I know that this subject has been aired many times but currency is particularly relevant to the information provided. I will be heading to the UK and Germany in a couple of weeks for a month plus, ideally the SIM would provide calls, text and data with reasonable roaming charges. Research shows plenty of options for UK but limited roaming (Germany) at reasonable cost. After much Googling I am inclined to go to a Carphone Warehouse on arrival and take their advice and assistance; however, I would welcome any suggestion from recent travellers.
If you get a UK sim card, roaming to the EU is very cheap for calls, txts, and data. You are right, there are a lot of options, the 4 main networks in the UK are O2, 3, EE, and Vodafone. There are countless MVNO's. I use the Co-operative mobile on pay as you go.
Also, Vodafone has just updated their pay as your go sims, I use to be with them and they had good roaming deals to the EU. If Data is the main thing you want while roaming, I think O2 has a fixed daily rate
we was in uk not long ago, and was shocked how bad vodafone coverage was, in a 80k pop town - middle of the main street, said we had 3 bar edge network, but no data would work, ended up getting a 3 sim, as this was normal for the last 4 days around the uk. Shop keeper said, yeah vodafone does not work here, and got that everywhere we went - ahh vodafone, their your problem. 3 was better - not as good coverage as nz has - ie out of town even on major moterway was hit and miss, in towns was good coverage. most poeple said go with 3 or EE
bagheera: we was in uk not long ago, and was shocked how bad vodafone coverage was, in a 80k pop town - middle of the main street, said we had 3 bar edge network, but no data would work, ended up getting a 3 sim, as this was normal for the last 4 days around the uk. Shop keeper said, yeah vodafone does not work here, and got that everywhere we went - ahh vodafone, their your problem. 3 was better - not as good coverage as nz has - ie out of town even on major moterway was hit and miss, in towns was good coverage. most poeple said go with 3 or EE
Would depend on type of handset as VodafoneUK has a load of 4G on the 800 band
bagheera: we was in uk not long ago, and was shocked how bad vodafone coverage was, in a 80k pop town - middle of the main street, said we had 3 bar edge network, but no data would work, ended up getting a 3 sim, as this was normal for the last 4 days around the uk. Shop keeper said, yeah vodafone does not work here, and got that everywhere we went - ahh vodafone, their your problem. 3 was better - not as good coverage as nz has - ie out of town even on major moterway was hit and miss, in towns was good coverage. most poeple said go with 3 or EE
Would depend on type of handset as VodafoneUK has a load of 4G on the 800 band
so if your phone older then 1 year and or does not have 4g, do not use vodafone uk - check, sounds about right on what we saw.
Three have an app that you can use on Wifi if you don't have coverage don't know if that works while out of the UK though. They also have a roaming deal that in some countries as long as you are on a certin prepaid plan it does not cost any extra.
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