didn't have any issues, so overall I was happy. Before that I just used Optus overseas whch worked well but was a bit on the expensive side.

 

[samh004]

I’ll probably be looking for a SIM for mid-year too, but I don’t need to make phone calls, I just want cheap data available in European countries with one-SIM.

Does anyone offer a say $50 pre-paid SIM that has so many hundred MB of data that will work in the main European countries without roaming and depleting credit faster? Does that make sense?

 

[Silver]

Not sure mate. I have an iPhone but just used wifi when i could and turned off the data. I looked around and even the so called cheaper roaming sim cards are still expensive for data...espicially if you are using and iPhone. Over $5 per MB!!!

 

[drewbles]

I’ll probably be looking for a SIM for mid-year too, but I don’t need to make phone calls, I just want cheap data available in European countries with one-SIM.

Does anyone offer a say $50 pre-paid SIM that has so many hundred MB of data that will work in the main European countries without roaming and depleting credit faster? Does that make sense?

You'll be struggling to find anyone that does a "EU wide" plan like that.

Even with our SIM cards, you'll pay by the meg, but from memory it's around $1/mb or so now with the new EU tariff caps that came in a while back.

I use a service called Travelsim. I got one at Aussie Post and used it in the UK and France (and briefly in HK on the way over)...no worries at all and I didn't have any issues, so overall I was happy. Before that I just used Optus overseas whch worked well but was a bit on the expensive side.

As i've mentioned before, these guys give you a +372 number which is Estonia. If you're using the SIM for people to call you, Estonian numbers are notoriously unreliable. We used to use these numbers but switched to +1 USA and +44 UK numbers on all our SIM cards. Solved a lot of issues (along with toll free forwarding for people to call you at no expense to them).

 

[samh004]

You'll be struggling to find anyone that does a "EU wide" plan like that.

Even with our SIM cards, you'll pay by the meg, but from memory it's around $1/mb or so now with the new EU tariff caps that came in a while back.

And there I was thinking that the EU might offer something all inclusive, blur the lines between countries in essence.

I guess I’ll probably just buy separate SIM cards in the UK, France and Spain.

 

[Silver]

I'm not sure what you mean by +372 numbers being unreliable...the service worked everytime so it seemed reliable to me and cost about 60c per min to call mobiles back in Oz. Thanks for the advice anyway I'll let you know next time if I have any issues.

 

[drewbles]

And there I was thinking that the EU might offer something all inclusive, blur the lines between countries in essence.

I guess I’ll probably just buy separate SIM cards in the UK, France and Spain.

Or you could buy one of our SIM card

I personally struggle to use more than 50-75mb a month here in AU on my iPhone using it for email/maps/web etc (no youtube). At the EU cap rates, that's not going to set you back more than $100, which may be substantially less than buying a pre-paid SIM in every location, and you'd only need the one SIM card.

Of course do your homework. If there is a cheaper option, let us know. I'm always after the cheaper option when I travel (even if it's not our product).

*edit*
Just looked and it looks $2.50USD per meg is the current rate for data in the EU, which is a lot cheaper than roaming elsewhere, so it's more than $1/meg but I have no idea about local pre-paid SIM cards and data access.

 

[drewbles]

I'm not sure what you mean by +372 numbers being unreliable...the service worked everytime so it seemed reliable to me and cost about 60c per min to call mobiles back in Oz. Thanks for the advice anyway I'll let you know next time if I have any issues.

Are they using a callback service?

I've heard of a lot of people having difficulties calling +372 numbers from Australia and the UK. If they're using callback, your originating calls can also have some issues in certain countries.

Of course, YMMV

 

[digga]

Has anyone found a recent good deal on a SIM card for Europe?

I'll be taking over an iphone and would like to check email and make and receive calls to Australia...and also access Skype via WiFi.

I'll be visiting Germany, France & Spain..the majority of the time I'll be in France.

Cheers

Dave

OK, so if your the first port of call is France, and you want to try the euro-operator SIM thing, you can drop into an Orange (part of ex-govt. owned carrier France Telecom group) store (pref. in somewhere like Paris, and hopefully they'll speak English of you French). From what I could gather in my 10 minutes of quick-fire research, you'll be up for around 30 euros for a monthly phone connection and 12 euros on top of that for 500 MB of data (no Skype/SIP or tethering unfortunately). Another 9 if you want email access, but if you can access webmail, then don't bother. I think you have to pay another 15 just for the SIM card. Yes, mobile telephony in France is about as expensive as it gets.

