The mobile data / international roaming thread

[memesweeper]

My daughter has a year in the USA planned. She needs a US number as well as a reasonable data package. She also wants to keep her UK number. She has an eSIM compatible iPhone. As I see it she has these options:

1) port UK number to a network that supports eSIM, eSIM her UK number, buy a PAYG SIM on arrival

2) port UK number to a network that supports VOIP, use a VOIP client for UK number, buy a PAYG SIM on arrival

3) get a US PAYG plan on an eSIM

‘1’ requires porting in the UK to a network which will charge a minimum of £10/month; ‘2’ might be cheapest but requires faffing for her which she won’t want; ‘3’ is least effort, and should be cheap enough, but I can’t find a provider that actually supports a phone number, rather than data only — any recommendations?

[memesweeper]

My daughter has a year in the USA planned. She needs a US number as well as a reasonable data package. She also wants to keep her UK number. She has an eSIM compatible iPhone. As I see it she has these options:

1) port UK number to a network that supports eSIM, eSIM her UK number, buy a PAYG SIM on arrival

2) port UK number to a network that supports VOIP, use a VOIP client for UK number, buy a PAYG SIM on arrival

3) get a US PAYG plan on an eSIM

‘1’ requires porting in the UK to a network which will charge a minimum of £10/month; ‘2’ might be cheapest but requires faffing for her which she won’t want; ‘3’ is least effort, and should be cheap enough, but I can’t find a provider that actually supports a phone number, rather than data only — any recommendations?

[Lady London]

Why not look at signing up to Google Voice in the US? She’ll need access to a US phone to set it up but afterwards not needed. My client in Detroit (IT whizz) suggested this and we sat together at his desk phone and set it up.

This would have given me a kind of universal number worldwide and very flexibly. I forgot to maintain it (didn’t need access to any US # to maintain it) and I regret it. What’s offered to peeps who are US for Google Voice was more than to those in other countries.

[Skywalker]

Apparently Virgin Media account holders can attach to various WiFI hotspots in the USA using the Virgin Connect app.

Don’t know if anyone has tried this route before or if it’s any good…?

[memesweeper]

Good shout @LL

[Tobs]

memesweeper wrote:

My daughter has a year in the USA planned. She needs a US number as well as a reasonable data package. She also wants to keep her UK number. She has an eSIM compatible iPhone. As I see it she has these options:

1) port UK number to a network that supports eSIM, eSIM her UK number, buy a PAYG SIM on arrival

2) port UK number to a network that supports VOIP, use a VOIP client for UK number, buy a PAYG SIM on arrival

3) get a US PAYG plan on an eSIM

‘1’ requires porting in the UK to a network which will charge a minimum of £10/month; ‘2’ might be cheapest but requires faffing for her which she won’t want; ‘3’ is least effort, and should be cheap enough, but I can’t find a provider that actually supports a phone number, rather than data only — any recommendations?

Most iPhone allow dual nano-sim (11 onwards).

I’d transfer current UK number to GiffGaff. Whenever she’s back in the UK (Christmas, Easter,…), just load the number with £x to get her desired goodybag. Will keep her number active for very little, and while in the us, receive banking texts or whatever.

And in the US, I’d get MintMobile, which uses T-Mobile network. And affordable ($20 for 10gb data + calls&texts).

(Just noticed MintMobile allows eSims too, as long as your device is compatible).

[Rhys]

I used MintMobile on my year abroad in the US. Totally acceptable, and much cheaper than the mainstream carriers and their ridiculous plans!

[cjh]

ianwardz wrote:

Just returned from 3 weeks touring around California.
I opted for the T-mobile esim via the app on an iPhone.
The cost worked out at £33 for 30 days, 12Gb data, unlimited calls and texts.
I wanted a USA phone number as this allowed me to make calls for reservations and also send and receive texts.
Initially I couldn’t set it up in the UK when I tried a few weeks before we left, but when I tried in the airport just before we flew, it worked ok, so I don’t know if the app was changed to not check location.
Once I signed up the process was straightforward and all I then had to do was change my settings to disable my Vodafone physical sim (just to make sure that I didn’t accidentally incur a £6 daily charge).
Coverage and speeds were good except in Yosemite, but I guess all coverage is a bit flakey out there.
As we were driving and the car had CarPlay I used Waze for SatNav and streamed music and all worked well.
Having a USA number did prove useful especially when booking things online as confirmations sometimes came as texts.
The only downside was I started receiving Spam calls almost immediately. I received around 6-8 over the 3 weeks.

