EE Sims in Europe. Are they any good for coverage and speed?

[Fragle]

As we are off the Spain for around 3 months in January. I thought it about time to look at our broadband and phone sims as due to all the recent changes and limits imposed on use out of the country and the fact I am paying for Sky sports at home and not there now for 5/6 months a year and don't watch most of the time.

We are with O2 at the moment for phone sims and they have a 2 month limit 25gb per month. (potential to be cut off)

Spoke with Tesco mobile yesterday and explained what we need only to be told we could be in breach of contract staying that long in Europe and would most certainly be cut off. (Nice chap).

EE on the other hand have confirmed no issues with time limits. 90 day stays are not a problem ( I have this conversation saved) but customer service also stated up to 180 days use then return to UK to reset.

I can get 2 unlimited Data sims with EE ( it's only these sims that have EU roaming included in package) for £51 and this would then give us 100gb of monthly data to use.

We pay £80 at home for full virgin media package but it's due to double in price in January. Spoke with them and dished all the extras for broadband only keeping 500mb download speeds for £25.

With the EE sims and virgin broadband only at home we are looking at £40 per month savings and better data in Europe.

Question is How good are EE in Europe (France/Spain) or indeed the UK?.

In the past I seem to remember they were the best for speeds and coverage and used to be used by emergency services.

Certainly better that Vodaphone O2 and 3.

Any current EE user advice would be helpful before we commit to buying sims.

 

[Carpmart]

For data get in contact with Camino at Tiekom… €42ish gives you 200gb of data in Europe (all zone 1) and 400Gb in Spain…

 

[LesW]

Any current EE user advice would be helpful before we commit to buying sim

I've used my EE sim all over Europe, generally, no issues with coverage.

 

[Fragle]

For data get in contact with Camino at Tiekom… €42ish gives you 200gb of data in Europe (all zone 1) and 400Gb in Spain…

Thanks I probably will for the mifi unit.

These sims will be for our normal phone use at home as well. It seems every phone company is saying they look at your use after 60 days with potential to cut you off. Except EE

 

[Stonemags76]

We changed our broadband to EE just before this trip, so I got an unlimited sim with unlimited roaming for £16 as part of the deal we’ve been away for four weeks so far, and, fingers crossed , the EE sim hasn’t missed a beat! We are heavy users as we stream Tv, but so far, so good!

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[Wh05apk]

In Europe you are roaming so will presumably use any available network.

You could get 2 monthly sums with id or Tesco and only switch on roaming for the 2nd one after 60 days, that would be about £30pm for both for unlimited?

 

[MichaelT]

We found orange in Spain better than the default network

 

[TrudeandDall]

As we are off the Spain for around 3 months in January. I thought it about time to look at our broadband and phone sims as due to all the recent changes and limits imposed on use out of the country and the fact I am paying for Sky sports at home and not there now for 5/6 months a year and don't watch most of the time.

We are with O2 at the moment for phone sims and they have a 2 month limit 25gb per month. (potential to be cut off)

Spoke with Tesco mobile yesterday and explained what we need only to be told we could be in breach of contract staying that long in Europe and would most certainly be cut off. (Nice chap).

EE on the other hand have confirmed no issues with time limits. 90 day stays are not a problem ( I have this conversation saved) but customer service also stated up to 180 days use then return to UK to reset.

I can get 2 unlimited Data sims with EE ( it's only these sims that have EU roaming included in package) for £51 and this would then give us 100gb of monthly data to use.

We pay £80 at home for full virgin media package but it's due to double in price in January. Spoke with them and dished all the extras for broadband only keeping 500mb download speeds for £25.

With the EE sims and virgin broadband only at home we are looking at £40 per month savings and better data in Europe.

Question is How good are EE in Europe (France/Spain) or indeed the UK?.

In the past I seem to remember they were the best for speeds and coverage and used to be used by emergency services.

Certainly better that Vodaphone O2 and 3.

Any current EE user advice would be helpful before we commit to buying sims.

We found orange in Spain better than the default network

I have used EE in France, Spain and the Low Countries for many years and never had a major problem. Sometimes I can get a slow data speed on the "auto selected" network, so I just go to manual select and pick the one with the best signal/speed.

 

[Fragle]

We changed our broadband to EE just before this trip, so I got an unlimited sim with unlimited roaming for £16 as part of the deal we’ve been away for four weeks so far, and, fingers crossed , the EE sim hasn’t missed a beat! We are heavy users as we stream Tv, but so far, so good!

