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Cheapest option for mobile data in roaming.

  • 22-11-2014 3:19am
    #1
    CiniO
    Registered Users Posts: 16,088 ✭✭✭✭


    I'm going to spend few days abroad travelling through different countries (within EU) and my current mobile provider (Tesco mobile) doesn't offer any interesting roaming data packages or rates (25c per MB - too expensive IMO).

    Is there any provider in Ireland or EU wide, where I could buy sim card and avail of cheap data connection on my phone in the EU.

    PS - buying local simcards in each country is not a solution. I'm looking for single simcard which will provide reasonable rates all over EU.

    Anyone knows anything?


Comments

  • #2
    bugfreebob
    Registered Users Posts: 233 ✭✭bugfreebob


    CiniO wrote: »
    I'm going to spend few days abroad travelling through different countries (within EU) and my current mobile provider (Tesco mobile) doesn't offer any interesting roaming data packages or rates (25c per MB - too expensive IMO).

    Is there any provider in Ireland or EU wide, where I could buy sim card and avail of cheap data connection on my phone in the EU.

    PS - buying local simcards in each country is not a solution. I'm looking for single simcard which will provide reasonable rates all over EU.

    Anyone knows anything?

    Meteor have one of the best deals in Europe for data roaming - 99c per day for 50MB (or about 2c per MB vs the 25c per MB you quoted for Tesco). You just opt in by texting "Europe" to 50104. It even includes some non-EU countries such as Norway. You also get free incoming calls when roaming across Europe. Since most of your friends in Ireland probably have free mobile minutes, you can send them a quick IM to request that they call you if you want to avoid making outgoing calls. OK, 50MB won't allow you to watch Netflix all day - but if you use it sensibly and augment it with the occasional blast of WiFi in cafes etc, then you should be able to get by on a diet of 50MB per day.


  • #3
    CiniO
    Registered Users Posts: 16,088 ✭✭✭✭CiniO


    bugfreebob wrote: »
    Meteor have one of the best deals in Europe for data roaming - 99c per day for 50MB (or about 2c per MB vs the 25c per MB you quoted for Tesco). You just opt in by texting "Europe" to 50104. It even includes some non-EU countries such as Norway. You also get free incoming calls when roaming across Europe. Since most of your friends in Ireland probably have free mobile minutes, you can send them a quick IM to request that they call you if you want to avoid making outgoing calls. OK, 50MB won't allow you to watch Netflix all day - but if you use it sensibly and augment it with the occasional blast of WiFi in cafes etc, then you should be able to get by on a diet of 50MB per day.

    Sounds great.
    I'm going to pick up meteor pay as you go simcard tomorrow just for the sake of travelling.

    Cheeers.


  • #4
    CiniO
    Registered Users Posts: 16,088 ✭✭✭✭CiniO


    bugfreebob wrote: »
    Meteor have one of the best deals in Europe for data roaming - 99c per day for 50MB (or about 2c per MB vs the 25c per MB you quoted for Tesco). You just opt in by texting "Europe" to 50104. It even includes some non-EU countries such as Norway. You also get free incoming calls when roaming across Europe. Since most of your friends in Ireland probably have free mobile minutes, you can send them a quick IM to request that they call you if you want to avoid making outgoing calls. OK, 50MB won't allow you to watch Netflix all day - but if you use it sensibly and augment it with the occasional blast of WiFi in cafes etc, then you should be able to get by on a diet of 50MB per day.

    So I've tried it.
    Bought a meteor sim-pack intentionally for travel with 10 euro topup on it. Cost me a tenner.

    Free incoming calls - great thing - I'm using it a lot.

    50GB for €0.99 - well.
    It works all right, but:
    1. It's pretty much impossible to find any terms and conditions of the offer, so you have to discover how it works yourself.
    2. You have to accept data roaming charges of 0.25c per MB, which suggest offer doesn't work which in fact does.
    3. There's no way to check how much data you have left out of 50MB - you have to relay on your phone data measuring app, which might not be that accurate. And if you exceed the limit, you pay full price of 0.25c per MB.
    4. 50MB per day for 99c means 50MB between 0:00 and 23:59. If you start using your data at half eleven in the evening, then you have only half an hour to use it. Additionally obviously it applies to Irish time, so if you are on the Continent, then it's 1:00 to 0:59.
    5. 50MB applies only within one country. If you use data in two different countries in the same day, you are charged 99c twice.

