Mobile Roaming: Cheapest Calls When You're Abroad

chickendippers

Hi,
Thanks for your article, it was most influential in choosing a solution prior to my trip to Manhattan, New York City earlier this month.

I choose a Three PAYG card for my unlocked handset. I didn't have cause to use much calling or texting, but I thought I'd share some real-world speed tests I performed randomly during my week's stay:


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So as you can see the results make for grim reading; all tests obtain a ping so there is a modicum of connectivity at all times, but there is clearly some rate-limiting going on. Furthermore the poor results are spread across Three's two partner networks; AT&T and T-Mobile.

All tests were performed with 4 or more bars of H or H+ signal, so I find it hard to believe these are the speeds native New Yorkers are receiving themselves.

Hope that helps!

m5rcc

Tesco Mobile has scrapped EU roaming fees for the summer, meaning that both PAYG and contract customers will be able to use their existing mobile tariffs to call, text and chomp through data abroad at no extra cost. Hurrah!

The scheme, called ‘Home From Home’, is similar to Three’s excellent ‘Feel at Home’ -- in more ways than one, clearly -- but covers a staggering 31 separate countries. Unfortunately, Tesco Mobile's offering is only available between May 23rd and September 3rd, and caters exclusively to European travellers. Tough luck if you’re heading further afield this summer. Still, for everyone else it's a fantastic deal.

You can find all of the Home From Home-supported countries below:

Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain (including Canary Islands)
Sweden
Switzerland

samwardill

I just found out on arrival in Turkey that Vodafone regards Turkey as being part of Europe (with £3 / day charge to use home call and data bundle). I wish I had known before!

mbax

I am currently with three but I'm moving to the Netherlands for a year soon. I know the 'feel at home' service doesn't extend to holland unfortunately but can any give my any advice on how to keep my same number active but also the cheapest option. I was thinking of moving my number to some payg sim, getting a contract over there and then getting a duel-sim phone to receive texts + calls from the uk one and using the local one for everything else?

Any tips? Thanks

mchale

Virgin mobile

J_B

mbax wrote: »

I am currently with three but I'm moving to the Netherlands for a year soon. I know the 'feel at home' service doesn't extend to holland unfortunately but can any give my any advice on how to keep my same number active but also the cheapest option. I was thinking of moving my number to some payg sim, getting a contract over there and then getting a duel-sim phone to receive texts + calls from the uk one and using the local one for everything else?

When DD2 had a year abroad, she phoned Three and asked to be put onto their SIM zero, which is basically a PAYG account, but with a monthly bill.
I'm told that they no longer offer this deal, but maybe worth a phone call??

fladavid

Hi.
In October I'm travelling to Marsa Alam in Egypt and would like to know the best option for a sim for my phone.
I'm currently with Three but Egypt is not covered by the "feel at home" plan. All Three phones are unlocked by default luckily but I need a nano sim for my S7.
I'd like some data on the sim as well as a small amount of call time. I looked online and there is a Vodaphone kiosk at the airport in Marsa Alam where you can preorder from the UK and collect in Egypt on arrival but I didn't know whether this was legitimate or if it was the expensive way of doing it?
Can anyone advise please?
David.

Roger1

I'm used to paying 3p per minute to landlines in/between Toggle markets and 3p to 9p to mobiles. This is still the case for some markets, e.g. UK to Switzerland; UK to US; UK to Spain; Switzerland to US and v.v.; US to US.

I've not done a comprehensive check, but I noticed the following all show significant changes: UK to UK; Switzerland to Switzerland; Switzerland to UK; US to UK; Spain to UK. All of these are now 7p per minute for calls to both landlines and mobiles.

Still good value for me.

Oh, one other thing. I sent myself a text message almost 2 days ago - got to keep my balance! - but it hasn't arrived yet. But the 5p charge shows, so the life of my balance is extended.

timswf2

While the 3 'feel at home' sounds good - my experience with it has been terrible. As well as limiting mobile data to 3G - there's something going on to throttle data. So while it is fine for a few emails and WhatsApp - don't expect to watch any video clips or look at anything other than simple websites.

I've experienced these problems in the Canaries and France. Each time 3 support initially blamed local operators - but then pointed to their small print that lets them do this. Frankly throttled data does't make me feel at home. Sadly there wasn't even a way to pay for proper bandwidth. My complaint via Resolver has gone unanswered.

I worry about what the phone companies will do when roaming charges are abolished in Europe - can they get away with throttling to limit their losses?

Purple_Zebra

We're on our way to NYC USA and I've found about this on my hours of info gathering:
(My first post means I can't post a link, but its share dot america dot gov forwardslash free-Wi-Fi-new-York-city A search for LinkNYC or Share America might do the trick too.)
Apparently "With mobile phones so common, pay phones have become obsolete. Demand for Wi-Fi, on the other hand, is multiplying rapidly. The new internet kiosks will even let people make free phone calls."
Within 45 metres of an internet kiosk you get superfast free wifi internet connection Looks like the perfect answer (in NYC at least).
A quick search on moneysavingexpert shows no mention of either ShareAmerica or LinkNYC so I thought I'd best let you know.
Couple of questions
1. How secure is it?
2. Are there other locations around the world with similar solutions?