The mobile data / international roaming thread

[dougzz99]

Manny_D wrote:

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

DOUGLA0048

[Michael C]

Ladyshopper wrote:

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!

LL, just seen this, thanks a million – really useful!
Although the PAYG conditions, etc., are all quite insane…so much for rewarding customer loyalty!

[Ladyshopper]

@Michael C, yep, it’s bonkers!

Husband has just got a Three PAYG sim and activated it and used his PAC code from Lebara (he went there after Three did the above to him, and he got it for £2.49 a month and wasn’t tied in to a contract. Good job as signal was absolutely terrible at home, whereas no problems with Three).

I’ve been with Smarty for a week, should get the £10 voucher from my daughter referring me after 2 weeks. Once this is sorted, I’ll be going back to Three PAYG.

Insane is a good way to describe it though, I just can’t understand why Three have taken away free Go Roam from loyal pay monthly customers, but you get it on PAYG (which you can set up a monthly auto-renew on).

[DZOO]

dougzz99 wrote:

Manny_D wrote:

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

DOUGLA0048

Used, thank you!

In case the next person is interested:

ERIC7771

[community links]

Because of this, even if I detest Starbucks’ coffee, you can find me there in many different nations. A lot of times, McDonald’s offers amazing wifi.

[RJami1]

Husband recently acquired a Three PAYG SIM, activated it, and used his Lebara PAC code (he went there after Three did the aforementioned to him; he obtained it for £2.49 a month and was not bound by a contract).[/url] Good job, since there were no issues using Three but the signal at home was awful.
After two weeks of using Smarty, I should receive the £10 gift card that my daughter recommended. I’ll be returning to Three PAYG as soon as this is resolved.

[Ladyshopper]

Our Three PAYG worked perfectly in Portugal and Rio on our recent holiday. Has also topped up automatically after a month, so running for all intents and purposes like my old contract Three did. I still cannot understand why you get the full roaming capabilities with the PAYG Sim, but not the monthly contract one (I know I’ve said this before and sound like a broken record).

Our signal isn’t brilliant at home, but is better than other networks. I think we’re still classed as a new-build estate and there doesn’t seem to be many masts nearby as no network has great signal, in fact Three seems to be the best. Wifi calling works fine, although it tends to play up on my phone so I don’t bother with it and can make and receive calls in the house fine without it.

If I could be bothered I’d go back to Smarty after our next holiday, then transfer back to Three again when we had another one, but not sure even I can be bothered to do that (and I’m a hardcore money saver!)!

[dahokolomoki]

Beware Airalo! Using it for the second time. First time was easy and successful. But this second time, the sim refuses to connect to the network. And there is no live Airalo support, not even online chat. Have sent a support ticket but its been like 10 hours and counting now…

[AndyGWP]

dahokolomoki wrote:

Beware Airalo! Using it for the second time. First time was easy and successful. But this second time, the sim refuses to connect to the network. And there is no live Airalo support, not even online chat. Have sent a support ticket but it’s been like 10 hours and counting now…

out of interest, is this returning to the same country, or using the new sim in a different country?

[dahokolomoki]

AndyGWP wrote:

dahokolomoki wrote:

Beware Airalo! Using it for the second time. First time was easy and successful. But this second time, the sim refuses to connect to the network. And there is no live Airalo support, not even online chat. Have sent a support ticket but it’s been like 10 hours and counting now…

out of interest, is this returning to the same country, or using the new sim in a different country?

Returning to the same country (USA).

[duggie1982]

dahokolomoki wrote:

Beware Airalo! Using it for the second time. First time was easy and successful. But this second time, the sim refuses to connect to the network. And there is no live Airalo support, not even online chat. Have sent a support ticket but its been like 10 hours and counting now…

Thanks for flagging, planning on using them after i use my keepgo balance as i have some free credit to use. Only used them in Turkey last year so hopefully it wont give me the same issue as you as i need to buy a new esim for different country.

If anyone is signing up for first time My airalo referral will give you and me $3 each use – PAUL1296

[Kuestrian]

Does anyone know why Airalo dropped Singapore from their list? Pretty odd, given they are a Singaporean company.

On a related note, can anyone recommend an eSim that works in Singapore? The M1 looked a good deal but you have to visit one of their locations to get one, for some reason.

[memesweeper]

Kuestrian wrote:

Does anyone know why Airalo dropped Singapore from their list? Pretty odd, given they are a Singaporean company.

On a related note, can anyone recommend an eSim that works in Singapore? The M1 looked a good deal but you have to visit one of their locations to get one, for some reason.

My recommendation is the 3HKG global eSIM. I have the 365 day version, I turn it off when in the UK. If you don’t provide recognised ID then it will stop working in actual Hong Kong (and presumably PRC), but will continue to work everywhere else, including Singapore last time I checked.

[dahokolomoki]

So a follow up from my Airalo issue, here’s my review that I left on Trustpilot, which sums up the issue with Airalo:

When it works, it works OK. Decent data speeds, and… it just works.

However, I’ve had two issues when using it in the USA. The first when the eSim I bought failed to connect to the network at all.

The second when after using for a few days, the eSim completely refused to connect to a network for two days.

Both times, their “24/7/365” service is a scam – there is no phone number to call. And their live chat, isn’t live – it takes them usually 10 hours to respond to your message! So that means that you really can’t depend on Airalo – if something goes wrong – all bets are off.

Next time I travel, I’m going to try a different eSim provider, as reliability and service are key for me.

