Best 5G network for travel in Europe?
Discussion
Morning all,
I am currently on Vodafone, as they were traditionally the best value for money for anyone traveling in the EU and/or calling to the EU on a regular basis. Annoyingly, the money-grabbing gits have decided to start scamming me for the privilege (yay! Another Brexit bonus to be cherished there!) so I intend to move to another provider when my contract expires in the New Year.
Question is, who to go with? From what I can see, EE and Three have decided to hop on the scumbag bus with Vodafone, so does that leave O2 as the only alternative if I want to avoid my mobile bill going up by a tenner a month or so?
I am currently on Vodafone, as they were traditionally the best value for money for anyone traveling in the EU and/or calling to the EU on a regular basis. Annoyingly, the money-grabbing gits have decided to start scamming me for the privilege (yay! Another Brexit bonus to be cherished there!) so I intend to move to another provider when my contract expires in the New Year.
Question is, who to go with? From what I can see, EE and Three have decided to hop on the scumbag bus with Vodafone, so does that leave O2 as the only alternative if I want to avoid my mobile bill going up by a tenner a month or so?
Yabu said:
What are you paying per month?
EE is something like £2 per day for roaming or have it set as a smart benefit to keep roaming as part of the contract allowance
Hmm... I'll have to look at this Smart Benefit thingy, as I'd expect to be travelling 5-10 days per month next year, so £2 per day gets pretty chunky over the course of the year.EE is something like £2 per day for roaming or have it set as a smart benefit to keep roaming as part of the contract allowance
I do get an allowance from work, but I can't see it going up by £200 a year to compensate, and O2 certainly isn't more expensive to compensate for free roaming. I've also just found out that Virgin still have free roaming, so another option there.
Kermit power said:
Hmm... I'll have to look at this Smart Benefit thingy, as I'd expect to be travelling 5-10 days per month next year, so £2 per day gets pretty chunky over the course of the year.
I do get an allowance from work, but I can't see it going up by £200 a year to compensate, and O2 certainly isn't more expensive to compensate for free roaming. I've also just found out that Virgin still have free roaming, so another option there.
Don’t know what you are paying but for referenceI do get an allowance from work, but I can't see it going up by £200 a year to compensate, and O2 certainly isn't more expensive to compensate for free roaming. I've also just found out that Virgin still have free roaming, so another option there.
EE had a deal on Black Friday, 5G unlimited min, text, data and 1 smart benefit for £29 per month £28 for existing customers
I was on three but they were forcing me to change contract. As part of that I'd have lost roaming so I moved to Vodafone and now I will just use a esim to provide data as I'm not paying £6 a day for data when I can get 3gb for about $6 that lasts 30 days. I will do same for Europe too
NorthDave said:
I'm on an old contract with ee so still free roaming but they have capped at 12gb a month when roaming. I've downloaded ubigi as an esim to run as a second sim and just for roaming data. Seems ok although I haven't used it yet.
Ubigi looks like a decent option for when they stop free roamingOn the off-chance that you're already a Virgin Media customer for broadband, linking an O2 account will get you:
- Europe and their enhanced roaming (USA plus some other countries) for your O2 plan
- Double data for your O2 plan
- Double speed for your Virgin Media broadband
No extra cost.
As others have queried, I'm not sure whether that roaming extends to 5G abroad.
- Europe and their enhanced roaming (USA plus some other countries) for your O2 plan
- Double data for your O2 plan
- Double speed for your Virgin Media broadband
No extra cost.
As others have queried, I'm not sure whether that roaming extends to 5G abroad.
Three PAYG looks like it will continue to include free roaming. Or if you have a Three contract that was taken out before 1/Oct/21 then you'll also continue to receive free roaming - if I've uderstood their T&Cs correctly.
Wonder if we'll see a repeat of ~25 years ago when advantageous contracts were bought and sold.
Wonder if we'll see a repeat of ~25 years ago when advantageous contracts were bought and sold.
QuartzDad said:
Three PAYG looks like it will continue to include free roaming. Or if you have a Three contract that was taken out before 1/Oct/21 then you'll also continue to receive free roaming - if I've uderstood their T&Cs correctly.
Wonder if we'll see a repeat of ~25 years ago when advantageous contracts were bought and sold.
I've got a Three unlimited contract taken out in 2020 and there's now a 'fair use' roaming limit of 12gb in any month. Any usage over that is charged, I visited France and Spain in Sept and exceeded it by about 5gb and got charged about £7Wonder if we'll see a repeat of ~25 years ago when advantageous contracts were bought and sold.
colin79666 said:
Don’t think O2 roaming is 5G, not sure any network has that yet.
Until networks switch to proper 5G ( Standalone (SA ) rather than Non-standalone (NSA) ) , then the core network would use the existing PCRF/OCS so the diameter messages are the same ... so if the carrier has 5G you are likely to be able to roam. superpp said:
Lebara gives you 5G in UK and includes EU roaming (probably 4G).
Very cheap as a SIM only provider using Vodafone.
I think Lebara is where I'm likely to end up. Ironic that it's significantly cheaper than Vodafone themselves, especially once factoring in the roaming costs!Very cheap as a SIM only provider using Vodafone.
I'm less fussed about the data speed, but more take umbrage at having to pay £2 per day to make phone calls. Having said that, I've got a 5G handset, so would be hacked off about paying for a plan that can't make use of that at all.
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