Trexpat Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 I am leaving BKK for a family trip to UK and EU on Saturday, can anyone offer an insight into which network carrier i should use. I will be wanting Data mostly but perhaps some call minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fab5BKK Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 To keep it simple: 1. Data roaming is expensive (please Google "bill shock") 2. I'd recommend to buy 1 pre-paid SIM card (+ 1 data plan) per country you visit. 3. These cards can be bought @ the airports and Telco Shops. 4. Generally speaking, Tier 1 Telcos offer the best coverage. 5. However, it'd depend on the location. Hope it'll help 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlieH Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 MOVED to Telecoms Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topt Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 To keep it simple: 1. Data roaming is expensive (please Google "bill shock") 2. I'd recommend to buy 1 pre-paid SIM card (+ 1 data plan) per country you visit. 3. These cards can be bought @ the airports and Telco Shops. 4. Generally speaking, Tier 1 Telcos offer the best coverage. 5. However, it'd depend on the location. Hope it'll help Generally agree with above. Have a look on http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/mobile-phone-cost-cutting for UK for example. Suggest Google for other or Euro wide coverage. For a USB data sim for a laptop I can recommend EE in the UK which I used last year. I originally tried Vodafone but could not get it to work reliably (nor could the store in the end) and had my purchase refunded but it cost me a lot of wasted time and effort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livinthailandos Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 Well as I just came from the UK last month I can tell you don't use Virgin, while they were easy to setup, didn't check me coverage was poor in many areas around Scotland, more than a few times my data connection went to 2G / Edge internet which isn't 3G. When my internet did work I only got 3G internet speeds a lot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livinthailandos Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 Also had spotty coverage around London to. One day my internet quit working, went to the virgin shop and Believe it or not the staff at Virgin even told me Virgin network constantly has issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim walker Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 when My Mrs comes over for a holiday we normally just pop into a Tesco or Asda super store http://www.vodafone.co.uk/shop/pay-as-you-go/ I found this one has the best coverage for Scotland but you can get a huge choice of sims in any supermarket Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heybuz Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiu-Jitsu Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 EE may be your best bet. You can buy an add on pack for as little as £1. http://shop.ee.co.uk/price-plans/pay-as-you-go/about-packs £1 for 100MB 10 mins 10 texts over 7 days Three gives you an idea of some other options: http://www.three.co.uk/Store/Pay_As_You_Go_Price_Plans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitemouse Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 (edited) Yes, as suggested before, buy a SIM for each country. I can not tell about UK, but I was in Spain for few weeks just now, and I was hoping to use my existing SIM card that bought in Finland. EU roaming regulations have made roaming within EU cheap, and data use is capped to about 6 Euros per day, and that includes 100 Mb of data. That means you are cut off after 6 Euros have been reached, so no chance of a massive surprise phone bill. Seems reasonable, yes? No. 100 Mb is used up very quickly, even while not browsing phone much, I had of course all apps updating, the weather apps and all the rest, so in the middle of day 1 in Barcelona SMS notification tells you that your 100 Mb are gone, and you can ask for another 100 Mb top by sending SMS to my Finland carrier. So I walked to corner store, bought Orange prepaid data SIM for 10 Euros, for that I got a SIM card and 1 Gb of data. If you ran out of 1 Gb, you can top up at Orange web site, very simple. Real 3G speed, even in very crowded areas, no complaints. Going to France, same thing - buy a local prepaid data SIM. Roaming isn't expensive if you have a SIM card from EU nation, but it is much cheaper to buy local SIM. using a Thai SIM in EU.. I dont even want to think of the roaming charges lol Edited April 16, 2015 by whitemouse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiangmaiRob Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 (edited) I researched that for the UK last year and went for EE. Worked great and used 3G which was relatively inexpensive. I'm going back again next month and will use the same sim. I'm also going to Monaco for a week and although I won't use the phone much, I'll just load up to cover any important calls, but otherwise I will use wifi from the hotel. Edited April 16, 2015 by ChiangmaiRob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BKKdreaming Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 a couple years ago I used the sims from ALDI in Germany Not sure if that is the same now , also McDonalds had free WiFi in Germany Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deserted Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 EE, definitely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacko45k Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 (edited) I still have my old O2 Pre-paid SIM and keep it active. For data I use my PC and again I have an O2 SIM in a dongle and pre-pay for data with a credit card. I expect I will need to swap this as I have not used it for over 6 months, but last time the O2 shop gave me one for free. There is an International SIM which for £15 top-up offers 100MB of data, a lot of 'minutes' but to other O2 phones only. Call mobiles and landlines abroad from the UK for just 1p a minute. Plus, you can text anywhere in the world from the UK for 12p. And you get O2 minutes and O2 texts plus some data to use in the UK too. I would not do 'roaming' using the Thai SIM. Edited April 16, 2015 by jacko45k Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirtycash Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 in uk , here are cheapest EE O2 in eu a lot of people go for this one LEBARA. or 3 moble. i suggest you buy a sim card from any of these and get internet , if you get internet then you can download these apps below to make instant free calls and messages to any where in the world www.line.com www.facebookmessenger.com www.viber.com www.whatsapp.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casualbiker Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 (edited) I just checked the EE pay as you go.. And it didn't seem much different to the 3 package.. Also the £15 3 package is unlimited.. So why EE definitely??? Also 3 don't do auto package update.. Your credit stays on until YOU choose to use it. Edited April 17, 2015 by casualbiker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiu-Jitsu Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 I just checked the EE pay as you go.. And it didn't seem much different to the 3 package.. Also the £15 3 package is unlimited.. So why EE definitely??? Also 3 don't do auto package update.. Your credit stays on until YOU choose to use it. No Tethering with the £15 All You Can Eat package on PAYG with 3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiu-Jitsu Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 in uk , here are cheapest EE O2 in eu a lot of people go for this one LEBARA. or 3 moble. i suggest you buy a sim card from any of these and get internet , if you get internet then you can download these apps below to make instant free calls and messages to any where in the world www.line.com www.facebookmessenger.com www.viber.com www.whatsapp.com When did O2 become the cheapest?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiu-Jitsu Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 Something like this could be good for the light user. 99p gets you: 25 Minutes, 50 Texts plus £4 credit(which you can use to buy a data pack from £1). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casualbiker Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 I just checked the EE pay as you go.. And it didn't seem much different to the 3 package.. Also the £15 3 package is unlimited.. So why EE definitely??? Also 3 don't do auto package update.. Your credit stays on until YOU choose to use it. No Tethering with the £15 All You Can Eat package on PAYG with 3. True enough. Lucky I never tether Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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