6 month EU SIM for WiFi

[Ads86]

Hello

I'm having WiFi installed in the motorhome this week. Looking at going to the EU for around 5 months at the end of Jan. Can anybody recommend a WiFi SIM for the router?

The only decent looking one I've found is this,

Unlimited Europe & UK eSIM (43 Countries)

Travelling to Europe? Stay connected on your trip with unlimited data for up to 90 days with our travel eSIM!

simify.com

Looks okay but let me know if anybody has found a better deal. It would need to be unlimited data for work purposes.

Cheers

Ads

 

[fishplug]

Just as a word of caution Ads86 , that link is for an eSIM - which isn't a physical SIM card so your router might not be compatible with it.

 

[Bessy765]

How will you manage the five months? We use a Tiekom sim 400 gb in Spain 200 gb rest of EU a month.

 

[Ads86]

Just as a word of caution Ads86 , that link is for an eSIM - which isn't a physical SIM card so your router might not be compatible with it.

Good shout. I'm guessing the one in having fitted will work with an esim, I'll check with the guy

 

[Ads86]

How will you manage the five months? We use a Tiekom sim 400 gb in Spain 200 gb rest of EU a month.

That might work. We'd have to see how much data we use I guess

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[starquake]

Hello

I'm having WiFi installed in the motorhome this week. Looking at going to the EU for around 5 months at the end of Jan. Can anybody recommend a WiFi SIM for the router?

Depends where you go, Reglo in France is about 20 euro and roams (large amount (hundreds of Gb of data) with a small amount that roams outside France, then you get into Spain and you can get a Digi sim that is similar.

These days even Spanish sims are limited in France and vice versa, and you tend to overpay in my opinion at least with a all-EU deal.
(But you get a tidy allowance from a Spanish sim in France, and same in reverse giving you a few days to switch to a new deal).

Ref; unlimtied, remember 500Gb is effectively unlimited (the fair use on unlimited is usually around that anyhow). True unlimited sims don't tend to exist, they get slower as you use more. I fyou get a 500Gb bundle for 30 days it won't slow, where I've seen (expensive) unimited sims that start to rate limit over 1Gb actually used.

For reference a 350GB reglo sim is 15 euro. if you need more buy 2.

 

[Ads86]

Depends where you go, Reglo in France is about 20 euro and roams (large amount (hundreds of Gb of data) with a small amount that roams outside France, then you get into Spain and you can get a Digi sim that is similar.

These days even Spanish sims are limited in France and vice versa, and you tend to overpay in my opinion at least with a all-EU deal.
(But you get a tidy allowance from a Spanish sim in France, and same in reverse giving you a few days to switch to a new deal).

Ref; unlimtied, remember 500Gb is effectively unlimited (the fair use on unlimited is usually around that anyhow). True unlimited sims don't tend to exist, they get slower as you use more. I fyou get a 500Gb bundle for 30 days it won't slow, where I've seen (expensive) unimited sims that start to rate limit over 1Gb actually used.

For reference a 350GB reglo sim is 15 euro. if you need more buy 2.

I think this is the way we will have to go. One SIM for each country. It's a pain but like you said it works out much cheaper

 

[starquake]

I think this is the way we will have to go. One SIM for each country. It's a pain but like you said it works out much cheaper

Also potentially a lot faster too, it's not all bad. Mobile networks in EU are really good.
(remember roaming sims are not always prioritised as high as their own sims).

We have a UK sim that can roam for a small fee per day as an emergency until we switch to the locally acquired sim.

Even if you end up with 2 sims (French and Spain) at same time it's still cheaper than a larger capacity (all eu) sim. Many wifi devices (not ZTE annoyingly) like the Telnonica routers can have 2 sim card slots allowing you to trivially switch as you move around.

And a lot of people blame Brexit, but if it was that why does France have limited roaming in Spain and vice versa then!

 

[Ads86]

Also potentially a lot faster too, it's not all bad. Mobile networks in EU are really good.
(remember roaming sims are not always prioritised as high as their own sims).

We have a UK sim that can roam for a small fee per day as an emergency until we switch to the locally acquired sim.

Even if you end up with 2 sims (French and Spain) at same time it's still cheaper than a larger capacity (all eu) sim. Many wifi devices (not ZTE annoyingly) like the Telnonica routers can have 2 sim card slots allowing you to trivially switch as you move around.

