We’re spending 6 weeks in Spain and France (mostly) in June and could do with internet access by 3G. My Orange mobile plan is horrendously expensive, even if I just check emails and weather forecasts. What other options are there?

Has anyone looked into pay as you go options in Europe or some sort of pre-paid deal maybe?

I’ve found the ONLY solution to crazy data charges is to use your work phone 🙂 Seriously.

I get rinsed by North American data charges (which are double that of Europe on O2), but O2 stop charging you once you hit £40 (however there is a total usage cap of 50mb, after which they just cut you off).

I always seem to have a billing period right in the middle of travelling though, which means I often have to pay the £40 cap twice in one trip.

I just suck it up though, or use my work phone. Some of the features on my iphone (maps, mail, internet etc) are just too useful to turn off while away, so £40 isn’t so bad for a trip.

Certainly in France you can get PAYG sim cards because I have an Orange one. I think you can get them delivered to the UK or buy in any shop there.

They come with a form that needs to be filled in and posted back to Orange within two weeks of starting to use the card (the French track SIM card purchases) but the internet is pretty reasonably priced and works over most of France in 3G.

I asked about PAYG charges in France. The call charges worked out higher than if I used my UK phone (50c per minute or something like that) and the top ups have a very limited time span.

Best option is to go into McDonalds, Decathlon or Flunch and use their free WIFI if you need internet access.

get prepaid data sims at the super market and either swap them in to your phone or get an unlocked mifi dongle to use as a personal hotspot that your phone then uses to transfer data over wifi.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280714321326
http://www.0044.co.uk/france/data-sim-card-pay-monthly.htm
or from the supermarket

Its what I used to use all the time. Nowadays though, my vodafone passport is not too expensive and is a “business cost”.

Thanks, didnt realise there were pre paid cards, looks useful. No work phone unfortunately.

BTW, you can get 30 day vodafone sims for £10.50 and then add £10 for 25MB day for a month in Europe.

It gets better, thanks. i’d rather sort out before we go abroad, so that’s helpful to know.

I’ll try the Orange shop at lunchtime, but I’m expecting nothing but confusion

my 2yr x 2 phone contract is up this month. Ou phones work fine so we’ll move over to sim only. Should go from about £70pm to <£30pm

Will turn on the Vodafone Data Traveller for £10pm for July & August.

GO SIMhave a PAYG data SIM that was about 30p/MB when I was in Denmark a while ago. You could try that. You will need to make sure your phone is unlocked first though.