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PAYG SIM with good per-MB rate

UnassignedIP

Pro Member
Hi all,



I am looking for a new PAYG sim to serve a very particular purpose and I could do with some advice.

The SIM in question is for a smartphone for an older relative that is not going to be regularly used, however it's occasionally going to be used for Google Maps and similar so will require a functioning data connection and therefore a SIM card. The person in question already has a non-smartphone with a vodafone SIM for calls and texts only so this would not be used super regularly. but it would also be great if it could support the occasional call.

The phone in question does not support eSIM so therefore it must be a physical SIM and any options that are exclusively eSIM (e.g. red Bull Mobile) are sadly out of the question.

If possible we'd like to avoid the necessity for regular top-ups or monthly data pack purchases as as I said not enough data will be used each month for this to be worth it.

So far I have looked at:

1p: Looks brilliant, runs on EE with attractive 1p per MB rate and extra features like VOLTE and 5G too, but minimum £10 spend every 3 months is not ideal and I have seen stories of a minimum £2.50 spend out of the credit per month too

Three: I used to use a Data reward SIM for exactly this purpose and it was perfect, a free buffer of 200 MB per month and after that was used it it would use the credit up at a reasonable rate when required (1p per MB) but sadly my Data reward SIM stopped being reloaded like most people's did and I got nowhere on Three Live chat with them not seeming to care it was marketed as "for life" when I registered a few years ago.

Talk home: Considered this due to the 1p per MB rate and even ordered a Free SIM from them but gave up before the SIM even arrived when reading about their lack of VOLTE and VOWiFi support from others on this forum and therefore dropped calls (if we call this phone it needs to ring within reasonable time).

Three Current PAYG: 10p per MB is just way too expensive. Same issue with GiffGaff Classic PAYG.

RWG: Looked good at first but no access to some bands by the looks of it, and it looks like not true PAYG so we'd need to re-order each year, doubtful whether VOLTE would work either (have any of you tried?).

Does anyone here have any recommendations for a classic PAYG sim from a UK MNO or MVNO (a UK phone number is essential so roaming SIM's are out of the question) with decent data rates (preferably 1p per MB) that has a lower minimum top-up cadence than 1p but still supports VOLTE and VOWiFi.

We don't need 5G as this isn't a 5G phone.



Thank you in advance for any help.
 
O2 Classic PAYG SIMs on eBay don't support things like VoLTE yet but they still have 3G so the lack of this won't be a problem.

iD Mobile does have VoLTE and I believe their PAYG plan is the same 3/2/1 Pricing as the O2 deal above.
 
O2 Classic PAYG SIMs on eBay don't support things like VoLTE yet but they still have 3G so the lack of this won't be a problem.

iD Mobile does have VoLTE and I believe their PAYG plan is the same 3/2/1 Pricing as the O2 deal above.
Thank you for the suggestions.

Sadly the situation is complicated slightly by the house the phone will be used in having very weak phone signal on Three, EE and vodafone (I've never tested O2 there but might do that soon) and so WiFi calling would be a useful feature so that the phone can receive calls and texts while in the house. A network with weak signal rather than no signal in and around the house would also be a bonus, and as I said all the other 3 are definites for that but for O2 I don't know. As we're in an O2 host area I'd assume coverage would be similar to that of vodafone which is just about usable at the location.

You're right that with O2 or Three SIM's or SIM's from any of their MVNO's VOLTE isn't essential yet but looking into the future it will be once they switch off 3G and you'd hope it would be added to the PAYG SIM's by then but of course that didn't happen in the case of Talk Home (at least not yet).

Is there any reason why you'd suggest to buy the O2 Classic PAYG SIM from eBay? Can you not get those from O2 directly for free anymore?



iD looks interesting and in fact I did briefly look at it earlier but couldn't find an easy way to order either a Free SIM with 0 credit or a preloaded PAYG SIM from them. Is this possible through their website? I'm slightly hesitant due to being with them from 2017-2021 and getting used to 3G being the norm (Ping about 200 MS, max 7 down, max 1 up) and 4G being a luxury that you'd only really find in towns and cities. When I moved to EE that changed immediately, with great 4G almost everywhere (I've only once seen EE 3G but seen Three/iD 3G countless times). For low usage this would likely be totally fine though and I appreciate that Three have likely done a lot of upgrades over the past 3 years. So I'll definitely look into it if a SIM can be relatively easily obtained. Also, can anyone confirm if iD PAYG SIM's support VO WiFi like iD PAYM SIM's?
 