    I'm still happy because it's great offer.
    But what I'm dissappointed with is complete lack of information provided by Meter in relation to the offer - I had to discover all above myself, at extra cost.

    F.e. I first used my data in UK at 22:00. As I kept browsing for about 2.5 hours up to about 0:30, I was charged another 99c for that privelage.
    Between 0:00 and 0:30 I used only about 5MB data, so I thought that was allright, as I still had 45MB left for next day.
    But then again I used another 10MB in the morning in UK, but when I tried using data in France in the afternoon, I was charged another 99c.

    In short, between 22:00 on Friday, and 22:00 on Saturday (24 hours period) I used less than 50MB data, but I was charged 2.97 (3x99c) just because I used my data within 2 different callendar days, and two different countries.


  • #5
    bugfreebob
    Registered Users Posts: 233 ✭✭bugfreebob


    CiniO wrote: »
    So I've tried it.
    Bought a meteor sim-pack intentionally for travel with 10 euro topup on it. Cost me a tenner.

    Free incoming calls - great thing - I'm using it a lot.

    50GB for €0.99 - well.
    It works all right, but:
    1. It's pretty much impossible to find any terms and conditions of the offer, so you have to discover how it works yourself.
    2. You have to accept data roaming charges of 0.25c per MB, which suggest offer doesn't work which in fact does.
    3. There's no way to check how much data you have left out of 50MB - you have to relay on your phone data measuring app, which might not be that accurate. And if you exceed the limit, you pay full price of 0.25c per MB.
    4. 50MB per day for 99c means 50MB between 0:00 and 23:59. If you start using your data at half eleven in the evening, then you have only half an hour to use it. Additionally obviously it applies to Irish time, so if you are on the Continent, then it's 1:00 to 0:59.
    5. 50MB applies only within one country. If you use data in two different countries in the same day, you are charged 99c twice.

    I'm still happy because it's great offer.
    But what I'm dissappointed with is complete lack of information provided by Meter in relation to the offer - I had to discover all above myself, at extra cost.

    F.e. I first used my data in UK at 22:00. As I kept browsing for about 2.5 hours up to about 0:30, I was charged another 99c for that privelage.
    Between 0:00 and 0:30 I used only about 5MB data, so I thought that was allright, as I still had 45MB left for next day.
    But then again I used another 10MB in the morning in UK, but when I tried using data in France in the afternoon, I was charged another 99c.

    In short, between 22:00 on Friday, and 22:00 on Saturday (24 hours period) I used less than 50MB data, but I was charged 2.97 (3x99c) just because I used my data within 2 different callendar days, and two different countries.

    I'm glad it worked out reasonably ok for you!

    I should have warned you about the need to opt in to the full data charge even when you are on the deal - I guess they are warning you about the worst case charge - if you go over the 50MB cap. As long as you stay under this, you should just pay the flat rate.

    I didn't know about the counter re-starting when you change country - but I guess it is not a problem for most users. It's still a reasonable tariff plan for roaming. I generally find the data measuring apps in the phones are very accurate - but you could also use the MyMeteor app or the MyMeteor website to check your usage. I think it tends to lag real-time by about 2 hours - but at least you know exactly what Meteor are measuring. The MyMeteor app also has a nice feature where you can send 400 free texts over the Internet using your Webtext allowance but without paying roaming rates. It's a but like Cabbage, but includes International texts. Very useful when roaming.

    Thanks for posting all the info - very useful summary for other users. Another limitation is that 4G data doesn't seem to work (yet) when roaming. However, it is probably just as well when you are trying to survive on a budget of 50MBytes per day! Your total daily allowance could be gone in a blink with 4G speeds like you get at home!


