What's the best 4G European Deal (1 Viewer)

[Portland]

Ground rules first! I'm a complete Numptie when it's to do with Puter's so it MUST be easy, non contract and low cost for roaming in Europe. I use a small Huawei MIFI with a Samsung Tablet. What's my best bet and who with?? NO big words please and no jargon.

 

[Deleted member 29692]

If you just want low cost data roaming then one of the 3 pre loaded data SIMS are the best option. There are plenty of threads about the latest deals on them. You will get a 12GB/12 month one for about £25 or a 24GB/24 month one for a little more. Just put it in the MiFi and away you go.

Here's one: https://www.mymemory.co.uk/SIM-Cards/3/3-PAYG-4G-Trio-Data-SIM-Pack-Preloaded-with-12GB-of-Data

I've no idea if this is the cheapest price around at the moment, it's just the first one I found on Google.


If you desperately have to have 4G it's a different story. First of all is your MiFi capable of providing it? A lot of them aren't.

Secondly you aren't guaranteed 4G, or any other, speed when roaming. This is to do with the way network access is prioritised.

What do you want to do with it? If it's just normal browsing/email/social media use then you don't need 4G. If you're dead set that you have to have it then the only way to guarantee it is to buy local SIM cards wherever you go.

 

[peterc10]

What do want to use it for? Phone calls and texts, or data (emails, web surfing and Skype). If it is data then probably Three's 12GB preloaded SIM as Nick has suggested. We have used it in France Italy and the USA and it works at reasonable speeds - we were able to Facetime (Apple's version of Skype) the kids with no problems.

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[Stroppy Bird]

But the 24gb one is valid for 24 months so it doesn't have to be used in 2 months. You can have 2 months use of it abroad in the first 12 months, and then a further 2 months use of it abroad in the second 12 months. In the meantime you can use it in the UK.

 

[Arewethereyet]

3 usually have the best deals regarding European roaming, even in the UK they have IMO some of the best deals around, if you have your own unlocked phone they do one deal for £13 per month that give you 600 mins talk time, unlimited texts and 4gb of data per month which is also usable in i believe most EU countries and the USA and Oz and other countries, if you go on their website and type in, Feel at home it gives you all the details but this a contract package.

 

[Deleted member 29692]

No it's not. There's no such thing as "throttling back"

It's merely how bandwidth is prioritised, UK networks do it as well.

I explained it in one of the other current threads, I can't be bothered typing it all again here.

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[Deleted member 29692]

But the 24gb one is valid for 24 months so it doesn't have to be used in 2 months. You can have 2 months use of it abroad in the first 12 months, and then a further 2 months use of it abroad in the second 12 months. In the meantime you can use it in the UK.

That's what we did. I bought a 12gb one when we went away in the summer. Whatever's left on it will be there for our next trip, probably in the spring.

 

[hilldweller]

What's my best bet and who with?? NO big words please and no jargon.

Possibly no single answer. We had 3 in Benidorm, it was slow. A guy in the market was selling Spanish SIMs, good price and much faster. We later did the same in Portugal, local SIM, good value, good performance.

And all done in English, thank goodness. Same in Morocco.

 

[peterc10]

I am afraid that I rarely had a problem with downloads on Three's package when in France and Italy. Could use Facetime OK, which requires a good data download and upload speed most of the time.

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[Deleted member 29692]

Not in my experience.

In France and Italy I've always managed to get perfectly usable speeds.

The only place it's ever been as you describe is Germany but the German infrastructure is years behind the rest of Europe so that isn't 3s fault.

 

[TerryL]

I've had a 3 12gb sim card for a while, used it in the UK, Europe and on our Scandinavia trip. Not sure how much is left on it, but just ordered a 24gb card from Amazon which hopefully means that when the first card runs out/is blocked from Feel-At-Home the new card can take over. That'll do all I'm going to need over the next few months.

Unless @Portland doesn't get his answer and ends up following us around of course!

 

[Bazzermc]

Can someone confirm if the 3 12GB 12 month card gives you 1GB per month only and if you don't use it, it is lost each month, in the same way as a contract mobile phone?
I am looking for a "pay as you go", where you pay for 12GB data and it is used up when you have reached 12GB and not based on time, same as PAYG phones, does anyone offer this?

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[peterc10]

It is not based on monthly use. You can use the 12Gb in any way and any time during the 12 months, but you will lose any left after 12 months.

Remember though that you only be able to use it abroad for 2 months under Feel at Home, after that you will only be able to use it in the UK

 

[Bazzermc]

I am looking for an unlocked Mifi dongle to use in our MH, the favourites at the moment are Huawei E5577C or TP-LINK M7350, does anyone have experience with these or other suggestions?

 

[TerryL]

Huawei seem to be the current "favourite" and I've not heard of any problems. Get the one with an external aerial facility (is that the E5577C?) as that can help. No real experience of the TP-Link although a couple of years I was unsuccessful in helping somebody else get connected with a TP-Linkb - probably a lot easier now.

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[wizzer59]

I can

 

[wizzer59]

@Minxy Girl is usually the one to ask for help on this

 

[peterc10]

We managed to stream facetime OK in France and Italy.

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[Minxy]

Can someone confirm if the 3 12GB 12 month card gives you 1GB per month only and if you don't use it, it is lost each month, in the same way as a contract mobile phone?
I am looking for a "pay as you go", where you pay for 12GB data and it is used up when you have reached 12GB and not based on time, same as PAYG phones, does anyone offer this?

The 12gb sim doesn't time out until the 12 month period ends, or you use up all the data, whichever comes first. The 24gb one lasts up to 2 years, or until the data is used.

When using the sim abroad, however, there are limits to how much data you can use and for how long - see my post #14 on this thread:

http://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/stonking-three-broadband-deal-be-quick.141019/