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(I've never tested O2 there but might do that soon)
Do you have an eSIM slot? Might be worth installing one of these "free" eSIMs to check coverage for them (I noticed you mentioned that the person in particular doesn't have it).

Firsty eSIM should support O2 (although I never really use it for O2) if you install it. First 100MB is uncapped (to a certain extent), then 0.1mbps.
 
Do you have an eSIM slot? Might be worth installing one of these "free" eSIMs to check coverage for them (I noticed you mentioned that the person in particular doesn't have it).

Firsty eSIM should support O2 (although I never really use it for O2) if you install it. First 100MB is uncapped (to a certain extent), then 0.1mbps.
Yes I do have an eSIM Slot. I've got a couple installed already (vodafone Ireland PAYG, Three PAYG (not topped up) and vodafone Network Trial (now expired and about to delete it although I did port that number out to another SIM as it started 0777 with three didits the same in a row in addition to that so it looked quite special/rare to me )) but not one that allows connection to O2 to check coverage. I might try Firsty and also get the free 1 GB offer on Red Bull Mobile if I still can as that might allow me to test actual data throughput there. Do Red Bull allow connection to O2?
 
Yes I do have an eSIM Slot. I've got a couple installed already (vodafone Ireland PAYG, Three PAYG (not topped up) and vodafone Network Trial (now expired and about to delete it although I did port that number out to another SIM as it started 0777 with three didits the same in a row in addition to that so it looked quite special/rare to me )) but not one that allows connection to O2 to check coverage. I might try Firsty and also get the free 1 GB offer on Red Bull Mobile if I still can as that might allow me to test actual data throughput there. Do Red Bull allow connection to O2?
Red Bull doesn't support O2. Works best on Vodafone although Three should work better now given the VoLTE TAC restriction seems to be going. Also works on EE but I think it only works when EE provides a better experience tbh

I'll double check rn though
 
Red Bull doesn't support O2. Works best on Vodafone although Three should work better now given the VoLTE TAC restriction seems to be going. Also works on EE but I think it only works when EE provides a better experience tbh

I'll double check rn though
Yeah didn't think so, might only be for weak signals idk (although it has just gone to forbidden)

Choose network couldn't connect to O2 4G
 
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Red Bull doesn't support O2. Works best on Vodafone although Three should work better now given the VoLTE TAC restriction seems to be going. Also works on EE but I think it only works when EE provides a better experience tbh

I'll double check rn though
Also, can you just re-install Firsty and get another 100 MB with a new account on a new Email address but same device? Or is it really one 100 MB free package per IMEI (device)? Just thinking about whether I should use the 100 MB for speedtests and therefore get through it incredibly quickly or try and save it
 
Also, can you just re-install Firsty and get another 100 MB with a new account on a new Email address but same device? Or is it really one 100 MB free package per IMEI (device)? Just thinking about whether I should use the 100 MB for speedtests and therefore get through it incredibly quickly or try and save it
You might be able to, but I'm not sure, never tested.

I'd save it honestly for when you're at the flat again and can perform some tests. Have you tried looking at Cellmapper?
 
You might be able to, but I'm not sure, never tested.

I'd save it honestly for when you're at the flat again and can perform some tests. Have you tried looking at Cellmapper?
Well sadly not as I'm blind (so use a screen reader on my device) and Cellmapper only seems to present itself as a visual map not a list. I'd like a feature where I enter postcode or longitude and latitude and can see all the towers around there in order of distance away. I've tried mastdata before but it seems incredibly out of date (still filled with Orange and T-Mobile sites).
 
Well sadly not as I'm blind (so use a screen reader on my device) and Cellmapper only seems to present itself as a visual map not a list. I'd like a feature where I enter postcode or longitude and latitude and can see all the towers around there in order of distance away. I've tried mastdata before but it seems incredibly out of date (still filled with Orange and T-Mobile sites).
Yeah mastdata doesn't seem the most accurate. Someone else who also uses a screen reader mentioned NetMonster isn't particularly great either (although it's not like that has a database anyways).

