gillybrit

My whole family has iPhones and we rely very heavily on texting. Last time I was in Italy I was able to buy a data only SIM card. I used this to go online and to send iMessages home. It worked perfectly for me and was very inexpensive. However it did not work in England. Anybody aware of a similar card that will work in England and Italy ? Company in Italy was tre.it.

bilboburgler

i can find sim-only but not data-only

try this tool http://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/compare/sim_only_deals/

MmePerdu

I'll throw this into the mix because I have one of their sims I've been using for years and they're a great company.

This works for calls too, but it seems to have everything you need:
https://www.mobal.com/global-unlimited-sim/

bilboburgler

i use three.co.uk which i assume is the same as tre.it

hetismij2

You will need seperate SIMS for each country, since data roaming is still at a premium. Next year roaming charges are dropped (assuming the UK is still in the EU at that time). Prices for data roaming fall in May, but aren't abolished until 2017. If you decide you use a single sim and accept the extra roaming charges check that the sim you use will actually allow roaming. Not all do.

bvlenci

Several Italian phone providers actually have pretty good data roaming plans. However, I don't know what's available in the UK.

Tre Italia says that they have a tariff in the UK of €0.24 cents per MB. That's pretty expensive, but at least the SIM card should work. When was this previous trip?

My provider, TIM charge €5 per day (only on days you use it) for 50 MB with their data only plan (TIM in Viaggio Internet) (€0.05 per mb). If you'll be in Italy first, you might want to try this. You can activate it free, and you will be charged when you first use the phone for data roaming outside of Italy. 50 MB isn't much data, but I don't think iMessages use much bandwidth. (At least What'sApp, a similar messaging application, doesn't.)

I'm sure the UK has data roaming plans, if you're going there first, but I'm not familiar with them. This article is almost two years old (which is a lifetime in terms of phone plans) but roaming charges should have remained the same or gone down since then.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/tr...e-tariffs.html

According to the article, Three UK has a plan called Feel at Home that lets you use your regular credit for calling and surfing, with no roaming charges.

Here is a current page from Three describing the Feel at Home plan:

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

It looks ideal for your purposes.

Robert2533

If you were from the States, you could simply switch to T-Mobile and forget your communications problems while on the go.

bvlenci

My daughter had mixed success with TMobile's international roaming; specifically, it didn't work in London when she was there, although it had worked, but very slowly, in Italy. Since it had poor coverage where she lived, she dropped it and went back to Verizon after the London trip.

Andrew

I've always just purchased a new SIM in a new country when needed. Sometimes I'm able to roam from one country to another but not always. For two countries I don't see a big issue in needing to change SIM card, but if I were visiting many countries quickly it might be a hassle.

I've used T-Mobile USA a few times in Europe (though I've since left T-Mobile). Of course it was slow in Italy - it's only 2G data - unlimited but intentionally slowed down. T-Mobile wants to sell people 3G "data passes."

One thing to note is that not every US phone will work well in Europe or at all. Different GSM frequencies are used in the US than are used in Europe, and within Europe different countries may even use different frequencies. A phone designed for Europe is likely to work in all European countries, but a phone designed for the US may not have all the frequencies needed to work everywhere, on every carrier. Could be that T-Mobile's UK roaming partner doesn't have service on the frequency used by some US mobile phones.

StCirq

I have two $25 unlocked Blü phones I bought on Amazon.com. One holds 2 SIMs, one holds 3. They're not smart phones, but they have more functions than I could possibly ever use. I have two French SIMs, an Italian SIM, a US SIM, and one open SIM holder for whatever else I might need (and of course I can always just replace SIMs if I need new ones for new countries). When I land in a new country I just buy a SIM, pop it in, and am ready to go. Cheap, simple, easy.

Andrew

I don't think it's quite that cheap or simple for the average traveler. In my experience, those prepaid European SIM cards lapse after periods of no use or unless you recharge them. For people who travel to these countries frequently that might be easy to do, but for those of us who may go overseas only say once a year, it's probably not practical to keep that many SIM cards alive for different countries.

T-Mobile probably is the easiest, cheapest solution for the average traveler, although I personally don't mind getting local SIM cards as needed. I don't have to have internet the second I land in a foreign country; it would be nice, but I seem to recall I used to travel without a cell phone or internet device at all and somehow survived. I still want a phone in Europe but can survive until I've had a chance to buy a SIM once I get to town - or use WiFi to make a call at the airport or something.

gillybrit

Thanks. Looks like the simplest thing may be a SIM card for each country. I don't remember the price of the card I picked up in Italy last year but I remember it was very inexpensive and included a generous amount (2gb?) of data. Switching to t Mobil is not an option for me even though I am in the US since their service is virtually non existent where I live. My phone is unlocked so no issues there.

xyz123

The main British carriers have various plans that include data, voice and texting. You can go on their website, vodafone.co.uk or o2.co.uk or ee.co.uk and all have pay as you go plans that for a 10 quid top up you get plenty of data and depending on the carrier dirt cheap calls to foreign destinations including the USA, Australia and Canada among others.

