Agent F

Hello, I'm a long time reader, first timer poster. I have been searching and searching on the forums, and have yet to find an answer to my question. I am going to Europe this summer, for about 4 weeks, and am visiting Spain, UK, Netherlands, Italy and Greece. I have been looking for a pay as you go sim, that will give me a decent price on minutes, but will primarily give me unlimited pre-paid data. I have found plans from both Orange and 3, but am not sure if they only apply to the UK. I was wondering if there were any companies that provide a European sim that I can use with my unlocked 3G iphone, giving me the ability to use apps and network for travel convenience. If anyone has any info please let me know!

Thanks

weekilter

You don't say how long you're going to be in each country. That might influence what would be best for you. It is possible to get an international SIM but the data rates are pretty pricey. Go to http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/international.html for international SIMs and go to http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/operators.html for individual GSM operators in the various countries you will visit. Generally, you're going to get much better rates through individual country specific SIMs than you will with "international" SIMs.

Dubai Stu

The problem is that the EU is not a fully integrated single country. There are twenty-seven different communication authorities and each one functions differently. This means that there are no European "one rate" plans. There are some SIMs with cheaper roaming in other countries and there are even some SIMs that work into countries for the same rate (e.g. 02 has a cheap add-on for its UK prepaid plans that gives you no roaming in the EIR).

Last year, Vodafone had a temporary tariff which was no roaming on their UK SIMs throughout the entire EU. They still have a "data passport rate" which is pretty good for roaming.

gof

If you have a US plan, check with your carrier. Sprint offered an international "unlimited" data plan for $60 per month when I inquired a month ago.

Dubai Stu

He said iPhone (I think). I have a Blackberry International plan and it is great. ATT has something similar for iPhones, but only for corporate users, and then only some of them. It is is $64.99, requires an annual commitment, you can't be out of the US for more than 30 days at a time, and some very high prices roams (e.g. Russia) are excluded.

Some people have talked their way on to this plan, but you need to be firm, persistent, and very knowledgeable.

Agent F

I'm going to be in each country for about 4 days or so. 6 days in UK, and about 7 days in Italy. As far as I saw, the att Iphone plan is about 200$ for close to unlimited (but still not unlimited).

Agent F

bump! leaving soon, need info!

Capite

I have the same needs and it's a mess. If you don't find a good plan, and your phone has wi-fi, you could sign up with Boingo, it's cheap and they have lots of spots. And/or buy a Fonera router, set it up at home, and you get free access to everyone's wi-fi who also use Fonera routers, plus some networks like BT.

425Culver

The best program that I have seen thus far has been with T-Mobile's Blackberry service. it is only $19 per month for unlimited email access. Having said that, my experience is that they cannot differentiate between email and web browsing and thus far (and I have used it a few times), I have been able to surf the web just fine.
Of course, not everyone has Tmobile or a Blackberry but for those that do, that is the way to go for sure. The $19 per month can be turned on and off by the way and is not contractual. It can also be prorated so, if you are traveling for 2 weeks, that works out to about $10. Can't beat it!

GoingAway

Wirelessly posted (goingaway\'s phone: BlackBerry8900/4.6.1.231 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

Tnmobile does distinguish data vs email - be careful! I still like the bb for included email and bbm for a song, but use wifi for anything else

Dubai Stu

We've also talked about iPhone trip, but I can't personally vouch for them. I think their on the up and up, but I can't warranty it.

BobbySteel

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry8700c: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2.1; en-us; Nexus One Build/FRG83) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

On iphone there's nothing that works across the eu with total confidence. The only plan that is complete is Verizon's global email but it is not iphone

Jano Papale

hello guys

it's my first post but i was reading this forum for my trip to europe and
considered a few solutions and at the end i decided to go for
europasim.com and after 6 weeks of usage in several countries i'm absolutely satisfied!!! I used on average 30-40 mb per day including voip and the price was always 2 euros per day ( with 100mb included).
the good thing about it is that i didn't have to look for a new sim card for every country i visited and to change the setup.

cons: tethering is difficult to manage with the iphone