pilotalan

Hi guys,
Been searching and reading, but have not found an answer to this:

Going to Rome, Paris, and London. We would like to get data SIMs and put them in an iPhone and an ATT HTC One M8.

The intent is to be able to use Google Maps, get to Wikipedia and sych, and text via iMessage and Google Hangouts (she uses an iPhone, I use GVoice).

Can you throw a data-only sim into a phone and have it work? Or does the sim 'know' it's in a phone rather than a tablet and refuse to work?

Thanks,

gfunkdave

I think it probably depends on the specific carrier and their restrictions. Aside from those, there's no reason it shouldn't work.

pilotalan

Through continued digging here, I found a reference to Vodaphone Smart Passport. The Italian webpage is here, use Google Translate to read it:
http://www.vodafone.it/portal/Privat...SMART-Passport

Basically, for 3 Euros/day, you get each day 500MB of data, 25 min each of incoming and outgoing calls, and 50 sms messages.
This should meet our needs. I don't care about the voice, but at 3 Euro/day, there' not much to complain about.

Works everywhere in Europe, and the US & Canada
(Italy isn't on the list, because it's from Vodaphone Italy's website).
Andorra
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Canada
French Caribbean
Cyprus
Croatia
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Gibraltar
Great Britain
Greece
Guadalupe
Guernsey
Guyana
Ireland
Iceland
Isle of Man
Faroe Islands
Jersey
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Martinique
Norway
Holland
Poland
Portugal
Czech Republic
Reunion
Romania
Saint-Barthélemy
Saint-Martin
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Hungary
USA

MaxBuck

Sure, a data-only SIM will work just fine for the purposes you outline here. Done it many times.

theworld

Three UK pay as you go, unlimited data and a bunch of minutes GBP15 a month, covers UK, France and Italy. However need to get the sim from the UK.

Other option is Keepgo, data only sim. US$70 for 1GB. Yes, sounds expensive at first but some very useful benefits.

mrgreen

Can you top it with non-UK cards as well?

theworld

For Three UK? Not sure, but see this thread, might help you: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...edit-card.html

For Keepgo? I presume it would be possible.

Need

Two years I got a Vodafone 5GB data only SIM in my Galaxy Note 2 and it worked great. The only thing is that it would not let me turn on Wifi hotspot to share the data. I don't know if it was my phone's APN setting, or the plan I bought.

mrgreen

Sometimes data only plans disable native hotspot functions of the device.
Make sure to have a phone which can circumvent that (Android or Jailbroken iPhone/iPad)

Dubai Stu

[QUOTE=mrgreen;25067274]Sometimes data only plans disable native hotspot functions of the device.
Make sure to have a phone which can circumvent that (Android or Jailbroken iPhone/iPad)[/QUOTE

I thought newer Android versions respected that setting as well.

mrgreen

As long as you can enable root access, there will always be ways.

Rud33

There is no issue in puting a data only sim card in your phone. You will just have to make sure that you don't call at all with it. Because sometimes calls are opened on data only sim cards, but it is very expensive. An secondly data only sim cards that works in efficiently in other country are not so common. For example the one from vodafone at 3€ per day is quite slow seems to be 3G.
Some companies are specialised in providing data plan in Europe. They are more expensive but speed is 4G everywhere you may look at MY WEBSPOT for example

robroy90

Please enlighten on the advantages of Keepgo, as I am not being sarcastic, but $70 for 1GB does seem rather steep in contrast to unlimited data from Three UK.

Are any of these European data plans for non-residents LTE capable? I realize a US resident would have to bring a device with compatible frequency radios though.

Dubai Stu

Isn't the 1 gig good for a year? For some light users, it could be a better deal.

theworld

The advantages are basically:
- Credit good for a year
- Decent global coverage.

Network specific plans are often limited to a specific region, rather than worldwide and often credit is limited to a few months.

This is great for that occasional weekend trip where you rely on wifi in your hotel room for the rest of the time.

Obviously if you know you are going to be in a specific destination and know you will be using a lot of mobile data, this really isn't the service for you.