Is there any chance you could post the area and someone could have a look for you? O2 sometimes has more sites than Vodafone, even in O2 host areas.
 
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Red Bull doesn't support O2. Works best on Vodafone although Three should work better now given the VoLTE TAC restriction seems to be going. Also works on EE but I think it only works when EE provides a better experience tbh

I'll double check rn though
I also have bad experiences with using even proper roaming eSIM's (paid ones) for coverage testing. I was at a location a couple of weeks ago with 2 bars of EE 4G and nothing on the other networks. My vodafone IE eSIM would connect to EE if forced, but was always only on 1 bar when EE had 2. EE was like 15 MBPS while vf IE was about 2 MBPS if it even had throughput at all. It also regularly went to no signal with me having to cycle Airplane mode and go back into network selection to lock it again each time for another 20 minutes of usage. My proper EE Sim meanwhile always had signal (either 2 bars or 1).

So I think that at least that eSIM could only access some EE bands and therefore I don't really find results from these particularly valid although they're definitely still helpful.
 
I also have bad experiences with using even proper roaming eSIM's (paid ones) for coverage testing. I was at a location a couple of weeks ago with 2 bars of EE 4G and nothing on the other networks. My vodafone IE eSIM would connect to EE if forced, but was always only on 1 bar when EE had 2. EE was like 15 MBPS while vf IE was about 2 MBPS if it even had throughput at all. It also regularly went to no signal with me having to cycle Airplane mode and go back into network selection to lock it again each time for another 20 minutes of usage. My proper EE Sim meanwhile always had signal (either 2 bars or 1).

So I think that at least that eSIM could only access some EE bands and therefore I don't really find results from these particularly valid although they're definitely still helpful.
Is it possible that the vodafone IE eSIM doesn't support VoLTE in the UK? EE still has a restriction on B20/28 (and 4G only sites) access if you don't have VoLTE.
 
I also have bad experiences with using even proper roaming eSIM's (paid ones) for coverage testing. I was at a location a couple of weeks ago with 2 bars of EE 4G and nothing on the other networks. My vodafone IE eSIM would connect to EE if forced, but was always only on 1 bar when EE had 2. EE was like 15 MBPS while vf IE was about 2 MBPS if it even had throughput at all. It also regularly went to no signal with me having to cycle Airplane mode and go back into network selection to lock it again each time for another 20 minutes of usage. My proper EE Sim meanwhile always had signal (either 2 bars or 1).

So I think that at least that eSIM could only access some EE bands and therefore I don't really find results from these particularly valid although they're definitely still helpful.
The postcode is CB8 XXXX Near Newmarket, hopefully someone can check that.

Note: I will likely take out the Postcode from this message after I've got replies just to make sure it doesn't remain here forever. So please try not to quote it in replies.
 
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tbh I don't see O2 making that much of a difference if the serving site is the B20 only one, Vodafone probably is better tbh
It also looks like EE and Three seems to be coming off of the same site. Three is probably the worst option, O2 being second worst, Vodafone being second best and EE being the best

EE has B3+20 (25MHz bandwidth), Three has B20 only (5MHz bandwidth), Vodafone has B20 only (10MHz) and O2 has B20 only.

I think finding an EE MVNO that works is probably going to be your best option and I'm not sure what's going to give you the best experience.
 
It also looks like EE and Three seems to be coming off of the same site. Three is probably the worst option, O2 being second worst, Vodafone being second best and EE being the best

EE has B3+20 (25MHz bandwidth), Three has B20 only (5MHz bandwidth), Vodafone has B20 only (10MHz) and O2 has B20 only.

I think finding an EE MVNO that works is probably going to be your best option and I'm not sure what's going to give you the best experience.
Well actually in the same location in the house in question EE gets around 4-5 down while Vodafone can sometimes manage 15. But speed isn't really required here and so I think EE and vodafone might both be workable options.
 
In that case can you please think about whether vodafone or any of its MVNO's offer decent Classic PAYG anymore?
I don't think Lebara offers any classic PAYG, Talkmobile probably doesn't either, ASDA does (but idk of the prices) and Vodafone itself does but it's probably a bit too expensive.

Might just be worth forking £2.90 for a Pay Monthly Spusu SIM tbh and just hope you get VoLTE (1GB data and unlimited calls+texts).
 
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