At set up in T-Mobile app How did you get around the question about address for primary place of use? It doesn’t accept letters for a post code but says “this is the address where you use your phone most often.it also determines your tax jurisdiction”? Did you just complete your hotel details or something else?

[Gary]

Just enter any US address.

[AndyGWP]

Airalo used in Canada (Vancouver through to Calgary) – worked really well for us, and cost £17 for a month / 5gb (I only used 2 weeks / 3gb tho).

Perfect! 👍🏻 Thanks for the recommendations here. Will use again (tho currently using my 3 contract SIM in the US… Will miss this free roaming when my contract ends next month)

$3 Airalo referral code if needed: ANDREW5899

[cjh]

Gary wrote:

Just enter any US address.

Thanks @gary

[Michael C]

Gary wrote:

Does the Three Feel At Home pay monthly contract renewed before Sep 2021 cover calls to local numbers (eg restaurants) whilst in USA? I know it includes roaming data in USA & calls back to UK without the daily £5 charge being an “old” contract.

Never had much luck ringing anyone with Three in the US…Internet has always been great, though.

[NorthernLass]

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mobiles/cheap-roaming-calls/

Link to the latest version of the MSE article. I’m considering options for our 3 week road trip in the US at Xmas.

[Lady London]

AndyGWP wrote:

Is it conspiracy though, or is it simply a case of “if they’re doing it, we might as well do it”? 🤔

It’s classic market signalling in an oligopoly – the petrol stations are masters at it, they take turns to be the one to initiate the change so it’s much harder to prove the market abuse. Telecoms working same for mobile, or as much as they think they can get away with

[CarpalTravel]

Very similar to how BA increased its reward flight taxes and then seemingly within seconds, Virgin have done the very same.

Twice, in so many months.

[redlilly]

DJC wrote:

Any recommendations for roaming with data whilst in Australia for 5 weeks? Am considering moving to EE and pay the £10/month bolt on unless any better options out there but would prefer to stay with O2 to retain free Europe roaming.

Also looking for recommendations for roaming in Australia for 3 weeks this winter, followed by 2 weeks in NZ. Would also prefer not to leave 02! I have a dual sim phone on Samsung 10.

NB: @DJC I upgraded my 02 sim only contract recently, and reduced my bill by £15 per month for the same amount of data etc. I also added volt, which doubles your data allowance if you have Virgin Media at home.

[ianwardz]

cjh wrote:

ianwardz wrote:

Just returned from 3 weeks touring around California.
I opted for the T-mobile esim via the app on an iPhone.
The cost worked out at £33 for 30 days, 12Gb data, unlimited calls and texts.
I wanted a USA phone number as this allowed me to make calls for reservations and also send and receive texts.
Initially I couldn’t set it up in the UK when I tried a few weeks before we left, but when I tried in the airport just before we flew, it worked ok, so I don’t know if the app was changed to not check location.
Once I signed up the process was straightforward and all I then had to do was change my settings to disable my Vodafone physical sim (just to make sure that I didn’t accidentally incur a £6 daily charge).
Coverage and speeds were good except in Yosemite, but I guess all coverage is a bit flakey out there.
As we were driving and the car had CarPlay I used Waze for SatNav and streamed music and all worked well.
Having a USA number did prove useful especially when booking things online as confirmations sometimes came as texts.
The only downside was I started receiving Spam calls almost immediately. I received around 6-8 over the 3 weeks.

At set up in T-Mobile app How did you get around the question about address for primary place of use? It doesn’t accept letters for a post code but says “this is the address where you use your phone most often.it also determines your tax jurisdiction”? Did you just complete your hotel details or something else?

Sorry for the delay. Yes I just entered the details of the 1st hotel we stayed in.

[dahokolomoki]

How is Airalo in rural USA? I see they use the “Change” network, one I’ve never heard of. I’ll be going to rural Arizona and Utah, so looking for a network that has the best rural coverage.

