European SIM cards good for roaming
 

I am looking for a good european sim card (prepaid, pay as you go, or low annual plan), that offers good reliable service as well as reasonable roaming rates and general fees. I will be travelling to about 10 countries in Europe this summer and I do have an unlocked gsm world phone.

Buying a sim in each country will probably not solve my problem because I seldom make local phone calls while travelling and those local sims come with high roaming rates (I believe). So I'd prefer a single sim card good for all countries. I prefer a UK or French number so my family, friends, and clients can call me from Canada with low long-distance rates applicable to mobiles in those countries. I in turn will be calling Canada and other countries in Europe.

Some cards come with free incoming calls and sms so I'd definitely prefer that.
Is there anything out there charging 25 to 50 cents p/m for outgoing calls, no connection fees and/or other hidden fees? And I think I would stay away from those "dial and wait to be called back" cards from Estonia or Romania.

If anybody has had positive experiences with cell phone roaming solutions in Europe, please share! I've been researching this subject all over the net and I think I am more confused than when I started!

Thanks!

Roaming rates are generally very high for European carriers. One of the larger multinational carriers like Orange MIGHT offer something a bit more favorable if you stay on their networks, but I doubt it.

Honestly, if you don't want to get a new SIM in each market, I'd just see what kind of package your regular carrier provides.

It depends on your definition of cheap. Certainly the eu has brought down roaming rates within the eu significantly so that receiving calls within the eu is something less than 0,20€ and it is the eu's stated goal to bring that to €0,00 in the near future (which depends on your definition of near future) like in the next few years. Also calls within the eu have become much cheaper. Hoever calls from any eu mobile number to say Nortth America have become much more expensive to make up for the lost revenue and they've also done subtle little things. For example T Mobile UK used to charge 5p on one of its plans per minute to call North American from within the UK (much more expensive from outside the UK but within the eu). They haven't raised that however they now jump the rate to the next highest minute. Talk for 61 seconds which used to cost 6p as they used to time the calls to the nearest second now costs 10p. Whether that's significant or not is another story.

There are work arounds for some of this. As noted the receiving rates within the eu with eu sims are fairly reasonable. Make a quick call, pay the outrageous first minute rate and have the person call you back (assuming you are calling from within the eu to outside the eu). Or get a calling card with a local eu number and these come in all sorts of varieties (within a country, within a region). You pay the lower intra eu rate on the mobile and pay whatever the calling card charges. Of course telcoms are aware of this and in many cases block calls to the numbers used by calling cards.

There is e-kit which gives you a +44 (UK although not really in the UK byt I think the Isle of Man but no matter, most but not all ld carriers charge such calls as UK calls) and also a USA +1 number. Calls made to the former from wherever cost you nothing and they pay whatever their carrier charges for a +44 call. If they call on the +1 number, they pay whatever their ld carrier charges to a USA number, you pay 19¢ per minute (rounded up naturally). E-kit cards are available on ebay. Calls to North America are not dirt cheap but far cheaper than the European roaming rates.

But the much cheaper roaming rates established by the eu have driven many of the international carriers out of business. The days of United Mobile and its +423 calls where for some strange reason one could call on USA ld carrier AT&T for 9¢/minute with a 1¢ termination fee, the charge for calling a mobile number, are long since over.

xyz123 & PinBud
Please let me know the SIM you recommend to use as I will also be visiting Europe for 14 days next month
Thanks
Arshad

Hard to give you a definitive answer as it really depends on where you wish to start. The easiest answer to give you is a British sim card for several reasons. First of all (I don't know where you are from but I assume you are from an English speaking country) obviously is language. You can talk to the person selling you the sim card, read the instructions (if there are any) and do things like setting up your voicde mail without a language problem. But the other point is English sim cards cost the most desirable price of all namely they are FREE like in FREE and readilly available You can go to their web sites and order that FREE sim cards be posted to any address within the UK and be waiting for you to arrive. To that end, I recommend myself T Mobile UK. They are in the process of mnerging with Orange UK and so while in the UK you can use either T Mobile or Orange towers making coverage pretty good, certainly excellent in London. They have a tie in with a firm called yourcallworld (you can go to their web site) which allows you to make cheap calls say to North America at the rate of 3p/minute (and lto landlines throughout much of the world. Calls to mobile numbers are more expensive but all calls to North America even to cerll phones are consiidered landline calls). They follow the eu roaming rates rules, cheap to receive calls while you are within the eu from anywhere, somewhat more expensive to make intra eu calls while in the eu but outrageously expensive to call outside the eu (smetimes Switzerland and Norway are considered eu for these purposes even if they're not technicaly part of the eu). The con is that once you leave the UK, it's very difficult to top up. Vodafone UK is good too but doesn't tie in with yurcall world so rates to places outside the UK are higher (although they do have some plans that allow relatively cheap calls to North America while you're in the UK). Their biggest pro,though, is you can top up with a vodafone voucher in any country that has a vodafone affiliate. So if you're in Germany and have a vodafone UK sim card, you can get a vodafone DE voucher and top uyp, while in Germany, your vodafone UK sim card

Logos here pushes several German sim cards which seem like good deals but alas setting them up might be difficult if you are language ignorant like I am who knows about three words in German (ja,m nein and danka schoen. Also just say bitte every time you say something else)....but again you'll get free reception in Germany, fairly cheap calls to plays outside the eu and a cap on intra eu calls when outside Germany.

