Mobile data when travelling abroad – what is your solution?

Since quitting work I spend many weeks outside these rainy islands, and although I’d like to spend less time stuck behind my screen, I still do need (or want) to do things that require connection to the internet. In the olden days it was no problem because I could just use unlimited data roaming on my phone, but since the YouKnowWhat this is limited to, typically, 25Gb per month, which is too little. I’ve been looking for alternatives and come up with:

1. Buy some sort of data pack like Three “Data Passport”. Obviously requires a Three subscription, whereas my phone is O2.
2. Buy an eSim with a large data allowance, good for a month
3. I bought a hot spot thing from Orange in France, but it’s a bit expensive. For some reason that makes no sense it seems to eat through the data quickly.
4. Buy a local SIM card with a good data allowance

Anything I missed, or comments on the options I mentioned? For now I think I’m going to use the Orange hotspot and see what it’s costing and then decide if its worth the hassle to get a local SIM.

Listening to this one

I currently  use my work mobile as though I was a Scottish MSP

Not sure for when I retire

Prolly no good to you but I’m with Three and refuse to use their “£2 a day to roam” highwaytheft, so I pay £10 to activate my 5gb GiffGaff PAYG SIM if I’m going abroad for more than a couple of days. Works all right, ballache to have to swap the SD card out for the second SIM but meh.

Downloading offline Google maps is a good way to cut down on data. That plus local wifi and you really shouldn’t be getting through much data at all

EEs roaming charges/add on have become so expensive I’ve switched to using a Airalo eSIM. Used both in Morocco and Spain in the last month, and my brother has used them in Argentina and Brazil. Has worked well and pricing is reasonable. I do try and turn off excess or data heavy apps, and just use them on wifi.

When I was looking around, Vodaphone did a 50G per month sim only deal for about £20. And I believe you can get free roaming. But the roaming data is limited to 25G per month.

A few months ago, I looked quite a lot at various options in France specifically. But nothing seemed to be much less than £20-30 per month, if you wanted more than 50G per month.

not sure any of that is much help to you – sorry.

If you’re doing it frequently some UK SIM cards cover some roaming in the package. I get us, EU, Canada and a bunch of others thrown in at no additional cost. When I’m outside those areas I use a eSIM from airalo, who seems to cover everywhere at a cost that’s close enough to be free. The only downside is most esims are data only, so if you’re likely to need non-sip-voice a lot they may not be your best bet

Switched from 3 to ID mobile to get away from their roaming charges. For non-EU I get an eSIM.

Esim, used an esim in SE asia was easy to use.

Another eSim user here with Airalo my go to provider but it’s probably dependent on what country you are visiting.

If I’m visiting a country for a month or more a local sim can work well, especially if your phone supports 2 lines, I have a UK & a Georgian line on my iPhone.

I stick with EE for their coverage where I normally work around scotland.

phoned them up to get a SIM-only deal (knowing i’d be going to work in Spain for a while), got the price down to a point where they wouldn’t budge for a non-roaming deal, then persuaded them to throw in roaming for free.

How much data do you need?  I’m on 02 unlimited data sim in UK that allows 35gb when roaming.  Always seems me try for me when I’m away.

25gb ! I had a sugestion but then saw that. I used 11gb last month and felt I’d been spending too much time on line.

i need enough roaming data for Englands third game on ITV and possibly a last 16 game as well (4hrs streaming i guess)

probably a vpn as well as a cable that will join this ole laptop to the telly

25GB a month?!!

Do you spend all your time streaming HD video?!?!

When I was on holiday for a couple of weeks in Japan I rented a mobile internet box.

Are there other providers in the countries you find yourself that are cheaper than the Orange one you have had?

My smarty SIM covers EU roaming, left 3 for smarty for this reason.

I just went into a mobile phone shop in Malaga and bought a Spanish SIM which gave 80Gb per month for €15. No contract, just had to take my passport.

Three is PAYG so no need to worry about contracts. Just buy/activate when you’re travelling and let it lapse otherwise.

Any recommendations for Turkey? Heading there for a week in July and just starting to think about this aspect

TIA

I used to pay a fortune for expensive roaming packages with EE / Vodafone etc. That all stopped a year ago when Flexiroam (and other eSIM) providers started offering global packages at a sensible price. I’m out of the country for more than half the year but spend only £70 or so on data for the whole time. I just use 3 pay as you go for everything else, and it still includes a decent chunk of roaming.

You realise just how much UK mobile providers are out to rip you off when they’re more than a thousand times more expensive than Flexiroam and more restrictive. Airolo and Nomad are also good providers, but Flexiroam has overall been best for me with the phone hopping straight onto local 5G networks.