And a lot of people blame Brexit, but if it was that why does France have limited roaming in Spain and vice versa then!

Also potentially a lot faster too, it's not all bad. Mobile networks in EU are really good.
(remember roaming sims are not always prioritised as high as their own sims).

We have a UK sim that can roam for a small fee per day as an emergency until we switch to the locally acquired sim.

Even if you end up with 2 sims (French and Spain) at same time it's still cheaper than a larger capacity (all eu) sim. Many wifi devices (not ZTE annoyingly) like the Telnonica routers can have 2 sim card slots allowing you to trivially switch as you move around.

And a lot of people blame Brexit, but if it was that why does France have limited roaming in Spain and vice versa then!

We were looking into starlink for our data but the 2 month limit really doesn't work for us.

 

[fishplug]

And a lot of people blame Brexit, but if it was that why does France have limited roaming in Spain and vice versa then!

Without wanting to get political, but the EU extended the 'roam like at home' scheme in 2022 for the next ten years.

Where the 'limits' come in is that the operators are allowed to charge each other a maximum of €2 / GB of data for roaming fees so that's why the 'fair use' policies come in to play as they need to protect themselves from huge costs.

The €2 price that companies currently pay foreign operators is scheduled to come down to €1 per GB by 2027 so EU members should see the amount of data they get included with their 'fair use' limits increasing over the next few years.

So, yes, brexit is the reason why most UK operators decided not to allow free roaming in the EU member states but really only because they were no longer bound by legislation to do so and saw the opportunity to make some extra money. There are plenty of UK SIMs that still allow some level of free data roaming in the EU but they're subject to 'fair use' policies which are usually somewhere between 12 and 30GB. Tesco seems to currently be the only one that isn't setting limits, but I'm not sure if they cap speeds.

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[Divertrev]

Hi guys, I have been surfing around looking for that eternal SIM answer to EU roaming and it seems as soon as a UK based provider provides a solution it gets reduced to a useless option, viz. RWG Big Data and IQ Go. As this thread is relatively current I'm hoping an up-to-date assessment of my options can be achieved and so I hope you don't mind me butting in with my own slant on the question.

We intend spending most if not all our 90 days in France but may 'pop over' to Spain. On the face of it a French or Spanish SIM is the way to go, loads of data allowance and cost effective. It seems such an obvious solution there must be a 'catch' otherwise there wouldn't be endless threads suggesting UK based SIM deals! So from the thread above, Reglo from LeClerc or Tiekom seem to be the suggested options.

To the best of anyones' recollection what is the maximum Reglo data-only SIM can I purchase on a PAYG and can it be topped up? Is there any speed/usage restriction? Is a local Aire address always sufficient? The Reglo website to the best of mine and Googles Translate does not seem to show much of this info.

Tiekom offers a good solution with a 3 month 400Gb per month European option for £111. The website doesn't say how you get your SIM. I imagine the application will ask for an address to send the SIM to. Does anyone know if a UK address is OK for that?

I've got a longstanding SKY mobile deal that would be difficult to beat for UK use, particularly with the 'piggybank' feature. I can put the SIM in my router and set up a 'call forward' which gives me sufficient data in the UK. 300Gb pm in Europe would be just fine.

If its as simple as going into Leclerc's picking up a PAYG Data-Only SIM, blagging a local Aire address and parting with twenty quid or thereabouts, why is everyone looking for the UK Roaming deal which no longer really exists for the 90 day Euro Road Trip Traveller. What am I missing?!

I look forward to your helpful responses.

Regards
Trevor

 

[starquake]

Hi guys, I have been surfing around looking for that eternal SIM answer to EU roaming and it seems as soon as a UK based provider provides a solution it gets reduced to a useless option, viz. RWG Big Data and IQ Go. As this thread is relatively current I'm hoping an up-to-date assessment of my options can be achieved and so I hope you don't mind me butting in with my own slant on the question.

We intend spending most if not all our 90 days in France but may 'pop over' to Spain. On the face of it a French or Spanish SIM is the way to go, loads of data allowance and cost effective. It seems such an obvious solution there must be a 'catch' otherwise there wouldn't be endless threads suggesting UK based SIM deals! So from the thread above, Reglo from LeClerc or Tiekom seem to be the suggested options.