For Ireland, it's probably easier to look up the Irish carriers for similar deals. Each country does it a little differently but I have found dealing with English sims and I suppose Irish sims are very easy as we do speak very similar languages and can easily read the web sites.

Also be aware that many hotels and restaurants have free wifi and with a smrt phone you shut off data roaming and can surf the net on your smart phones easily. Just go into a Mickey D or Starbucks and log on and if you want, buy a cup of coffee (I have the decency to do that; I use pret a manger each morning, buy a cup of miso soup and sit for an hor or so reading all my home town newspapers, watching the highlights of the previous nights baseball games and listen to my home town radio station on either tune-it or radio.com or iheart which works very well....

nochblad

A lot of good information and if you are in to texting then switching sim cards from country to country seems like the best solution. My suggestions relate mostly to Italy.

Over the last couple of years my habits have changed dramatically. I used to send a lot of sms text messages and quite frequently hit my monthly limit. Now I send perhaps 10 sms text messages a week as I prefer the flexibility of Whatsapp and Wechat.

You can get some terrific deals on sim cards in Italy as there is fierce competition between the major players - TIM, Vodafone, Wind and Tre (the last 2 have merged but are still operating independently as far as the public is concerned).

Nearly everyone offers a minimum of 2GB data a month (actually 28 days) but note that it is actually broken down to 500MB per week. You can also purchase for a small amount additional GB of data. A useful feature is to set things up to get a text message when you are near to using up your weekly limit. This is usually set at 80% of your limit but note the relevant text message is not sent out immediately so when you actually receive it you may actually be quite near to 100% of your limit.

One thing you should consider is how you check the balance of data available. All operators allow you to register online and you can check the balance that way either using your phone or by way of another device. Tre allows you to select English for the information displayed when checking your balance. I am not sure whether the others offer this option. Also the balance can be checked by calling a certain number but obviously the answer is in Italian. Wind however has a code that you input which then displays the balance on your screen.

To conserve your data balance turn off all those applications you are not currently using and especially those which track your location. If you use Google maps download the town/city where you are heading and use it offline. Other mapping apps also offer this facility.

Regarding wifi hot spots, much progress is being made in Italy and coverage is improving all the time. Many cities and small towns offer free wifi albeit frequently with a time limit. Access to and downloading from certain sites may be blocked. Most hotels, B&Bs, agritourisms etc now offer free wifi especially in common areas. Fewer and fewer charge for wifi. One location which generally offers free wifi is the local library.

In terms of the best offer I would suggest you come back to the forum a week to 10 days before you depart. The deals are changing all the time.

StCirq

Andrew, I wasn't talking about prepaid SIM cards, though in the past I have ordered and used Lebara SIMs in advance of traveling in France (I no longer use Lebara as I have an Orange plan). I was talking about buying a SIM upon arrival in a country, which usually takes about 5 minutes in an airport or train station. Normally I don't need to use my phone immediately upon arrival, either, though now that I live here, it's a nice option.

gillybrit

Thanks for all the info. I have heard a lot about whatsapp but never used it. Not sure that there's a benefit when texting iPhone to iPhone since those can also go through using wifi as an iMessage. Or am I missing something?

JenniferES

Hi,
I bought a data only sim card from tre/three while I was in Italy last September. It was 20Gigs for 15 euros and I was allowed to use it for the full two months i was there. Simply amazing! I'm trying to find something the same for the rest of Europe while I'm there this summer, but it seems like no one can even come close to Italy rates. 12Gig in the UK for 25 pounds??? They're INSANE! With the Canadian dollar, it's totally not worth the price.

xyz123

Many hotels and restaurants provide free wifi in the UK and especially in London. I often go into pret a manger, buy a cup of soup and sit for an hour or so using their free wifi so it isn't that much of an issue. Have you looked at 3 UK? Like everything else, this is coming down.

Heimdall

Since this thread started over a year ago, data roaming costs in the EU have decreased, so it would be feasible to buy a SIM in the first country and use it in the second. You might have problems topping it up out of the country you bought it in, though.

Perhaps I'm missing the point, but I don't see why you couldn't buy a SIM for calls + data, and use it only for data. I have an EE data-only SIM for my iPad, but not sure it would work in the iPhone.

willit

Yesterday, in a local supermarket, I bought a SIM with 200MB of data for £1 - valid for 30 days. Not huge amounts of data, but plenty for messenger, Whatsapp etc - buy a new one every day if needed.


In Italy in October, I used a very similar deal to JenniferES - I think slightly more expensive at €20 for 25GB over 90 days.