Mobile Internet in Europe

[Catoodle]

Our cruising plans for 2020 include Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Malta, Canaries and we want mobile data that is not restricted by the 60/120 days roaming rules of our usual UK provider.


I have done some research on local sims and have found Vodafone do a Traveller Sim which includes 25GB data for use in 30 days for 20 Euro. MEO in Portugal appear to do a 15 day Sim of 30GB for 15 Euro. These look like great deals, much cheaper than the French tourist sim I got last year.


Has anyone had any experience of these or any other providers this year?
Any advice appreciated!

[sy_gilana]

Look at SIMYO.ES they have good deals and will take care of Spain, Gib, and Canaries. Pre Paid. plus You have 4 months roaming as home in the EU. No contract, fast delivery, online account management. Create your own package online, buy it, email your ID to them, done.

BUT!!!


Make sure your network provider is set as MANUAL, so that you are not automatically palmed off to a stronger local signal which will incur charges.
IE in Gibraltar, malta or even Morocco if you get close, your phone will want to switch to Gibtel or another. It MUST be on manual. When in other countries that do not have a SIMYO network, their partner is ORANGE, once again select it manually.

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by Catoodle

Our cruising plans for 2020 include Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Malta, Canaries and we want mobile data that is not restricted by the 60/120 days roaming rules of our usual UK provider.


I have done some research on local sims and have found Vodafone do a Traveller Sim which includes 25GB data for use in 30 days for 20 Euro. MEO in Portugal appear to do a 15 day Sim of 30GB for 15 Euro. These look like great deals, much cheaper than the French tourist sim I got last year.


Has anyone had any experience of these or any other providers this year?
Any advice appreciated!

Google Fi is $10/GB everywhere in the world. Probably never the best possible deal in any given place, but overall the no hassle and generally low price works well for me.

[AlfaGTV]

Originally Posted by redneckrob

Google Fi is $10/GB everywhere in the world. Probably never the best possible deal in any given place, but overall the no hassle and generally low price works well for me.

Google Fi is for US residents only.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Fi

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by AlfaGTV

Google Fi is for US residents only.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Fi

Good point, the OP wouldn't be able to set it up without a lot of workaround hassle.

[dcarratt]

I use a Vodafone data SIM in a Locomarine Yacht Router or in a Vodafone R218 mobile hotspot. Costs £15 per month for 5Gb on a 12 month contract or £20 per month on a rolling 30 day contract. The main benefit is that you can use your full UK data allowance on roaming networks and the main roaming networks are also provided by Vodafone (in Spain and Italy for example). Vodafone do not throttle the service when you are roaming unlike 3 and some other providers I have tried. Works well with WhatsApp for data & calls, Skype and other data services I need to use - mainly email & web browsing. You can get coverage up to 10nm offshore on many coastlines.

[iGrf]

Locally these mobile vikings are typically the best (data only) deal.
8GB for 15 eur : https://mobilevikings.be/en/offer/only-data/
And in most of the EU there are no roaming charges so it shouldn’t matter where you are, however be carefull with ‘special’ places like Switserland, Gibraltar and/or cruiseship networks that might add additional roaming charges anyway.

[Alita49DS]

Catoodle, I had this time away problem with Tesco Mobile. Who were otherwise excellent. I have since moved to Three. No problems and they cover many more destinations. Three Support - Roaming Abroad - Destinations.
Also, even 24 hours back in the UK resets any "fair use" issues.
The comment above about Three throttling speeds is outdated so inaccurate. I have had no such issues. Including using Three in NZ where the connection used to be limited to 3G but is now 4G. Also, on the Advanced plans, you can use tethering.
My Three SIM costs £13pm for 12GB of data and unlimited calls and texts. As you are a non-person these days in France without a French mobile # I have a dual SIM phone and in the second slot a Free.Fr SIM at a massive €2pm.
Tip to all: zero your cost cap. That way, if you wander onto a ship or plane network or from, say, Gibtel to Morocco, you cannot incur any additional charges.

[vaninnam]

We use GlocalMe.It is a simple mobile wifi box that is also a power bank.No contracts works most places in the world especially Europe.You down load the app and buy online as you need.Probably not as cheap as local sims but you don't need to go buy local sim and packages etc.
As you sail from one country to the next you can pre buy.
Good luck
google GlocalMe its all explained

[Barbaria]

Originally Posted by iGrf

Locally these mobile vikings are typically the best (data only) deal.
8GB for 15 eur : https://mobilevikings.be/en/offer/only-data/
And in most of the EU there are no roaming charges so it shouldn’t matter where you are, however be carefull with ‘special’ places like Switserland, Gibraltar and/or cruiseship networks that might add additional roaming charges anyway.

We only ship to Belgian addresses.

[Dockhead]

The OP started with a plan that costs €0.50 per gigabyte. In Europe, you can't by law be charged more than €6. Internet for $10 per gig is really irrelevant here.

I personally pay €24 for truly unlimited, no throttling, and normally use 100g a month or more. Google FI would cost $1000.

Originally Posted by redneckrob

Google Fi is $10/GB everywhere in the world. Probably never the best possible deal in any given place, but overall the no hassle and generally low price works well for me.

[Dockhead]

Only US residents could possibly be interested.

Originally Posted by AlfaGTV

Google Fi is for US residents only.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Fi

[Barbaria]

Try looking here:
https://www.simoptions.com/prepaid-sim-card-europe/

[Catoodle]

Thanks all for responses, very useful.
I think Glocalme is too expensive and GoogleFi and simoptions are for the US traveller.

So I will start with UK sim until it reaches 60 day limit and then look for a local sim. May reset UK sim when I travel home.

Will also make sure I take full advantage of any free wifi, although this may be sketchy! Will look into 5 mile wifi to extend range.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Catoodle

Thanks all for responses, very useful.
I think Glocalme is too expensive and GoogleFi and simoptions are for the US traveller.

So I will start with UK sim until it reaches 60 day limit and then look for a local sim. May reset UK sim when I travel home.

Will also make sure I take full advantage of any free wifi, although this may be sketchy! Will look into 5 mile wifi to extend range.

That's the right approach. Note that you can also buy multiple SIMs ahead and just change them when you reach the limit.


In Europe it's not necessary to be paranoid about this. Data service is cheap and ubiquitous. It's just not a problem. Free wifi is great -- and more and more European marinas have truly excellent wifi, good enough for streaming Netflix in HD -- but you won't care all that much.



Note that some countries are cheaper than others. UK is in the middle range. Northern European countries are cheapest. So if you plan to be in Northern Europe at some point, buy SIM cards there. Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Poland are all EXTREMELY cheap and good. Check the roaming allowances -- some limit by days, some by gigabytes, and some both. But even if you run out of fair use gigabytes, they still can't charge you more than €6 euros per gigabyte, so you don't have to be in a terrible hurry to get the next SIM card. Many SIM cards sold in Nordic countries consider usage in other Nordic countries to not be roaming at all. My Finnish post-paid subscription includes not only Nordic but Baltic countries in that -- so I have totally unlimited, unthrottled data, and unlimited calls to anywhere in Europe, in 7 or 8 countries -- normally with bandwidth of 100mbs -- for €25 per month -- life is good.