Lebara has affiliates in many countries (England, Spain, France, Holland to name a few) and have cheap calls outside the eu within the country of issue (say a Lebara UK card for making overseas calls while you're in the UK) and they all follow eu roaming rules but hey can be a pain to get, a pain to set up and a pain to top up.

So in a lot of words, I haven't helped you much probably.

Thanks A Lot!
I am from India and English is my Primary language.
We start our tour from London and so I can go with your advice and pick up a SIM in London.We are going to be in Holland,France, Switzerland and Italy.
I would primarily be calling home in India and receiving calls from my parents in India.
So do you think Lebara /lyka or T mobile would be a good choice?
Regards
Arshad

I have been travelling around Europe and over the last few times tried several options. Finally I settled for Vodafone UK for all the reasons xyz123 mentioned. I have been using it for over a year now for all my Europe trips and I find it a good balance between cost and convenience.

I would strongly recommend against trying any of those pre-paid cards with numbers from Estonia or Isle of Man, they are just plain rip-offs. The worst of them is Worldsim - while the name is so international ( and hence deceptive).

I even tried getting pre-paid Vodafone SIM from Spain, where I need to go often, but the language, customer service language, website etc made it impossible after sometime.

Hence having circled through all options, I would recommend Vodafone UK - and BTW if you happen to have a UK credit card, you can even top it up over the net.

Thanks a lot again!

I've decided to use Geosim: http://www.globalsimcard.co.uk/index.php

I got a permanent UK phone number, free incoming calls & text anywhere, low cost outgoing roaming costs, very low costs when calls are initiated using their web interface. No connection fees, no expirations. I believe there is a low annual re-activation fee.
I have the dual-sim (UK & US numbers). Calls to the UK number are supposed to be free incoming calls in USA/Canada, but during a recent trip to the US I had problems connecting to local networks using the recommended setting for free calls. However it did connect using the other setting so I ended up paying for incoming calls, but much cheaper than if I had used my Canadian roaming. I have to contact geosim to inquire about the "free" US setting. It does work in Canada on the Rogers network but did not work on AT&T and the other GSMs in the US.
Next I will use it in Europe during my two months trip, but so far this is the best solution ever for long-distance/roaming calls, especially when using the web interface.

Goo luck ! Let us know how does Geosim work out for your trip.

I'm glad that you found a reliable option! I would have probably chosen Orange or Vodafone in any of those countries. Maybe because I am so familiar with them! However, thanks for sharing. I will definitely give it a try when I go on an European tour!

I've just started to use toggle mobile when roaming in Europe. Incoming calls are free in most countries and they also give you a local number in the UK, Switzerland, Spain and a few others I don't remember right now. All other UK networks are expensive (i've ended up with bills in the £100's before now.

I am happy to report that Geosim works perfectly in Europe. So far I've been in several countries, Germany, Luxemburg, France, Belgium, Austria, Czech Rep, more to come. 100% coverage, great reception, free in-calls, 46 cents outcalls, much cheaper if you can call using the web interface. Best roaming solution period.

yep i got my sim from geosim also. i had to unlock my phone though, got a blackberry code from here http://www.unlockscodes.com/

Whatever type of card you get, don't lose the information that contains your PIN and other important info!! In spite of my obsessiveness with keeping all my things together and organized, I misplaced the card that came with the Edeka SIM card I bought so when the phone (a day or so later) asked me to input the PIN a second time when I turned on the phone, I couldn't find it and was therefore unable to use the phone. I thought the website with my login information would contain the PIN but it did not so I was unable to retrieve it. I didn't try to call Edeka and straighten in out since I don't speak German, but still.

Lesson learned: Write down the important info in a second location!!

there is a good list of FREE sims here.... http://smsclist.com/forums/showthrea...-2012-%28UK%29

To get free from roamming charges what I exactly did last I visited UK is that I ordered a UK sim card prior to my trip. My friend suggested me few sites name like PrePayMania,go sim,0044 and among them I prefered PrePayMania as they offered me UK sim cards for FREE and delivered it to my home(which could be anywhere in world) at just 1 pound only as a international shipping charges. So now enjoy calls while traveling without roaming charges.