To the best of anyones' recollection what is the maximum Reglo data-only SIM can I purchase on a PAYG and can it be topped up? Is there any speed/usage restriction? Is a local Aire address always sufficient? The Reglo website to the best of mine and Googles Translate does not seem to show much of this info.

I think it's 350Gb on Reglo (in France), which gives you 35Gb in Spain.

14 euro 80 cents a month for that, so just over £10 english pounds.
I think you can top it up too, I think Manic on here has had the most recent experience.

All Reglo plans are pay as you go, no commitment sims. And yes, you'll need a Passport and an aire address, but thats it when visiting a e-leclerk store, as most have manned people sellign sims.

Personally I suspect a lot of the use of UK sims is because Iplayer etc just work and you don't need a VPN. However if you are used to using a VPN already (as in you need to to watch Football or other geo-locked sports for which a UK sim is useless) then there is nothign wrong with a French sim card.

Free in France (Free.fr) mobile also offers decent deals btw, similarly on a no-contract basis, but it is harder to cancel that as it does require you to send a physical letter as it renews as default every month (there is no contract but ... it does auto-renew to my understanding). This is less of an issue for us personally as we "borrow" a Free mobile card from a French reseident -> these are what we have used most recetnly.

 

[Divertrev]

I think it's 350Gb on Reglo (in France), which gives you 35Gb in Spain.

14 euro 80 cents a month for that, so just over £10 english pounds.
I think you can top it up too, I think Manic on here has had the most recent experience.

All Reglo plans are pay as you go, no commitment sims. And yes, you'll need a Passport and an aire address, but thats it when visiting a e-leclerk store, as most have manned people sellign sims.

Personally I suspect a lot of the use of UK sims is because Iplayer etc just work and you don't need a VPN. However if you are used to using a VPN already (as in you need to to watch Football or other geo-locked sports for which a UK sim is useless) then there is nothign wrong with a French sim card.

Free in France (Free.fr) mobile also offers decent deals btw, similarly on a no-contract basis, but it is harder to cancel that as it does require you to send a physical letter as it renews as default every month (there is no contract but ... it does auto-renew to my understanding). This is less of an issue for us personally as we "borrow" a Free mobile card from a French reseident -> these are what we have used most recetnly.

Thanks starquake most helpful. I have used ExpressVPN but about to switch over to Nord. I'm curious about your reference to iPlayer and a VPN, I thought iPlayer needed a VPN. As an aside, I'm just about to cancel my SKY Q subscription and go over to full streaming at home. If I then subscribe to NOW to get back my SKY channels and which would then give me access to SKY in Europe I will definitely need a VPN.

 

[Manic]

Hi guys, I have been surfing around looking for that eternal SIM answer to EU roaming and it seems as soon as a UK based provider provides a solution it gets reduced to a useless option, viz. RWG Big Data and IQ Go. As this thread is relatively current I'm hoping an up-to-date assessment of my options can be achieved and so I hope you don't mind me butting in with my own slant on the question.

We intend spending most if not all our 90 days in France but may 'pop over' to Spain. On the face of it a French or Spanish SIM is the way to go, loads of data allowance and cost effective. It seems such an obvious solution there must be a 'catch' otherwise there wouldn't be endless threads suggesting UK based SIM deals! So from the thread above, Reglo from LeClerc or Tiekom seem to be the suggested options.

To the best of anyones' recollection what is the maximum Reglo data-only SIM can I purchase on a PAYG and can it be topped up? Is there any speed/usage restriction? Is a local Aire address always sufficient? The Reglo website to the best of mine and Googles Translate does not seem to show much of this info.

Tiekom offers a good solution with a 3 month 400Gb per month European option for £111. The website doesn't say how you get your SIM. I imagine the application will ask for an address to send the SIM to. Does anyone know if a UK address is OK for that?

I've got a longstanding SKY mobile deal that would be difficult to beat for UK use, particularly with the 'piggybank' feature. I can put the SIM in my router and set up a 'call forward' which gives me sufficient data in the UK. 300Gb pm in Europe would be just fine.

If its as simple as going into Leclerc's picking up a PAYG Data-Only SIM, blagging a local Aire address and parting with twenty quid or thereabouts, why is everyone looking for the UK Roaming deal which no longer really exists for the 90 day Euro Road Trip Traveller. What am I missing?!

I look forward to your helpful responses.

