Hi all,
I will be studying abroad in Europe this fall, staying in Sweden, and am looking around for a balance mobile plan. I have an unlocked Captivate so I have bands covered for the majority of Europe -- I will be looking for a sim-only plan.
I'm not a heavy user so texting/calling are not my priority. However a decent data plan would be ideal, and be gold if I could use it across the Eurozone.
Does anybody have experience with European mobile carriers? Recommendations? Advice?
No one is from Europe? :/
You'll need to do research specific to your country yourself, but as far as I know, it's quite good here.
For example in my country (poland) I have pre-paid plan where for 50 PLN I "upload" into my account I get 50 days of unlimited internet. And the 50 PLN is still to use on SMS/calling.
P.S.: I'm afraid there may not be good, affordable data plan that you can use all across euroland.
info on uk
hi!
I live in the uk and here the main carriers are o2, vodafone, orange, t-mobile and 3.
they all have a pay and go sim where you put £5, £10 on and have certain things like 500mb of data with texts/calls etc have a look at their website and see if any are ok for you!
i hope it helps!
cheers
Rob
If I were you I would change the title to Sweedish carriers, Europe is not a country it's a bit like me asking for anyone from North America to tell me about Mexican carriers lol!
TheMadMoose said:
... Europe is not a country ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's it ... something like a flat rate for all over Europe doesn't exist.
You have to get a SIM from a carrier in that country, where you will mainly stay and it's very likely, that a prepaid card will be the best/cheapest choice.
Let's take myself as an example:
I have a prepaid card from T-Mobile in Germany, which is the cheapest choice for my needs. If I need data connections, I have two choices. Standard is, that I pay 1 Euro for a day flatrate. Alternatively I can book a monthly data flatrate for 10 Euro.
If I travel e.g. to the Netherlands I will be connected to T-Mobile Netherlands and have to pay higher roaming fees, e.g. 2 Euro data day flatrate. For day trips this is acceptable, especially when mainly used for navigation, but if I would make holidays, let's say 2 weeks in spain, I would buy a prepaid SIM in Spain, because roaming fees can empty your wallet very quickly
So you first have to look for a carrier in Sweden, where you mainly will stay and check their local and roaming conditions. If you stay longer in other Europian countries, it's a good idea to check the carriers and their prepaid offers in that countries too.
Related
Hi,
I am looking to buy a XDA2 or Imate. I live in the top end of Australia so Telstra is really the only option for networks.
I cant decide how Im going to buy one! If I purchase outright then use Telstra prepaid I cant use GPRS right?
If I purchase from the Telstra website I have to pay a lump sum up front, then repayments on the phone and then join a "Telstra memberplan" which has amazingly high call rates. See http://telstrashop.telstra.com/package.asp?strSelItem=XUZIMATE&cat=1&cat2=handset
Are there any better options for buying a imate/XDA2 on a Telstra plan?
Thanks,
Dave
Take a trip even norther?
I got my XDA-II in Singapore "contract free" and it was about AUD$800 after echange rate in December. Aus retail was about $1350 at the time. Exchange rate is a little bit worse now, but the XDA-II are also cheaper.
Contact free is more expensive than with a plan, but then you are "unlocked" and free to choose your plan with the telco of your choice.
The sing XDA-II are the same as the aus and come loaded with 1.6WWE (if not upgrade it yourself) which has optus and telstra settups for GPRS and WAP selectable amongst all the asian telcos.
I have been using 1.6WWE with GPRS and OPTUS on my existing SIM card for about 6mths.
The saving you make on peripherals etc would allow you to have a few days holiday in Singapore.. :wink:
Hi all,
as the distribution for this phone is currently limited to those 4 countries, what are the options of buying one there (an unlocked one) and then using it in a regular Network outside?
What limitations do i need to consider?
What risks am i taking?
I believe switzerland runs a regular GSM network,nothing special.
regards
Living in France, I am also considering buying it in the UK.
As far as I remember, the French and UK 3G bands are similar, and I could pickup some 3G signal with my French HD while in the UK. I guess it should work the other way around
Has anyone ordered from non US countries? Any info about the price there?
I live in France too, and I'm very interested in this phone. I wait to know if it works in France.