Why Orange? The others (SFR and Bouygues) have average and very poor coverage, in that order, outside the largest cities. You can try Virgin Mobile - it works out substantially cheaper (about 20 less I think) and they use Orange's network, but you only get 300 MB and they bill A LOT for anything over that. Plus you have to order online, so you'll need good French (and possibly a French address ...).

Once over in Germany or Spain, if you're only there for a few days, either buy cheap "pass international" (you'll get offered one by SMS when you cross the border, provided you have international access activated), which will give you aroung 10 MB of data for 5ish euros, good for 24 hours. Between that and McDonalds, train stations, cafés, metros etc. (there's LOTS of free WiFi in Europe), you'll get by methinks.

Or just get a cheap international SIM, use WiFi and Skype back home if you need to. It'll probably be a whole lot cheaper.

 

[samh004]

Or you could buy one of our SIM card

I personally struggle to use more than 50-75mb a month here in AU on my iPhone using it for email/maps/web etc (no youtube). At the EU cap rates, that's not going to set you back more than $100, which may be substantially less than buying a pre-paid SIM in every location, and you'd only need the one SIM card.

Of course do your homework. If there is a cheaper option, let us know. I'm always after the cheaper option when I travel (even if it's not our product).

*edit*
Just looked and it looks $2.50USD per meg is the current rate for data in the EU, which is a lot cheaper than roaming elsewhere, so it's more than $1/meg but I have no idea about local pre-paid SIM cards and data access.

I have a few months to investigate it anyway, but will try to let you and others know what the best solution for me was. That’ll no doubt be in late-June.

 

[DeKa]

Even with our SIM cards, you'll pay by the meg, but from memory it's around $1/mb or so now with the new EU tariff caps that came in a while back.

Drewbles,
Can you tell me which of your products has this rate? Every product I've looked at for Europe on your website links to these rates which are a huge rip off:
ekit, Mobile Info - Data Services

Key countries

Rates
(US$ per MB)​

Austria, France, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom

2.5​

Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, South Africa, Sweden

10​

Australia, Canada, Caribbean, Malaysia, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, United States

15​

Brazil, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Norway, Turkey

20​

China, Egypt, Japan, South Korea, Thailand

25​

Chile, Kuwait

30​

 

[crisg]

i am traveling for 3-4 months in europe and the trip is again scheduled in next august to november. i need a connection which doesn't get expire atleast for 1 year or so.

 

[drewbles]

Drewbles,
Can you tell me which of your products has this rate? Every product I've looked at for Europe on your website links to these rates which are a huge rip off:
ekit, Mobile Info - Data Services

Sorry, I said 'around'. If the website says $2.50, that's what it is (I'm one of the tech people, I don't do anything with pricing).

They're not a huge rip off, unfortunately, that's how data roaming works. Even when I travel I have to find other methods of using data, as we make virtually nothing on roaming data (in some cases, we actually don't make money). When a carrier, say Telstra, wants to establish a roaming agreement with another carrier, say AT&T in the USA, AT&T would set the prices. In nearly every case, the carriers don't set good data rates. Data is a burden on their network (look at AT&T's melt down with the advancement of smartphones) so decide to roger the other carrier wanting to use data for roaming customers.

It sucks, but maybe one day it'll change (we cross fingers!)

 

[crisg]

Sorry, I said 'around'. If the website says $2.50, that's what it is (I'm one of the tech people, I don't do anything with pricing).

They're not a huge rip off, unfortunately, that's how data roaming works. Even when I travel I have to find other methods of using data, as we make virtually nothing on roaming data (in some cases, we actually don't make money). When a carrier, say Telstra, wants to establish a roaming agreement with another carrier, say AT&T in the USA, AT&T would set the prices. In nearly every case, the carriers don't set good data rates. Data is a burden on their network (look at AT&T's melt down with the advancement of smartphones) so decide to roger the other carrier wanting to use data for roaming customers.

It sucks, but maybe one day it'll change (we cross fingers!)

Can't we get some cheaper service?

 

[drewbles]

Can't we get some cheaper service?

As I said, this is not up to us. This is a thing that carriers set, and we make pretty much zip (and lose in some cases as I also said).

If you want a SIM that works 'everywhere' you're not going to be able to get dirt-cheap pricing on data, that's just the state of play in the world at present. You'll need to get a SIM card for each country you visit unfortunately.

 

[Postcode]

Have been in France for a few months and after a security scare with Travelsim I came across Lebara Mobile - low cost international phone calls from your mobile .

It's for calls only with no data, but may help others just wanting mobile access at a very good rate while in France. A 10 € top up goes a very long way even when calling Australia every day.

Easy to top up on the website or at a tabac. I bought it at a tabac and the guy made up a French address but I needed to give my passport details.