Regards
Trevor

As starquake said I have used the Reglo sim twice, they are Mobile sims not data only but I’ve used them for data only in both a Huawei router and ZTE mifi and it worked very well in 99% of places even in out of the way places (a lot better than UK)
I purchased in E.Leclerc store , first time getting sim registered at consumer services and the sencond time by an assistant in the tech department, where the sim are on display.
I see a near by Aire as an address and my driving license as id.
You then go onto Reglo website and set up payment, I did this so it would auto top up.
Beware that when you no longer want the sim active make sure you contact them via website and cancel the number or you could get caught out like I did when I thought the sim number would have ended due to not being used for several months and I mistakenly logged back into original account (not new sim account) I got charged for missing months although I hadn’t used it

 

[chrisandbev]

hi we are off to France and Spain in 10 days time.
where is the best place to buy sims, ie do petrol or supermarkets sell them as they do in the uk.

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[starquake]

Thanks starquake most helpful. I have used ExpressVPN but about to switch over to Nord. I'm curious about your reference to iPlayer and a VPN, I thought iPlayer needed a VPN. As an aside, I'm just about to cancel my SKY Q subscription and go over to full streaming at home. If I then subscribe to NOW to get back my SKY channels and which would then give me access to SKY in Europe I will definitely need a VPN.

Iplayer always has needed a VPN outside UK -> UNLESS you using a UK sim card (as they appear to iplayer as being in UK even though they not). However it was easy and the likes of IQ provided a UK exit sim card relatively cheap (but still about 4 times that of a French sim). For many on motorhomefun it made the border easy and you can't mess with it's easy as an option. Given we use 50-100Gb a weekend, it's always been totally useless for our usage levels.

Personally my view has always been to buy local, and just have a sim (usually a UK one) to cover for 1-2 days until I get the local sim. (so I don't much care about the 12Gb roaming my Three UK sim has). For the fiver for the trip to E'leclerk or my friends house to pickup the Free sim, it's all I need.

I can confirm NowTV works fine via ExpressVPN at least last time I tried it. Note that the NowTV iphone app DOES NOT WORK as it requires geolocation at all times, and this takes preference to the vpn IP address (ie, the gps chip in the phone stops it working). The FireTV app did work last time we tried as mentioned. So relying on phones or other devices with gps chips with Now (even with a VPN) can be pointless. Last time I checked the ipad version of NowTV however DID NOT use the device gps chip so did work abroad. They of course could change that anytime.

 

[starquake]

hi we are off to France and Spain in 10 days time.
where is the best place to buy sims, ie do petrol or supermarkets sell them as they do in the uk.

E'Leclark as manic pointed out above is where I'll be going on my next trip. The sims are cheap and they have a person in the store to help with setup.

 

[Cheese Monster]

Hello

I'm having WiFi installed in the motorhome this week. Looking at going to the EU for around 5 months at the end of Jan. Can anybody recommend a WiFi SIM for the router?

The only decent looking one I've found is this,

Unlimited Europe & UK eSIM (43 Countries)

Travelling to Europe? Stay connected on your trip with unlimited data for up to 90 days with our travel eSIM!

simify.com

Looks okay but let me know if anybody has found a better deal. It would need to be unlimited data for work purposes.

Cheers

Ads

Having read previous comments perhaps this may be a good watch.

 

[Ads86]

Having read previous comments perhaps this may be a good watch.

That's a great bit of kit

 

[Carpmart]

We were looking into starlink for our data but the 2 month limit really doesn't work for us.

Doesn’t work for any of us, hence why I (and others) have swapped to a Spanish registered Starlink!

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[lebowski]

hi we are off to France and Spain in 10 days time.
where is the best place to buy sims, ie do petrol or supermarkets sell them as they do in the uk.

If you find a largeish out of town shopping centre, you should find a few shops selling sims. For example the closest to us is at Tarbes (near Lourdes) and there's Orange, Bouygues and, of course Leclerc selling sims.
Maybe find a deal online and then do a search for their shops?

 

[Ads86]

Doesn’t work for any of us, hence why I (and others) have swapped to a Spanish registered Starlink!

How have you registered it in Spain? Do you have to have an address? Cheers

 

[Carpmart]

How have you registered it in Spain? Do you have to have an address? Cheers

Yep, whatever campsite I’m stopping on!