[dougzz99]

dahokolomoki wrote:

So a follow up from my Airalo issue, here’s my review that I left on Trustpilot, which sums up the issue with Airalo:

When it works, it works OK. Decent data speeds, and… it just works.

However, I’ve had two issues when using it in the USA. The first when the eSim I bought failed to connect to the network at all.

The second when after using for a few days, the eSim completely refused to connect to a network for two days.

Both times, their “24/7/365” service is a scam – there is no phone number to call. And their live chat, isn’t live – it takes them usually 10 hours to respond to your message! So that means that you really can’t depend on Airalo – if something goes wrong – all bets are off.

Next time I travel, I’m going to try a different eSim provider, as reliability and service are key for me.

Based on my own similar experience I’d say this is fair. Definitely a stretch to describe their support as 24/7/365, they may have people available but I found emails being answered in hours not minutes. I used it as a backup to Vodafone where I wanted to avoid the £5/day. I’ve now switched UK network to O2 with some sort of roaming plan included. The O2 roaming was OK in Florida, although I suspect there was throttling.

[Kuestrian]

memesweeper wrote:

Kuestrian wrote:

Does anyone know why Airalo dropped Singapore from their list? Pretty odd, given they are a Singaporean company.

On a related note, can anyone recommend an eSim that works in Singapore? The M1 looked a good deal but you have to visit one of their locations to get one, for some reason.

My recommendation is the 3HKG global eSIM. I have the 365 day version, I turn it off when in the UK. If you don’t provide recognised ID then it will stop working in actual Hong Kong (and presumably PRC), but will continue to work everywhere else, including Singapore last time I checked.

Many thanks for this recommendation. I picked up a 3HK eSIM from MobiMatter and it worked seamlessly in Singapore & Thailand. It was excellent value too at £8 for 15GB/30 days.

[YC]

@Meta – Thanks for the tip. This is perfect for me (365 day plan) and roaming so far working as expected. Only slight drawback is that its not so simple to download the 3HK app from the apple store but its worth jumping through the hoops.

[Michael C]

With thanks to @LadyLondon : our “legacy” contracts with Three were indeed
unilaterally terminated (“if you don’t say anything, we’ll put you on a new contract
that’s twice as expensive, with less data and no roaming” (offered 8GB for GBP16 or
4GB for GBP8 but contract for 24 months).

We did indeed change to PAYG, so now have 10GB for GBP10/month but WITH international
roaming….all I know is that I know nothing!!

[jayjay]

Kuestrian wrote:

Does anyone know why Airalo dropped Singapore from their list? Pretty odd, given they are a Singaporean company.

On a related note, can anyone recommend an eSim that works in Singapore? The M1 looked a good deal but you have to visit one of their locations to get one, for some reason.

Was looking at options for Singapore for the exact same reason – seems like they’ve been “out of stock” for Singapore eSIMs for a while now.
I did some digging and found another eSIM option called “Nomad” – the concept seems to be very similar to that of Airalo.

I’m yet to try it in a few weeks, but they seem to have more options overall. E.g. their APAC plan includes 12 countries (with Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia etc. too). 1 GB 7 day package for 6 USD, or you can get a Singapore only eSIM for 4 USD instead. The advantage with the latter is that you can get high data packages up to 50GB, I don’t think I’ve seen Airalo offer this.

I’ve been an Airalo fan for a while, so looking forward to seeing how Nomad works out. I’ll post with my review as soon as I’ve had a chance to try them out.

If anyone gets a chance to review this before me, here’s a ref code for an initial discount: JAYE93EG.

[corking]

I have just used Airalo in Argentina and Brazil without issue on bother my wifes and my phone. Data roaming seems to default to “No” and it needed to be switched on. Used in the USA in August without issue.

[dahokolomoki]

Anyone tried Nomad?

Aairalo really let me down last time I was in the USA. The first eSIM installed, but failed to connect to the network. The second eSim I bought (after a few days contacting support and getting a refund) connected and worked well, until a few days later, when it just randomly decided not to connect to the network. Was like that for over a day, and then it connected fine again.

In the meantime, their support is definitely not 24/7 like they claim. Each message sent, took 12hrs+ to reply to. So if you have problems with Airalo, don’t depend on getting it resolved quickly.

I see that Nomad doesn’t even offer live chat support, just a ticket system. But hopefully, their service is just flawless and works.

[jayjay]

dahokolomoki wrote:

Anyone tried Nomad?

Aairalo really let me down last time I was in the USA. The first eSIM installed, but failed to connect to the network. The second eSim I bought (after a few days contacting support and getting a refund) connected and worked well, until a few days later, when it just randomly decided not to connect to the network. Was like that for over a day, and then it connected fine again.

In the meantime, their support is definitely not 24/7 like they claim. Each message sent, took 12hrs+ to reply to. So if you have problems with Airalo, don’t depend on getting it resolved quickly.

I see that Nomad doesn’t even offer live chat support, just a ticket system. But hopefully, their service is just flawless and works.

About try Nomad in a few days. I posted about it a little earlier if you scroll, can provide feedback on Saturday.

[redlilly]

Anyone tried Zim Connections? Just been reading about it in The Times.

[cin3]

What is the best e-sim with >30GB data for 5+ weeks in Japan?

[David D]

Kuestrian wrote:

Does anyone know why Airalo dropped Singapore from their list? Pretty odd, given they are a Singaporean company.

On a related note, can anyone recommend an eSim that works in Singapore? The M1 looked a good deal but you have to visit one of their locations to get one, for some reason.

Thanks – just signed up as I’m heading to South Africa next month. If anyone wants a referral code: DAVID3405