We could get a better deal on the sims if we had broadband with them. Unfortunately at our house it's only 50 mb download speed. Good to know it's working as it should.

In Europe you are roaming so will presumably use any available network.

You could get 2 monthly sums with id or Tesco and only switch on roaming for the 2nd one after 60 days, that would be about £30pm for both for unlimited?

Understand what you are saying but it all becomes a bit of a faff swapping and changing sims backwards and forwards I just want one sim per phone and it work for at least 90 days. Unfortunately it's hard to find. just looked at Smarty and again 60 days.

We found orange in Spain better than the default network

Thanks. I will search available networks when there.

 

[grasscutter]

We’ve gone with two Tesco unlimited sims 17-50 each Black Friday deal discounted to 16-50 as we have two. We plan to rotate the sims one month on and one month off.

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[Fragle]

We’ve gone with two Tesco unlimited sims 17-50 each Black Friday deal discounted to 16-50 as we have two. We plan to rotate the sims one month on and one month off.

I would like to say that was an option but speaking to sales I won’t take the risk myself. Hope this works for you

 

[Bessy765]

We are in Portugal using a Tiekom sim works fine. Using Express vpn bbc ITVX all good

 

[Fragle]

We are in Portugal using a Tiekom sim works fine. Using Express vpn bbc ITVX all good

Do you just take your uk sims out of the phone?

What about calls to your uk number?

 

[Bessy765]

We are using the sim in a mifi and Lebara for our phones.

 

[Fragle]

We are using the sim in a mifi and Lebara for our phones.

The mifi is not the problem really. Lebara have the same problem. 120 days but if you use more in Europe than big charges. As we are away for 90 I’m sure we could easily get a big charge.

EE seems to be the only one that doesn’t have the restrictions after 60 days

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[Parrot Face]

We have Lebara on our phones. Wiyh our mifi we used a Leclerc sim 100gb for 14 euros. Worked great but ran out after 17 days in Spain. Took the mifi into a shop in Alcossebre and the.assistant loaded an Orange sim and activated it. Cost 10 euros for 60gb. Worked great.

 

[Brize]

Have used EE sim all over Europe with no problems and good coverage. Wide range of networks in Spain and Portugal, and the sim often defaulted to Orange. Easy to choose alternative networks. Fewer networks to choose from in Scandinavia, but coverage surprisingly good. Personally, I wouldn't change from EE.

 

[The Boofles]

I’ve been using EE in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy with no problems at all …. for 3 years.
I find them really helpful and competitive if you tell them what it is you need, especially if you can give examples of what other providers are offering - they’ve always at least matched the offer if not bettered it - but then I have been a customer with them for a long time.
Always worth a try

 

[Fragle]

I’ve been using EE in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy with no problems at all …. for 3 years.
I find them really helpful and competitive if you tell them what it is you need, especially if you can give examples of what other providers are offering - they’ve always at least matched the offer if not bettered it - but then I have been a customer with them for a long time.
Always worth a try

Seems like I'll change to EE for my phone at least.

I might go with Tesco and turn off the Data on the wife's phone and hope they don't cut her off

 

[jezport]

I've found ee sims very good in France, Spain and Portugal. Even worked well in Martinique

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[Fragle]

Well the savings were too good with O2 in the end to change away. £16 each for unlimited data and no charge at all for the first 3 months of contract and they also confirmed in the conversation that I can use the phone for 90days in Europe without getting charged extra or cut off.( except for the 25g limit)

I can refer back to that call if needed. Hopefully it won't be an issue.

So a couple of hrs on the phone and saved just under £70 a month.

Will get a cheap Spanish sim for the mifi or looking at Spanish based Starlink roam as half the UK price

 

[Bessy765]

The tiekom sim 400 gb Spain 200 gb EU & UK no restrictions

 

[tomdrumbrae]

The tiekom sim 400 gb Spain 200 gb EU & UK no restrictions

is that in a router ?

 

[Bessy765]

Yes HUAWEI -B535-CF6B

 

[EllF]

We’ve used EE in our Huawei wifi device in France, Spain and Portugal always worked well

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[Northernraider]

I've had ee sim since 2016 , I've used it in 26 different countries with no issues in Amy of them

 

[Campingdood]

Another option is try looking at esims if you phone supports that. You can have more than one eSIM loaded on your phone and you can it locally in the country you in but purchase it while your in the UK. Maya.net is what we will use when we go to Germany next year and you can stop start the plan.