It really doesn’t matter. There is a good bit of detail in the main Starlink thread in some of the later pages. posts #2800 onwards or there about!

Starlink ordered… I feel it’s the only sensible option now..

Now that the Camino (Tiekom) service has had its day and the continued roaming data challenges, as well as crappy data service in the UK, I’ve had enough of pratting around as I just want always on, full service broadband wherever I am. So, the solution (I hope) is a Starlink Roam order was...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

 

[Soycd]

Hello

I'm having WiFi installed in the motorhome this week. Looking at going to the EU for around 5 months at the end of Jan. Can anybody recommend a WiFi SIM for the router?

The only decent looking one I've found is this,

Unlimited Europe & UK eSIM (43 Countries)

Travelling to Europe? Stay connected on your trip with unlimited data for up to 90 days with our travel eSIM!

simify.com

Looks okay but let me know if anybody has found a better deal. It would need to be unlimited data for work purposes.

Cheers

Ads

Is this a UK eSim? If it isn't I'm not sure you will be able to access UK stuff like iPlayer unless you use a VPN. We have a sim from IQ Mobile that allows us to watch UK stuff in Europe.

 

[Ads86]

Is this a UK eSim? If it isn't I'm not sure you will be able to access UK stuff like iPlayer unless you use a VPN. We have a sim from IQ Mobile that allows us to watch UK stuff in Europe.

I use a VPN more out of habit now.

I've also heard of holafly, but they seem a bit more expensive

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[matbic]

The only decent looking one I've found is this,

Unlimited Europe & UK eSIM (43 Countries)

Travelling to Europe? Stay connected on your trip with unlimited data for up to 90 days with our travel eSIM!

simify.com

Looks okay but let me know if anybody has found a better deal. It would need to be unlimited data for work purposes.

Airhub Europe 30 days unlimited $35.5

Buy Europe eSIM - Prepaid & Unlimited Europe Travel SIM Cards

Travel with unlimited data with our Europe eSIM plans. Instant activation, no SIM card needed.

www.airhubapp.com

The price goes up and down it was at $45.5 for a while last year.

 

[daventess]

Airhub Europe 30 days unlimited $35.5

Buy Europe eSIM - Prepaid & Unlimited Europe Travel SIM Cards

Travel with unlimited data with our Europe eSIM plans. Instant activation, no SIM card needed.

www.airhubapp.com

The price goes up and down it was at $45.5 for a while last year.

I used airhubapp in my phone last year in Europe (for data when wandering about away from the van wifi), but in my experience the data was pretty slow. I found myself sparingly using my GiffGaff data allowance instead when no public wifi was available.

 

[matbic]

Gifgaf had a 5Gbyte/month fair use policy when in EU. Not much use!

Airhubapp speeds have been just great for me. I use a good quality antenna and router in my van.

It is unlikely the eSIM is the cause of slow data speeds. Much more likely to be the limits of using a mobile phone with its tiny antenna and focus on reducing power consumption to a minimum.

 

[matbic]

Note that the NowTV iphone app DOES NOT WORK as it requires geolocation at all times, and this takes preference to the vpn IP address (ie, the gps chip in the phone stops it working).

Yes it’s a pain! So I have set up https://neko.m1k1o.net/ It runs the browser at home (in the UK) and sends the screen to me when traveling. It’s potentially the ultimate way to watch all UK stuff when traveling. With no need for a VPN or problems with other forms of geolocation restrictions.

The streaming service sees a perfectly ordinary UK computer using a web browser. I see it from wherever I may be!

I will be interested if anyone else tries it out.

 

[starquake]

It is unlikely the eSIM is the cause of slow data speeds. Much more likely to be the limits of using a mobile phone with its tiny antenna and focus on reducing power consumption to a minimum.

I dunno, it's a fact that roaming and resellers customers get a lower rate than a networks own.

Buying a sim in country for that country (where the sim is owned and operated by the network you are using) is always the best speeds. I'm very wary of any "resller" or EU wide sim as they are basically just buying capacity from other networks and it's down to their contracts if they have a 10Mbit, 20Mbit or 100Mbit cap. I've had so many bad experiences in spain over years (we have holidayed there every summer for best part of 30 yeasr) where a roaming experience is not just significantly slower. Where I buy a Spanish sim from digi, Orange or Movistar, and it's usually better than home broadband. From the same cell tower, on the same network in the same villa.