Would a T-Mobile esim be a better option for coverage?

[Michael C]

So my Three contract time expired and I received the standard
message “unless you say otherwise, we’ll just continue”.
Would that include EU roaming if I don’t alter the conditions?
Haven’t had a message saying “we’re charging you the same as before but without roaming”…

[Rhys]

dahokolomoki wrote:

How is Airalo in rural USA? I see they use the “Change” network, one I’ve never heard of. I’ll be going to rural Arizona and Utah, so looking for a network that has the best rural coverage.

Would a T-Mobile esim be a better option for coverage?

Change is just a Virtual network. They piggyback on T-Mobile and AT&T if you look at the smallprint on Airalo so you should be ok.

Michael C wrote:

So my Three contract time expired and I received the standard
message “unless you say otherwise, we’ll just continue”.
Would that include EU roaming if I don’t alter the conditions?
Haven’t had a message saying “we’re charging you the same as before but without roaming”…

Are you on Pay Monthly? In which case the free roaming should end.

[Michael C]

Michael C wrote:

So my Three contract time expired and I received the standard
message “unless you say otherwise, we’ll just continue”.
Would that include EU roaming if I don’t alter the conditions?
Haven’t had a message saying “we’re charging you the same as before but without roaming”…

Just to say the above was true: as I didn’t accept any new conditions, the old ones stayed in place.
Just had a weekend in Stockholm with data on all the time, including tethering, and not charged
anything (also have a recorded chat from Three stating I wouldn’t be).

[zapato1060]

PAYG 3 SIMs still have free roaming feel at home etc. Just gotta make sure you buy it here so £10 for 16gb one. Send text/call before holiday and it’ll work abroad. Just remember you have to switch SIM whilst using.

[AndyGWP]

Michael C wrote:

So my Three contract time expired and I received the standard
message “unless you say otherwise, we’ll just continue”.
Would that include EU roaming if I don’t alter the conditions?
Haven’t had a message saying “we’re charging you the same as before but without roaming”…

Just to say the above was true: as I didn’t accept any new conditions, the old ones stayed in place.
Just had a weekend in Stockholm with data on all the time, including tethering, and not charged
anything (also have a recorded chat from Three stating I wouldn’t be).

as soon as my contract expired, they bumped the price (doubled it from memory)

I’ve just switched to Lebara (Vodafone network). The phone signal seems better, and they have some cracking deals kicking about at the moment

via. Uswitch, I think I’m paying a few quid a month for 3 months, then it goes to £7’ish for 15gb data, with free texts / calls / free eu roaming, 100 international minutes.

Seems a decent package to be fair. I’ll then default to Airolo for any non-EU trips 🙂

[Ladyshopper]

Michael C wrote:

Michael C wrote:

So my Three contract time expired and I received the standard
message “unless you say otherwise, we’ll just continue”.
Would that include EU roaming if I don’t alter the conditions?
Haven’t had a message saying “we’re charging you the same as before but without roaming”…

Just to say the above was true: as I didn’t accept any new conditions, the old ones stayed in place.
Just had a weekend in Stockholm with data on all the time, including tethering, and not charged
anything (also have a recorded chat from Three stating I wouldn’t be).

Mine ran out in July, and I had the same email as you. Great I thought, and have been away several times and made use of roaming since then.

However, email received today saying basically, you can’t stay on your existing contract, you need to pick another one. of course, this doesn’t include the free roaming.

Exactly the same happened to my husband, although the timeline was slightly shorter.

I’ve just texted for my pac code and bought a cheap Smarty sim (£6 for 4GB data and unlimited calls and texts, plus my daughter referred me so will get a £10 Amazon voucher each). Smarty runs off Three, and you get European roaming for free.

I’ll keep it for a month, then move back to a Three PAYG, as you still get all the roaming for free with PAYG (makes no sense really) including USA etc. We’re off on a transatlantic cruise that ends up in Rio, so will need it for there, then a Hawaiian cruise in Feb.

Anyway, just a warning that the likelihood is that in a couple of months you’ll get the same email!

[Manny_D]

Anyone have an Airalo referral code? Looking to sign up.