PinBud - did the GeoSim card work ok in France? When I look at their webpage they differentiate between "France, Metropolitan" and "France". "France, Metropolitan" says "No coverage", but "France" is all good...

jeffr, Last time I travelled to france I used SIMsmart prepaid http://www.simsmartprepaid.com and always had coverage.

Apparently v. easy to get a SIM card upon landing in Europe and a lot cheaper too. I will be following Rick's advice on our forthcoming trip.

http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/tips/...one-europe.htm

> Apparently v. easy to get a SIM card upon landing in Europe and a lot cheaper too.

I agree that's probably true. My problem is that both my kids are going on a school trip to England, Germany and France, and I want to make sure they have a working SIM each. I can't rely on them to try to source them when they get there (they are young teenagers, and while there will be teachers with them I can't expect the teachers to go looking for SIM cards).

So I need to source SIM cards before they go, have them sent to me, and be reasonably sure they are going to work in England, France and Germany.

<i>So I need to source SIM cards before they go, have them sent to me, and be reasonably sure they are going to work in England, France and Germany.</i>

This should fit the bill for you: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/20227110-post4.html

If not, have a look at these threads and see what works best for your situation:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...paid-sims.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...and-wales.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...im-france.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...m-germany.html

I find lemonsim sim card cheap, I have used it before and I'm satisfied.

A tip for the best SIM-Card in Europe: in Italy you can purchase a Vodafone SIM-Card (10 €) and ask them to activate the option "Smart Passport"
With that option, you have 500 MB per day (throtthled after 500 MB, no extra costs) for 3 Euros.
You can install it in a MiFI, set the APN to mobile.vodafone.it (very important: a wrong APN costs lots of money, because it is not covered by the promotion) and you can go online in 47 countries for the same price.
The country list:
Albania, Andorra, Austria, Azores, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canary islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Island, Finland, France, French Guyana, Germany, Gibraltar, Great Britain, Greece, Guadalupe, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madeira, Malta, Martinique, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Reunion, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey + USA
If you use it in a smartphone, you also have 50 mins and 50 SMS per day.
But: do not use tethering, otherwise it switches APN and you pay the standard tariff per MB!

Order SIMs from http://www.lebara.co.uk ,lebara.fr and lebara.de

All will mail to you if you add in your city, country and postal code. You have to be a bit 'creative' when filling in the forms.

Lebara is inexpensive and offers low rates for calls back to the US. The best thing is the SIMs are free and you'll have them before the kids leave.

This is what happens when you resurrect an ancient thread. Much of the information becomes obsolete and as Bob Dylan once said, the times they are changing.

European roaming rates within the eu (sometimes non eu countries such as Norway and Switzerland are included but that is on a country by country basis) are on the way out and will disappear next spring completely. Having said that, calls outside the eu might be cheap from individual countries but as soon as you leave that country, these rates explode. Also, I don't knoow where the person who brought this thread back to life resides but I can answer for Americans (which might not be helpful for those outside the USA).

I was always a fan of local sims. The past 2 years, however, I have discovered my own carrier in the USA, T Mobile USA on a relatively low plan, now has very reasonable calls while roaming in Europe. Their simple choice plans come with 20¢/minute calls in 128 countries both within the country and internationally including back to North America and that includes every country just about (a few exceptions so check their web site but none of what might be considered the major countries including Russia being included in the plan) within Europe. Plan also includes unlimited texts and unlimited low speed data and calls to and from Mexico and Canada within North America. Now I know T Mobile USA is not the most powerful USA carrier and there are many areas where it is not available or has a weak signal. And I also know there are many ways via the internet to do better but 20¢/minute is most reasonable. As a matter of fact, it is even cheaper than to use a local sim within its specific country. As an example, I have an O UK sim that gives me calls to the USA at 2p/minute (very hard to beat that) but a call within the UK to a UK number if 40p/minute (about 65¢ US/minute). That same very call made with T Mobile USA as a roaming call is 20¢.

Other US carriers are moving a bit in tht direction. Sprint has a similar type plan although far fewer countries.

Like I said, I didn't go through the thread just saw the dates but who knows what will happen next. Just take a look at how dated various threads are on some of these topics before you accept them as valid today.

You forgot to mention that T-Mobile has free WiFi calling from anywhere to anywhere if you have a WiFi enabled smart phone, like the IPhone 6 and certain android models. For now, only T-Mobile is making that feature available to its customers.

Roaming fees go in 2017, not next year.
Some providers will get rid of them sooner, but meanwhile roaming fees will remain. They are reduced next year, but don't go completely.
It has taken a long time to get this, the providers put up a long fight.
We lose some net neutrality as a result.
Time will tell if that proves a high price to pay for a couple of weeks a year abroad (for the average person).