  • #6
    galait
    Closed Accounts Posts: 669 ✭✭✭galait


    Get Unlimited Data

    Buy one of these

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Three-Adapters-Preloaded-minutes-Unlimited/dp/B00ABJ0WA8/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1417615736&sr=8-4&keywords=three+uk+sim

    And see here
    http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phones/Feel_At_Home

    I used it France for 2 weeks and used 15Gb of Data !


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  • #7
    Big Wex fan
    Registered Users Posts: 351 ✭✭Big Wex fan


    galait wrote: »
    Get Unlimited Data

    Buy one of these

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Three-Adapters-Preloaded-minutes-Unlimited/dp/B00ABJ0WA8/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1417615736&sr=8-4&keywords=three+uk+sim

    And see here
    http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phones/Feel_At_Home

    I used it France for 2 weeks and used 15Gb of Data !

    I went thru the Q &A on the amazon site. It's not clear if u have to be from uk only or from any country.


  • #8
    galait
    Closed Accounts Posts: 669 ✭✭✭galait


    Big Wex fan wrote: »
    I went thru the Q &A on the amazon site. It's not clear if u have to be from uk only or from any country.

    You don't have to be from the UK , I ordered on Amazon.co.uk and it was delivered to Ireland , I popped into Sim Free Smart Phone and it worked fine here in Ireland as well as France for 30 days... There is no catch...


  • #9
    bugfreebob
    Registered Users Posts: 233 ✭✭bugfreebob


    galait wrote: »
    You don't have to be from the UK , I ordered on Amazon.co.uk and it was delivered to Ireland , I popped into Sim Free Smart Phone and it worked fine here in Ireland as well as France for 30 days... There is no catch...

    There are a couple of issues with "Feel at Home" from Three UK - it only works in certain countries where 3 have a network or an exclusive arrangement. A lot of key destinations for Irish people are not included - eg Spain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands are not included! Also where it is available, it looks like it only works on one network - either native on Three or their exclusive partner. Three generally tend to have the worst coverage in most European countries where they operate, as they were often the last entrant in these markets and generally only took up 3G licences. While they may have some national roaming agreements to cater for their own customers in each market (just like 3 IRL roams on Vodafone 2G), these would not generally work for foreign roamers - hence you could have seriously unreliable coverage. Tethering is also not allowed, and certain services such as file sharing are blocked.

    Although it has a lower data cap, the Meteor deal works almost everywhere in Europe including most of EU and some non-EU. It also works on all data roaming partners of Meteor, not just one network in each country. And it includes free incoming calls in all these countries. Tethering is allowed, and I have not encountered any services that are blocked, and there is nothing in the terms and conditions to indicate that anything is blocked.


  • #10
    galait
    Closed Accounts Posts: 669 ✭✭✭galait


    bugfreebob wrote: »
    There are a couple of issues with "Feel at Home" from Three UK - it only works in certain countries where 3 have a network or an exclusive arrangement. A lot of key destinations for Irish people are not included - eg Spain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands are not included! Also where it is available, it looks like it only works on one network - either native on Three or their exclusive partner. Three generally tend to have the worst coverage in most European countries where they operate, as they were often the last entrant in these markets and generally only took up 3G licences. While they may have some national roaming agreements to cater for their own customers in each market (just like 3 IRL roams on Vodafone 2G), these would not generally work for foreign roamers - hence you could have seriously unreliable coverage. Tethering is also not allowed, and certain services such as file sharing are blocked.

    Although it has a lower data cap, the Meteor deal works almost everywhere in Europe including most of EU and some non-EU. It also works on all data roaming partners of Meteor, not just one network in each country. And it includes free incoming calls in all these countries. Tethering is allowed, and I have not encountered any services that are blocked, and there is nothing in the terms and conditions to indicate that anything is blocked.

    I do not agree , I have used all over France on several networks and used Skype and SKYGO without any issue , I also intend using in Florida in January and the common consensus is that it very fast and reliable in the states.


  • #11
    Big Wex fan
    Registered Users Posts: 351 ✭✭Big Wex fan


    The 16 Feel At Home destinations are:
    Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Macau, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Sri Lanka, Sweden Switzerland, United States


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