Waiting for it from Switzerland
It is expected to hit France in the first quarter of 2010 on SFR...
If you want it now, you'd better find a friend in the UK who will order it for you and ship it. In the UK, it retails at around 450€ inc VAT.
Dhirmadi said:
Hi all,
as the distribution for this phone is currently limited to those 4 countries, what are the options of buying one there (an unlocked one) and then using it in a regular Network outside?
What limitations do i need to consider?
What risks am i taking?
I believe switzerland runs a regular GSM network,nothing special.
regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nothing special if you are using GSM SIM. However, google is controlling the sale, so the location to ship the phone to must be within its restricted country list. If you know of an escrow service in Switzerland which charges you for a shipment address in US, you can bypass that restriction.
Hi all.
I am traveling to the UK and Europe for 8 weeks with my Telecom XT (New Zealand) Nexus One (From AT&T 850/1900mhz).
Does anyone know what the best network to go on would be? I will be using the phone mostly for data connections for maps, email, booking accommodation etc and also as a wi-fi hot spot for my laptop. I will send no more then 5 txts per day and maybe 1 call a day tops.
I had a look around the forums but couldn't find any info since around 2008. I figure its going to be a bit of a pain because I will be roaming.
If anyone from the UK or who has knowledge of their networks could help it would be much appreciated.
My apologies for putting this in General rather then Q&A. I cannot figure out how to delete or move this either...
Do you absolutely need your NZ number? Or else you should just buy a pay as you go sim in the few countries where you will stay for a while. You can roam for a few days between longer stops and buy another once you get somewhere else. Only takes a few minutes in the uk.
With data you can call out on skype. So you can use that also.
Hi, Thanks for the reply. I have no need to use my New Zealand Number.
I was hoping I would be able to buy a sim on a network over there that would allow me to use data in the UK and several countries around Europe (EU). For the Europe part of the Journey we are only spending up to 4 days in each country so I don't particularly want to but 7 sim cards. Is there a network that offers a sim that will work in all of Europe without charging roaming rates? That way I could I just have another on for in the UK?
I think you could be right about having one Sim for the Uk and then buying another one in every few countries in the Europe.
I was hoping a UK carrier might have a data that allowed roaming but it doesn't look like that.
Is there a prepaid sim that would work in EU countries without charging roaming in between them?
NZtoUK said:
Hi, Thanks for the reply. I have no need to use my New Zealand Number.
I was hoping I would be able to buy a sim on a network over there that would allow me to use data in the UK and several countries around Europe (EU). For the Europe part of the Journey we are only spending up to 4 days in each country so I don't particularly want to but 7 sim cards. Is there a network that offers a sim that will work in all of Europe without charging roaming rates? That way I could I just have another on for in the UK?
I think you could be right about having one Sim for the Uk and then buying another one in every few countries in the Europe.
I was hoping a UK carrier might have a data that allowed roaming but it doesn't look like that.
Is there a prepaid sim that would work in EU countries without charging roaming in between them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Almost all the carriers have agreements with each other. A uk sim will roam in most if not all of europe. The problem with having a sim from one country is that you might not be able to top it up in another country. I have a tmo uk sim but ive never tried adding money from somewhere else. You might be able to do it with a credit card online but im not sure if that will work 100%.
Roaming with data is a complete ripoff! For 5 pounds a month in the uk i get 1gb. If you pay 30 pounds you only get 50mb abroad so I would definitely try stopping quickly at a phone store if youre data hungry. I dont know any where you can use anywhere
On the other hand there are some euro travel plans on tmo/orange/o2 that give you 200/300 minutes abroad per month at a discounted rate and recieve for free.
plans from uk:
http://www.o2international.co.uk/callingfromoverseas/myeurope_extra.aspx
http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/services/boosters/
http://www2.orange.co.uk/servlet/Satellite?c=OUKPage&cid=1044131837837&pagename=PersonalIR#ET
FYI you recieve txts for FREE in europe
Yeah. Looks like I should just get A prepaid sim for the UK while I'm there and get another pre paid sim in a couple of European countries.
It looks like I can get 50 Mb £40 that will last for 30 days in Europe with Orange. I doubt 50mb will be enough.
