Whats a good Prepay Data Plan for travelling in the UK

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kiwitrc

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#106225 19-Jul-2012 17:20

As above, have a friend going to the UK soon and she asked me if I knew of any good prepaid data plans. I dont, can anyone suggest something suitable. She is traveling from the bottom up to Scotland and over to Ireland. I have started searching but some recent experience is always good, including any gotchas.

gzt

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#658620 19-Jul-2012 17:59

I used GiffGaff traveling around the UK and nearly up to the border with Scotland just recently. GiffGaff is an O2 service brand. Voice coverage was good. Data was patchy out of the cities to say the least. Not much 3G around. I was warned about this for the UK generally but still a surprise in areas that were relatively populated. A lot of places with no data service at all. GPRS was ok when available, but where Edge was available it did not work on my iPhone 3G at all for some reason.

Unlimited internet + 250 UK minutes + free to call and text other GiffGaff sim users. NZD$20 and lasts a month

http://giffgaff.com/goodybags/10pound-facebook-goodybag

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kiwitrc

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#659772 22-Jul-2012 06:43

Missed the reply, thanks GZT

gzt

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#659773 22-Jul-2012 07:22

You're welcome. Next time I'll try a network that uses something other than O2. Throughput and reliability of the O2 3G was highly variable even where the signal was very good - but that may have been a combination of my ancient hardware and the areas I was traveling in.

There is a lot of choice in the UK with many providers offering unlimited prepay net and virtually unlimited calls and texts for between NZD$20 and NZD$30. Many offer mailout of free SIM's if you can get a UK address to send them to.

This is handy for seeing the provider relationships and coverage: http://ukmobilecoverage.co.uk/best and links to each of their sites as well.

Interested to hear what you select and any experience on the ground.

kiwitrc

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#659774 22-Jul-2012 07:35

Yeah I was looking at 3 as they have better coverage and its only 5 GBP more. Great prices for unlimited data!

Lizard1977

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#660314 23-Jul-2012 12:13

I have just got back from a 4 week holiday in the UK. I went with 3 Mobile's 15 pound Pay As You Go bundle for iPhone, which gave me 300 mins of anytime calling, 1000 txts (I think), and unlimited data. Coverage was reasonably good - we travelled around quite a bit - we spent 10 nights in a small village in Yorkshire, and had reception almost everywhere in that area. We also travelled to Cardiff, Dorset, Bedford, Kent and London, and I don't recall anywhere we didn't have 3G coverage for the majority of the time. A couple of times the signal dropped out driving from Swindon to Swanage, which made for interesting driving using the GPS, but on the whole I was happy with it. Dead simple to set up as well - just bowled up to the store, purchased the micro SIM card, popped it in the phone, and 5 minutes later I was active on the network.

jbard

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#660360 23-Jul-2012 13:18

Lizard1977: I have just got back from a 4 week holiday in the UK. I went with 3 Mobile's 15 pound Pay As You Go bundle for iPhone, which gave me 300 mins of anytime calling, 1000 txts (I think), and unlimited data. Coverage was reasonably good - we travelled around quite a bit - we spent 10 nights in a small village in Yorkshire, and had reception almost everywhere in that area. We also travelled to Cardiff, Dorset, Bedford, Kent and London, and I don't recall anywhere we didn't have 3G coverage for the majority of the time. A couple of times the signal dropped out driving from Swindon to Swanage, which made for interesting driving using the GPS, but on the whole I was happy with it. Dead simple to set up as well - just bowled up to the store, purchased the micro SIM card, popped it in the phone, and 5 minutes later I was active on the network.

+1

3 is the best deal and I have heard they have the best speeds but I never tested any other network while I was over there.

kiwitrc

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#660363 23-Jul-2012 13:25

Great thanks guys, sounds like the best option.

Lizard1977

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#660384 23-Jul-2012 14:25

jbard:
Lizard1977: I have just got back from a 4 week holiday in the UK.? I went with 3 Mobile's 15 pound Pay As You Go bundle for iPhone, which gave me 300 mins of anytime calling, 1000 txts (I think), and unlimited data.? Coverage was reasonably good - we travelled around quite a bit - we spent 10 nights in a small village in Yorkshire, and had reception almost everywhere in that area.? We also travelled to Cardiff, Dorset, Bedford, Kent and London, and I don't recall anywhere we didn't have 3G coverage for the majority of the time.? A couple of times the signal dropped out driving from Swindon to Swanage, which made for interesting driving using the GPS, but on the whole I was happy with it.? Dead simple to set up as well - just bowled up to the store, purchased the micro SIM card, popped it in the phone, and 5 minutes later I was active on the network.

+1

3 is the best deal and I have heard they have the best speeds but I never tested any other network while I was over there.

I ran Speedtest a couple of times. I can't remember the specific results, but I remember thinking that it wasn't too bad. Not blisteringly fast, but good enough for uploading pics to SkyDrive. In day to say use, it wasn't a problem.

jbard

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#660390 23-Jul-2012 14:37

Lizard1977:
jbard:
Lizard1977: I have just got back from a 4 week holiday in the UK.? I went with 3 Mobile's 15 pound Pay As You Go bundle for iPhone, which gave me 300 mins of anytime calling, 1000 txts (I think), and unlimited data.? Coverage was reasonably good - we travelled around quite a bit - we spent 10 nights in a small village in Yorkshire, and had reception almost everywhere in that area.? We also travelled to Cardiff, Dorset, Bedford, Kent and London, and I don't recall anywhere we didn't have 3G coverage for the majority of the time.? A couple of times the signal dropped out driving from Swindon to Swanage, which made for interesting driving using the GPS, but on the whole I was happy with it.? Dead simple to set up as well - just bowled up to the store, purchased the micro SIM card, popped it in the phone, and 5 minutes later I was active on the network.

+1

3 is the best deal and I have heard they have the best speeds but I never tested any other network while I was over there.

I ran Speedtest a couple of times. I can't remember the specific results, but I remember thinking that it wasn't too bad. Not blisteringly fast, but good enough for uploading pics to SkyDrive. In day to say use, it wasn't a problem.

Should point out that speeds are nothing like NZ. As a real world example I used skype 4-5 times a day. I was almost always able to use voice fine but video chat was almost unusable most of the time.

Behodar

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#660391 23-Jul-2012 14:38

I was happy with T-Mobile when I was in the UK a couple of years ago; at the time they had an unlimited (i.e. fair use) prepaid data deal but I have no idea whether that's still the case.

As for Ireland, I know that Three UK has a roaming deal but I don't know how it compares with picking up an Irish SIM.