{"id":43289,"date":"2022-08-21T13:54:13","date_gmt":"2022-08-21T12:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/?p=43289"},"modified":"2023-03-07T17:08:54","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T17:08:54","slug":"not-enough-roaming-data-buying-a-sim-card-abroad-in-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/not-enough-roaming-data-buying-a-sim-card-abroad-in-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Enough Roaming Data? Buying a SIM Card Abroad in 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We’ve just bought a pre-paid SIM card in France for internet access, while we’re on holiday in our motorhome. We’ll quickly run through why we did that, what it cost us, and look at some hints and tips if you’re thinking of buying a pre-paid SIM card abroad too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Free<\/a>
Free Mobile offer 210GB a Month Pre-Paid Internet in France for \u20ac19.99 a month (plus \u20ac10 one-off charge for the SIM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Example Prepaid Internet Offers in the EU<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The easiest way to get internet access abroad is to take a UK-issued SIM card and ‘roam’ with it. Most UK suppliers will allow you to roam to the EU (and some other countries) using some or all of your UK allowance. Some charge a fee for each day the SIM is used abroad. Most cap the amount of data you can use, typically to 25GB a month, although a couple we know of allow 100GB to be used<\/a>. If you need more than this, some UK suppliers will sell you additional data, but this can start to get expensive and not every supplier offers this option. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another route is to buy a ‘local’ SIM card, as we just did, popping into a Free Mobile shop outside Caen in France. This can get you a lot more data for your money, although it comes with a bit more hassle! The table below gives a few examples of pre-paid offers in France, Spain, Portugal & Germany. These are all pay-monthly with no contract and are available to UK customers, with no need for a foreign credit card or address abroad. Not all countries have these high data volume, pre-paid monthly offers available. In some you’ll be better off paying for multiple UK SIM cards if you need over 25GB (or so) a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Country<\/strong><\/td>Supplier<\/strong><\/td>Deal Name<\/strong><\/td>Data\/Month<\/strong><\/td>Cost\/Month<\/strong><\/td>Notes<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
France<\/td>Free Mobile<\/td>Forfait Free<\/td>210GB<\/td>\u20ac19.99<\/td>SIM costs one-off \u20ac10. Data runs until the monthly anniversary of activation.<\/td><\/tr>
France<\/td>R\u00e9glo Mobile<\/td>Forfaits R\u00e9glo<\/td>150GB<\/td>\u20ac19.95<\/td>SIM costs one-off \u20ac10. Data runs to the end of the calendar month.<\/td><\/tr>
Spain<\/td>Vodafone<\/td>Vodafone prepago XXL<\/td>150GB<\/td>\u20ac40<\/td>SIM costs one-off \u20ac10.<\/td><\/tr>
Spain<\/td>M\u00e1sm\u00f3vil<\/td><\/td>120GB<\/td>\u20ac20<\/td>SIM costs one-off \u20ac10.<\/td><\/tr>
Portugal<\/td>Vodafone<\/td>Go Total<\/td>Unlimited<\/td>\u20ac30<\/td>Can’t be used outside Portugal. May be throttled when over 200GB a month.<\/td><\/tr>
Germany<\/td>O\u2082<\/td>O\u2082 Unlimited<\/td>Unlimited<\/td>\u20ac69.99<\/td>SIM registration in Germany is awkward, so best bought in an O\u2082 shop.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Examples of pre-paid ‘local’ internet SIM cards in the EU. Source: https:\/\/prepaid-data-sim-card.fandom.com\/<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Spanish company tiekom.com has also been recommended to us by several readers. They offer a 300GB per month SIM for \u20ac39.90<\/a>, or a 400GB SIM for \u20ac59.90. All the data is available in 26 countries across Europe, including the UK. They’ll post the inactive SIM to your address in the UK (for \u20ac15, takes up to 10 days, they activate it when you ask) and seem to have great customer support. Well worth looking into if you plan a multi-country tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UPDATE March 2023: <\/strong>Users are reporting<\/a> Tiekom are being forced with withdraw the outside-of-Spain roaming from April 2023 with the 300GB SIM due to issues with Vodafone, the underlying provider. Please check with them before ordering this SIM unless you only plan to use it in Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The eSIM Option<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We’re used to using physical SIM cards in our phones and routers. When we want to switch supplier, we have to physically remove the old SIM card from our phone and slot the new one in (although some phones support multiple SIMs). Some newer phones, watches, tablets, laptops & routers have a built-in SIM card though, which can’t be removed (there’s a list here<\/a>). These support multiple suppliers, and let you change the supplier you’re using at any one point in time using your phone’s settings. This built-in SIM is called an eSIM (more info here<\/a>). So you don’t need to go to a shop or have the physical card posted to you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One such option (thanks to Frank for the info) is maya.net<\/a>. You can buy an unlimited data 4G eSIM from them, which allows tethering and works in 28 European countries, for US$55 (about \u00a347) a month. This is the only unlimited multi-country roaming option we know of, but won’t work in older phones or our Huawei router, so no good for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Much Data Will You Need?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is a ‘how long is a piece of string’ question, but let’s have a look-see anyway. It really depends on how you’re using the internet:<\/p>\n\n\n\n