Vodafone Uk looks the best with Vodafone Data Traveller that gives you 25MB in selected European countries for 2pounds per day. It doesn't say if its 25MB per day or per month but I assume it is per day.
Still a complete rip off like you said.
I was hoping there was going to be a network that would cover all UK and Europe so that's a shame.
Ill just have to hope I don't lose all my sim cards I will be carrying.
Cheers for your help.
Ill post back here if I find a particularly cheap way to use data on my phone while in multiple countries in Europe.
I bought a pre-paid Orange SIM when I was in the UK a few months ago. Came with 100MB which I managed to make last the whole two weeks (ran out on my last day). However, that was being very careful with mobile data and using Wifi as much as possible.
Here is a quite useful overview:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/roaming/tariffs/in_ms/index_en.htm
Just select the country where you bought your prepaid SIM, then select "data pre-paid" and you will see the costs in your destination country.
The prices are very similar because they are limited by european regulations recently introduced.
"3" prepaid sim is dirt cheap for data. Buy in the UK and you can use your data allocation in UK, Ireland, Italy and Sweden without any roaming charges at all.
I've used my "3 Ireland" sim over in Italy and it worked a threat.
€4.99 for 500MB/month so it won't cost an arm and a leg. You can buy as many data addons as you need and when one expires then it automatically starts using the next one. So if 1Gb required just buy 2 data addons for €9.98
3 UK will have different pricing and offers, but data roaming will still work for the above mentioned countries.
See here for more info http://www.three.co.uk/
Just drop into one of their stores when you're in the UK and get it all sorted there.
HTH.
I can confirm what cpm says. I'm on 3 Ireland with a free add-on of 500MB data per month that I can use in Denmark while roaming on the Danish 3 network. The same applies when I'm in Sweden, UK, and Italy.
+1 for three
they even give you free skype (over gsm... not crappy data connection)
NZtoUK said:
Hi all.
I am traveling to the UK and Europe for 8 weeks with my Telecom XT (New Zealand) Nexus One (From AT&T 850/1900mhz).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Europe uses 900/2100mhz
i have t-mobile N1 from USA.
i was in london 2 months ago and at heathrow, i got a t-mobile sim chip out of a vending machine ( 10 to 15 pounds ) and had seamless experience as local customer on the new number. The only hard part was figuring out that i needed to 'top-off' the pay-go account and finally went to a t-mobile store in order to pay 15 or 20 pounds at a time to get necessary credit on the pay-go account.
I have a US tmo nexus, and used orange in the UK for a few weeks earlier this year. Loved the fact that you can top up by going into virtually any store and buying a top up voucher, then just enter the voucher PIN into your phone...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Don't forget that you can also top-up your Pay As You Go data online also (unless you need a UK credit card?). Useful when you already have your first data package in place.
If you go with 3 though, you shouldn't need to top-up your data plan too often
so after doing exhaustive research on the subject I was not able to find a definitive thread or answer on the subject of using international sim cards on an unlocked g2. I'm hoping someone here at xda has experience with this and is able to give me advice.
I'm going to be backpacking europe for 5 weeks and want to bring my g2 to use as a computer (while connected to wifi) and making rare calls (just to check in with people at home), htc's website says this phone is quad band and umts http://www.htc.com/us/products/t-mobile-g2#tech-specs but I've never traveled so I'm not sure what to make of it.
any help would be very appreciated!!
edit: called tmobile and they were no help at all, the rep was reading off a script that didnt have much info. looking for personal experience please!
Hi,
G2/Desire Z as you rightly point out will be able to deal with mobile networks in Europe.
The problem you face is that a Sim from county 1 will work Ok in that country but will attract data roaming charges in all other european countries.
That's unless you negotiate something with the operator prior to your purchase regarding both mobile data and call roaming charges.
Chances are you will get a better deal from maybe Germany or perhaps france. Check them both on the web and also check the uk operators and see where you get..
Des. . .
Essential: WHEN will you be going? Because TMO Germany is about to bring up an Europe-wide (or at least Western Europe) roaming-charges-free card. I'll look it up and answer asap. Hold on.