A bonus from this is that if you have no signal on your own sim at home, chances are that another provider does have coverage. Because the Flexiroam sim can roam across all UK networks, it’ll generally get data unless you’re truly in the middle of nowhere.

This is my referral link for Flexiroam, gets you 200MB of data to get rolling:
https://roam.my/7KCJ444U

You might need to wait a week or so until one of their big discount codes roll around, which give 25-40% off the standard price.

This is my main consideration when choosing a contract. EE roaming pass is £25 per month  which is the cheapest easy solution I have.

Otherwise, many local carriers offer payg sims with unlimited internet but no call functionality for 20-30 euros per month.

This is my main consideration when choosing a contract. EE roaming pass is £25 per month which is the cheapest easy solution I have

Fwiw The O2 travel inclusive bolt on is way cheaper than that (and free on a bunch of plans – it’s included in mine at £16/month for 50gb Inc roaming), and has better coverage.

The advantage of a plan with roaming in is you can use your phone as well, rather than just data

Inside the wider EU my regular Smarty sim is fine (60gB/month, use anywhere, £9/month.)

outside I use an Airalo eSIM which works brilliantly and is pretty cost effective. I’ve got a referral if you need.

Outside of Europe I usually go down the e-sim route.  Some providers offer a wide range of territories but some places you will still need to shop local.

Many thanks for all the replies – much appreciated!  For reference, this is the Orange mobile wifi thing we have – 35Gb for €40

https://boutique.orange.fr/vitrine/tablette-et-cle/coffret-pret-a-surfer/

O2 has a 25Gb “fair usage” limit – fair for whom? “Fair” is I use the data I paid for, no? Anyway …

I’d never thought about eSims til now and they seemed “exotic” but based on the comments here well worth looking into. Also Smarty – though that would entail switching my contract and I’v otherwise been happy with O2.

EDIT – I see Smarty have a 12Gb “fair use limit” and then say you need to buy a “data add on”, but the website is not very clear about the cost or terms of that.

Finally – why do I need so much data? Good question. We spend a lot of time in a house with no wifi and we are too lazy and disorganised to be driving to the nearest village to download stuff to watch in the evening, so we stream it. That’s what I think chews up a lot of the allowance.

If you ask O2 they should be able to convert your existing sim to an eSim leaving the slot in your phone empty/available – you can pick up any PAYG then & switch between the two as necessary.

Depends how long you’ve been on O2 – if relatively recent I think you can do it via the web page, if not you can pop into the shop and they’ll give you a paper eSIM.

Looks simple:

https://www.o2.co.uk/help/device-and-sim-support/esim/download-your-esim-for-ios

but messing with my phone always causes me stress in case “something goes wrong”. No, I’m not a teenager!

I spent a month in the USA with no mobile data.  Downloaded google maps for nav. Wifi  either at motel, bar, McDs. Voice calls via Whatsapp.

Not suitable for OP obviously who needs access at a house.

We tried the O2 sim route. I have £8.50 a month for 30gb and 25gb EU roaming. Just tried to switch my wifes and the £c8 30gb 25GB fair useage EU roaming deals seems to have expired. If anyone has a link to one would appreciate it.

@DrJ It is simple – take old SIM out, go to ‘add eSIM’ in settings, scan bar code, wait a few hours, go.

Small print –

21.2. FlexiRoam offers in some cases Plans that support Unlimited Use within a  designated number of days. In these cases, there is a Daily Limit of 3GB when either  a low speed will prevail, or services will cease until the following day.

Actually thinking about this you’re better keeping the physical SIM in for O2 and using an eSIM abroad unless you’ve a recent phone that will support dual eSIMs.

Subscribing to this as I have several contracts with 3 that are coming to an end.

Initially I looked at the Tesco mobile but their free (not totally sure if it really free) roaming on the O2 network is coming to an end at the end of the year and they couldn’t tell me what they would be replacing it with.

Mostly need it for France, I expect that since my wife’s folks are getting on a bit, we’ll be rushing over more often. But to have some thing that covers Europe for work and holidays without having to worry about running out of data would be beneficial.

Actually thinking about this you’re better keeping the physical SIM in for O2 and using an eSIM abroad

NOW you tell me?

Just kidding. Thanks 🙂 I have iPhone 12 – I’ll check on the dual eSim thing…

EDIT – dual eSim on iPhone 13 🙁

Double check with O2 roaming. I looked into it but discovered that at the time they capped the speed when abroad.

Also – check your settings in your streaming apps and change the quality to lowest. It’ll be fine and will reduce data volume significantly.

Turkey: Vodafone concession at airport was selling tourist SIMs for about £30. Didn’t seem that great a deal but ymmv

Thanks folks, I’ll look at some of those various e-sim options.