Cheap data roaming: Article discussion

buglawton

I am using the new O2 deal now in France. Simpler than I thought. Bought an O2 SIM in UK loaded with £10. The tarrif is called o2 Unlimited. On arriving in France, text arrives saying it's £1.99 per day for 25mb. 3G coverage seems denser than O2 in UK.

I'd vote this the simplest and cheapest Europe roaming data deal for UK travellers.

NFH

buglawton wrote: »

I am using the new O2 deal now in France. Simpler than I thought. Bought an O2 SIM in UK loaded with £10. The tarrif is called o2 Unlimited. On arriving in France, text arrives saying it's £1.99 per day for 25mb. 3G coverage seems denser than O2 in UK.

This is still quite expensive. If you use up exactly 25MB each day (unlikely), then the cheapest you're paying is £0.08/MB. You'd be better off with a French Lycamobile SIM card which charges €0.09/MB and you'll only pay for the data you use instead of paying for a full 25MB every day. You'd also pay only €0.15+€0.01/min for calls to the UK.

buglawton

Where I am, not seen a Lycamobile SIM yet. Also isn't there something in about having to register French SIMs with a French address? I plan to re-use the cut down for iPhone SIM again in Europe. My usage was 26mb on 1 day, more like 10mb on others. Would be higher but I use WiFI where Possible.

NFH

buglawton wrote: »

Where I am, not seen a Lycamobile SIM yet. Also isn't there something in about having to register French SIMs with a French address?

No, you can order Lycamobile SIM cards for free delivery to a French address with €1 free credit. You can also buy them in tobacconists and various other places (68,000 shops across France), sometimes free of charge but with no free credit. There is no requirement to have a French address, unless you're ordering a free SIM online.

buglawton

Not disputing the above, for those who stay longer or repeatedly in France... BTW I did look out again for Lebara SIMs, just to see what availability... none seen in the big hypermarkets either, though 3 or 4 other brands of SIM were on sale.

For simplicity and cheapness combined, for a UK resident just about to pop off to France - or any other of a long list of European countries, also maybe taking on more than 1 country.... o2 PAYG gets my top vote. Does any other UK PAYG SIM provider beat the £1.99 per day deal with no contract required?

Additional observation on my recent trip: On the last day, doing not a huge lot on the iPhone, I hit the 25mb limit again. Was warned just beforehand and invited to top up again with another £1.99/25mb by sending an SMS message. I did not go for it as was already at the airport... but this could be useful if you were halfway through doing your online check-in!

NFH

buglawton wrote: »

For simplicity and cheapness combined, for a UK resident just about to pop off to France - or any other of a long list of European countries, also maybe taking on more than 1 country.... o2 PAYG gets my top vote. Does any other UK PAYG SIM provider beat the £1.99 per day deal with no contract required?

If you use less than 13.3MB per day, then Toggle Mobile could be better. You get free incoming calls and a local phone number, but data is £0.15/MB. They're owned by Lycamobile.

buglawton

iPhone for one seems a bit greedy on data, or is it that is just encourages data use... so not sure about the 13 MB.

Good find, and works in UK too at the 15p rate.

NFH

buglawton wrote: »

iPhone for one seems a bit greedy on data, or is it that is just encourages data use... so not sure about the 13 MB.

I think it's a bit of both. For example, I normally use only 200-400MB in the UK each month (which is 13.3MB/day coincidentally), but when I go abroad, I tend to use a lot more, often for maps etc. Or maybe it's because when I have paid for an expensive data roaming bundle or have a month's allowance from a local SIM card to use in a few days, I want to get my money's worth so I use it more than I need to.

NFH

buglawton wrote: »

BTW I did look out again for Lebara SIMs, just to see what availability... none seen in the big hypermarkets either, though 3 or 4 other brands of SIM were on sale.

Just to be clear, it's Lycamobile, not Lebara. Lebara don't offer data in France, so don't touch them. According to images on Lycamobile's web site, you can get their SIM cards in the following places:

buglawton

Yes Lycamobile, gotcha. I confuse this with Lebara easily! Overall my costs would have been similar to the o2 deal if I'd had one of these SIMs. If you are starting to use 25mb blocks, then o2 at under 10p per MB is not too bad.