Mobile Broadband travelling to Europe

Paula1981

Hi, has anyone got any recommendations for mobile broadband please? We currently have a dongle thing from Vodafone but it never seems to work in Europe even after phoning them twice & resetting it etc. We need something that can be used in Europe for the kids ipads as we are driving, so they will need something. We are away for 3 weeks. Many thanks  

Grumpy_chap

What mobile phone contracts do you have?
Can you hotspot from the mobile phone?

Paula1981

we have Lebara sims, but i think you can only have 25g in eurpoe & im not sure that will last 3 weeks

Martin_the_Unjust

It’s 30 gig and I’m sure you can top up.

I suggest you turn off automatic background refresh etc on all the apps you don’t really need as well.

heatherw_01

You could get a eSIM and tether to your phone.

I only ever use aloSIM as they have good prices and you can use discounts. Plus their service is very good. I once had an issue and I used the chat and they sorted it in 2 mins flat.

As for discount codes for aloSIM, CHRONICTRAVEL gives 15% off and MYTRAVEL gives the equivalent of $3 off in GBP.
No minimum spend. First purchase only for these big discounts.

You can even end up with a almost free one for the $3 off code, but the 15% off is much better for larger amount of data.


I have used so many wifi dongles and they have awful battery life and some don't work in some countries as they have different frequencies for mobile networks, so some sims from different countries won't work in your dongle as it will be for UK frequencies.
i.e LTE isn't just LTE, it is different frequency bands, so UK networks are on a different one to say the USA.
I found this out the hard way.
Had about 7 dongles over 15 years.

Nebulous2

I've posted on this recently in the mobile section. 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6612886/data-in-europe/p1

We use a 4g router, but it needs a power supply, and wouldn't work in the car. 

Smarty is about the best I can find. They limit you to 12GB fair use, but will give you a 10GB top-up for £9.  

Bargain42

Following this as I haven't used a dongle before but realise it could come in handy for my next trip away in Europe.