bumkin2bfit

we are traveling to Sweden, Norway and Iceland in early July for 20 days. We both have iPhone's (6 and 6plus) with Verizon service and they are unlocked. The Verizon international plans seem quite expensive. I have also heard that getting a SIM card when overseas is easy but can be a pain to set up on the iPhone (plus you have a different number).

Our use would be primarily calling hotel, or destination in one of the countries. We would receive US calls only in an emergency. Our data use would be for research while we are traveling, mapping, sending some emails and checking them.

Any advice/referrals for potential options would be greatly appreciated.

thursdaysd

I have a T-Mobile prepaid monthly plan with international coverage. See: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans

You could buy it for a month and drop it when you get back. Haven't checked whether it would work for your phones - I have a somewhat dated LG.

DebitNM

Use of wifi - which is widely available - for data and phone calls using Viber, Skype or similar app works very well for most people with limited phone needs.

dyoll

You would need to get a pre-paid SIM in each country to get reasonable data costs. Iceland was OK, Norway is a pain as you have to register ID to get card activated so must visit one of the providers shops. Not sure how it works in Sweden. Nowadays the phones and sims set themselves up so no pain there.

Sberg

I used my iPhone in Italy last year and I think it was $40 for the international plan for the month. I did use it but not too much. The amount of time that comes with the plan was adequate. I know it will work in Norway and Sweden. I have not checked Iceland yet. Be sure to speak to a global representative at Verizon to be sure you are put on correct plan. I am going to those same countries in August and am planning on using my phone. Let us know how your trip goes. I may follow your footsteps!

greg

The t-mobile plan mentioned by thursdaysd is probably the easiest and cheapest of the options. I have the same plan. All three countries are included in free data roaming/text and 0.20$/min voice calls. Remember, you don't have to "switch" the plan from Verizon, just use t-mobile SIM and plan during the trip.

Getting a local SIM gives you cheapest ONE COUNTRY solution. When people recommend this, they usually don't bother to tell you the context of the recommendation = ONE COUNTRY. This is especially true for data (you mentioned map and research).

I used to get local SIMs in every country I visited. However, I think this is a dated recommendation for a multiple country trip. I resented having to find the shop, visit them on business day and business hour and wait in line to get served and wait further more to get the SIM activated. I had to do this in every country I visited. Sure, people who happened to arrive in a city on a business day, who happened to arrive during business hours, and who happened to visit a shop on non busy time would say, what is the big deal, I got a SIM in no time! Most non restaurant/hotel businesses in European countries close at Sat 4pm and will not open until Monday morning.

china_cat

I think, in general, it is not difficult to get a SIM card working on arrival. I also think if your main use is making calls, or receiving them, the international plan from your carrier is probably good enough.

It's the data that costs. And I suspect that all the people who say you need a different sim for every country have not priced roaming data within Europe, because the eu has set caps and rates have come down. Now, that said, I've had a very difficult time figuring out what the data roaming rates are for various pay-as-you-go international plans. It seems to be something the websites hide quite cleverly.

All that said, take a look at Vodafone Iceland. It looked like they might have a well priced plan, and they may have decent coverage and rates in Scandinavia. I'm probably going to use them for Spain and Italy this summer..

RoamEurope

In Iceland, you may want to consider a mifi device. Try this: http://iceland.trawire.com. I assume Sweden/Norway have something similar but have not checked.

Generally, I just buy a basic data plan and a basic calling plan, with most data usage via free wifi (either at a hotel, restaurant or elsewhere). ATT has a hotspot finder app, which I suspect Verizon may as well.

Offline maps can be used on an IPhone (stored in Google Maps or using a dedicated app), which allows you maps without data usage.

bumkin2bfit

i think going with a T mobile sim might be the best plan and do it for one phone. I will get over to T mobile dealer and check it out this week and see how it goes. I will post how it works when we get back mid July.

cameronjpu

So funny, you are doing the same itinerary I am - at almost the same time. Too bad neither of us can help the other probably. I will be back home July 10. My plan is to go with a different SIM in each country, as much of a pain as that is, because I use a lot of data when I travel and because I am providing connectivity for 2. From what I've found, MyCall is my planned provider in Norway, in Iceland I hope to wait until I get to the city and go with Nova, and in Sweden, Telenor ironically offers 5 GB for 99 sek. Feel free to drop me a line if you want advice, if I'm earlier than you, my email is cameronjpu at hot mail.

cameronjpu

I just discovered something that could ALMOST be really helpful to you, but maybe at least it will help me, and the next guy too.