EDIT: TMO Travel & Surf does not include (or not even feature? Not clear from the Article I read) calls. Sorry. PLUS the Prices seem not really good to me. I haven't found anything you're looking for in Germany yet. Could do with it as well. Greez, mwrsa
I will be travelling march-april. I guess what my question is, once they send me my unlock code and I unlock my phone to use the international sim, I will not be tied at all to tmobile or their roaming charges unless I put my original sim card back in the phone is that correct?
does anyone have any recommendations what carriers are the best? I'll be going to UK, France, Netherlands, Germany, Czech, and Spain
well I can't speak for europe I'm currently out of my home country with my DZ, I unlocked it with gfree, which I would reccomend. also its definetly cheaper to use a local simcard from where every you are travelling, there's no getting around roaming charges and insane rates if your going international. I personally picked up a free ATT card here where I am and paid 20 bucks for 100mb of data, since calling and texting is still expensive I communicate through "whatsapp" with my wife and family . it worrks on data or wifi, let's u send and receive pics and videos and uses a surprisingly tiny amount of data to do so. id honestly reccomend this route so long as your family has a whatsapp compatible device, currently its available for blackberry,droid,and iphone.
sorry I can't be more help but with "real life" experience I found this to be the best route. if u need voice, its still cheaper to pickup a 20dollar long distance calling card and use the hotel phones. or skype app when your on wifi.
hope it helps a bit! and have a safe trip!
ptesmoke
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
Problem is, that at least with German SIM-Cards, you need an adress here in germany ti register the card to your name. Austria and GB have "3" as a network operator. AFAIK they have a sim-card with no roaming fees where "3" is available as a network.
Hi,
I'll be going through europe this summer. The suggestion of getting a local PAYG sim is good, on the face of it. Unless you are going to be in that country for just a few days (as I will be) then, perhaps, it is more aggravation to get the sims than pay roaming.
A sim from Germany - if it was to include some country roaming - from either O2 or T-Mobile or even Voda - may be an answer.
Very much depends on how long you will be in each country I guess.
A week+ stay in each country, and a sim from each country when you get there could week prove to be your way forward.
Des. . .
HI,
This is worth a read. Gives you some idea as to prices and amounts:
Roaming Data Charges - UK Accounts...
Des. . .
As far as band compatibility, the important thing is that your phone is compatible with the bands used in Europe. Looks like Europe uses the 900 and 1800 MHz GSM bands just about everywhere for voice, and UMTS 2100 for 3G. The G2 has GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1900; and UMTS 1700/2100, 2100. So you're good to go as far as the hardware compatibility.
International sim card
Hello!
Have you ever heard about international sim cards? In my opinion is the best solution to save on roaming charges!
Personally I use WorldSIm, they have both a UK and US number in the same sim card and have free incoming calls in over 90 countries.
There are more like this in the market but I can only speak about what I already now and I'm very happy with.
Hope it helps!
Hi all!
I'm going on a 2 month trip to Canada. I'm starting out in the Ontario area and will then decide on where to go exactly.. I've got a european Note 3 (from Switzerland where I live) and I want to know, if I can get any 3G or 4G connectivity?
Additionally, what provider do you recommend? I'm searching for a pre-paid one for simple telephony and texting, but it would be nice if some data usage is included.
Can any Canadians help me out here? I'd love to use my phablet there aswell, not only in Wifi areas
Dreami said:
Hi all!
I'm going on a 2 month trip to Canada. I'm starting out in the Ontario area and will then decide on where to go exactly.. I've got a european Note 3 (from Switzerland where I live) and I want to know, if I can get any 3G or 4G connectivity?
Additionally, what provider do you recommend? I'm searching for a pre-paid one for simple telephony and texting, but it would be nice if some data usage is included.
Can any Canadians help me out here? I'd love to use my phablet there aswell, not only in Wifi areas
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty sure your european note 3 is region locked. You must unlock your phone to get it working in Canada. I would recommend Chatr for pay per use $20 u get unlimited calls and text. Here take a look http://www.chatrwireless.com/web/content/payperuse
prasanthlt said:
I'm pretty sure your european note 3 is region locked. You must unlock your phone to get it working in Canada. I would recommend Chatr for pay per use $20 u get unlimited calls and text. Here take a look http://www.chatrwireless.com/web/content/payperuse
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The region lock is deactivated after you make 5 minutes of calls on it. for the specific procedure, google.