3 (UK) has a service called "feel at home" where you can use a 3 SIM card (any, apparently) in most of the Eu, including Sweden and Norway as if you are in the UK as far as prices go. So, no roaming for data, phone or texts when you are in any of the countries. My actual plan is Iceland, UK, Sweden, Norway, so I will have to handle Iceland still, but this plan appears to be 100% legit, and as a result, it is totally the way to go for me. 7 GB for a mobile broadband router (which I use) for 25 gbp, or 3 GB for 15 gbp. Not only is the convenience amazing here, but it's actually the cheapest option even if I was to find the cheapest domestic option in all my stops.

http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phones/Feel_At_Home

I'm looking around to verify and make sure I'm not missing something, but from what I can tell, it's all good. This should save a lot of people a lot of money when traveling through the UK and to other UE countries. Here is another review that explains it a bit more thoroughly.

http://kenstechtips.com/index.php/th...comment-239967

dyoll

Catches seem to be that you can't use tethering - i.e. use your mobile phone as a hot spot. And you can only use for max 3 months in a year abroad and use the rest in UK - but since there is a pay as you go option I guess you would just have to buy a new sim occasionally. See usage restrictions http://support.three.co.uk/SRVS/CGI-...se=EXT(EM11925)

cameronjpu

Yeah that's a shame, but really a small one. Given as cheap as it is for what you're getting, just get one per device. I've decided that buying a cheap hotspot is totally worth it, so for $80 I got one and will take it on all trips with me. And the plan does work on mobile broadband SIM cards for hotspots.

dyoll

Says pretty clearly in the usage restrictions that you can't use the plan for tethering/hotspot. The SIM card might work in a hotspot MiFi device - but looks like they'll cut you off. Or where did you find your information? I've never had any problems buying and using a normal phone sim card in my hotspot in other countries.

cameronjpu

It says that the plan is valid for all SIM cards and plans, including SIM only mobile broadband, PAYG mobile broadband and post paid mobile broadband. Mobile broadband is what it is - it is not tethering though. And I have also seen confirmation elsewhere (on the other link I posted for instance, as well as the official 3 blog) that it is valid for hotspot use.

cameronjpu

To follow-up, this is what 3 says on their Feel At Home FAQ page: "You can enjoy Feel At Home whether you’re on Pay Monthly or Pay As You Go, using a tablet, phone, Mobile Wi-Fi or dongle. "

If you can explain to me why you think this somehow excludes using your mobile hotspot when overseas, I'd love to hear it. It's clear that it is valid for mobile hotspot use.

dyoll

This is what it says in usage restrictions:
"You can’t use your phone as a Personal Hotspot (this is also called tethering) in a Feel At Home destination – even if you normally do so in the UK using your data allowance, or have a Personal Hotspot allowance or Add-on."

cameronjpu

Exactly. And neither of us are talking about using our phone as a hotspot - we are talking about using a mobile hotspot device, which is 100% supported.

Icelander

There are three major phone company in Iceland, Siminn, Vodafone and Nova, they all offer both voice and data package for cell phones.
I found a good article about it: http://www.icelandnorthernlightshq.c...rs-in-iceland/

cameronjpu

Trip over, here's my notes!

Iceland - used Nova. Worked great.

England - sadly, the magic 3 feel at home SIM plan, though I confirmed that it was exactly what I expected, it was much harder to find than expected. I went to one 3 shop directly from the airport and they did not have any prepaid SIM cards for data only. Told me that I could get a 1 month postpaid SIM card for the feel at home plan, but that I must have an England bank account to do it. No credit card would do, nor a non-UK bank card. there were, however, other shops that had the card. In the end, due to timing and the fact that I already had found a SIM card on another network for UK, I decided it wasn't worth the time and expense to get the 3 SIM card just to solve Sweden and Norway.

Sweden - I used Comviq/Tele2, which worked very well, even out in the archipelago out to Sandhamn (a 36 hour trip that I would HIGHLY recommend).

Norway - MyCall was much easier to find than I had expected (very near the train station) and 3 GB for 69kr was not terrible. Coverage wasn't the best but was certainly good enough for staying in touch. Recommended given the cost savings.

Too bad about 3 UK. I still do recommend people do it, but it would be smart to use Skype to call actual 3 stores in the UK before you go out of your way to get to one to make sure they have the card. I did do that, after the first day failure, and did find that 2 shops near me did both have what was needed. Just didn't really want to pay for UK data twice. Given how expensive data in Norway and Sweden were, it probably would have been worth it.