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Roaming Abroad, using your phone while Abroad: A Comprehensive Guide

I took my Vodafone IE eSIM to it's homeland too - I had free wifi on the ferry anyway (Stena Superfast VIII Cairnryan to Belfast) so I didn't want to use my credit. Then after I got home I was gifted 5 euro credit (for 2 weeks) I could have wasted on the ferry for testing if I'd got it a couple of days earlier - oh well!

Also I seem to have been gifted 1GB free data that expires in a week, not sure why...

View attachment 17774

Also I've been able to force it onto EE UK which is good - no 5G, up to 4G.

View attachment 17779

Perhaps this one deserves a thread of it's own, 0.1862c per MB could be the perfect IoT SIM for some (as has been noted before).

Their website is totally broken though so I can't get into my account though, oh well.
Out of curiosity, is there any other networks vodafone IE can connect to? Apparently, according to support, it can connect to & roam on all UK networks but I think there's heavy steering involved, for example to connect to O2 you mustn't have signal with any other network for it to work/connect.
 
AT&T 5G on a local US Mobile eSIM.
Was ~£19 ($25) for 35GB data and then unlimited at 5mbps thereafter. Local calls and texts + international SMS/MMS.
They let you choose which network to connect to, I chose AT&T as Verizon wouldn't recognise my phone's IMEI and refused me an eSIM - again I am not bothering with T Mobile.
It's been consistently this speed the entire way round the city, even in the subway. I am happy.
View attachment 17791

View attachment 17792
The covergae on T-Mobile wouldn't be as good for you because the S24 ultra doesn't support B71 btw.

I'm pretty sure AT&T is deprioritized on US mobile (Which can make a big difference in areas with less capacity), Verizon is the only network that has priority data on USMobile, so I would gave that a try.
 
It should be easy to change between the networks on USMobile if you want to give Verizon a try
I literally cannot. They refused.
 
Vodafone Italy, Vodafone Iceland, Vodafone Germany and Vodafone Ireland are all pretty amazing in my own experience.

I know Vodafone Spain has its issues apparently, but haven’t used that one personally (plus along with Vodafone Italy it’s sold anyway isn’t it?).
I’m in Spain now - Lloret De Mar - and despite my previous experiences Vodafone is by far the best network in the town, Movistar has actually been surprisingly poor
 
Out of curiosity, is there any other networks vodafone IE can connect to? Apparently, according to support, it can connect to & roam on all UK networks but I think there's heavy steering involved, for example to connect to O2 you mustn't have signal with any other network for it to work/connect.
Only EE in my trials. Can't get onto 3 or O2, I tried a few times but maybe not hard enough.

My friend from the Netherlands is over with a Vodafone NL SIM, he can only get Vodafone 5G and EE 2G.

Vodafone's steering appears to be very heavy - similarly in Ireland with Lebara UK I got onto 3 Ireland once, then couldn't again.
Three PAYG I can pick up on eBay 2 SIMs for £4.35 each with £10 credit at the moment that'll give me 15GB for the month so that's most tempting right now, the other SIM can go to a family member who's going on a trip to Switzerland in early October.
Maybe a bad move, but I changed my mind - going to put my number on the 1p Talk Home SIM for a double port but also a "backup" service while in France/Spain, then do the £1.25 Lebara in my second slot - given this is a 3 week trip I could do with the larger data allowance than Three's 12GB to be honest even if I don't get 5G in France. If Vodafone gives me problems on the trip I'll have a couple GB roaming on Talk Home anyway.

Once home after my trip I'll port back to Lebara. Already ordered 1x Three SIM but that can go to my family for their Switzerland trip so it'll still get used.
 
If Vodafone gives me problems on the trip I'll have a couple GB roaming on Talk Home anyway.
Talk Home will have:

France:
Orange 5G
Free 5G
Bouygues 4G
No SFR

Spain:
Movistar 5G
Orange 5G
Xfera Yoigo 4G
No Vodafone

Andorra:
Telecom Andorra Mobiland 4G

These are all off the top of my head so don't take it gospel, but that's what you can expect
 
My O2 SIM connected to Orange and then vodafone ES in a bar in Spain last night, leaving Orange selected for 4 hours and it's still on No Service - what's the deal with that? How does it know to only allow me when the other network (Movistar) has No Service?
 
My O2 SIM connected to Orange and then vodafone ES in a bar in Spain last night, leaving Orange selected for 4 hours and it's still on No Service - what's the deal with that? How does it know to only allow me when the other network (Movistar) has No Service?
That sounds like a Carrier Profile job tbf. And if not, it'll be steering by O2 themselves (I think a bit like how I keep getting put back onto AT&T after manually selecting and registering to a network)
 
That sounds like a Carrier Profile job tbf. And if not, it'll be steering by O2 themselves (I think a bit like how I keep getting put back onto AT&T after manually selecting and registering to a network)
Agree, steering can result in very weird behaviour. Eg I've often been able to get alternative networks even on the notorious Vodafone but only with luck (and often being in rural areas on my trips)! O2 will steer heavily to Movistar.

Talk Home will have:

France:
Orange 5G
Free 5G
Bouygues 4G
No SFR

Spain:
Movistar 5G
Orange 5G
Xfera Yoigo 4G
No Vodafone

Andorra:
Telecom Andorra Mobiland 4G

These are all off the top of my head so don't take it gospel, but that's what you can expect
I used them as a second SIM about a year ago on a trip through Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Switzerland (at the time it was included, kinda - data worked, but calls and texts didn't!), Leitchtenstein, France, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

I didn't do thorough testing, but at that time it was O2 - SZ in Slovakia (4G only), A1 Austria (5G), TIM Italy (5G) and Illiad (not sure, wasn't in a 5G area), FL1 Leitchtenstein (4G only - no access to SwisscomFL or 7acht), Swisscom (5G) and I think Sunrise Switzerland, Orange Romania (4G - no 5G), Yettel Hungary (not sure if 5G), Yettel and Vivacom both 5G in Bulgaria (definitely couldn't get A1). This isn't an exclusive list at all.

Also I remember my Lebara SIM was very confused in Leitchtenstein, worked fine on FL1 up to 4G but whilst it would connect to SwisscomFL, it acted as if I had no credit (perhaps as if was in Switzerland, where roaming isn't included - and yes I was definitely on SwisscomFL NOT the Swiss network!)

1723837132487.webp


At that point I did get 5G on Bouygues. Also had access to Free and Orange, both 5G. I don't remember about SFR - coverage wasn't good for them where I was (even Free was better! - but as you can see I was struggling even on those!)

1723835994369.webp
 
US Vodafone:
VoLTE-R and 5G on AT&T
VoLTE-R and 5G on T-Mobile
No connection to Verizon whilst on test, but could be possible
WiFi Call and Backup calling

US Three:
VoLTE-R and 5G on Verizon
VoLTE-R and 4G on AT&T (Steered)
VoLTE-R and 4G on T-Mobile

US O2 Pay Monthly:
5G and VoLTE-R T-Mobile
No connection on AT&T
No connection on Verizon

US O2 Pay & go (Giffgaff and Tesco Pay&Go)
4G on TMobile, 2G calls
No connection AT&T
No connection Verizon

US EE:
5G and VoLTE-R on Verizon
5G and VoLTE-R on AT&T
Unsure of T-Mobile, couldn't test
 
I've heard that this can also happen on phones bought in the US and even some phones bought directly from Verizon, on USMobile🤦‍♂️

Ordering it using another phone IMEI would probably work or you can try and order directly on Verizon through this, it seems accept my global verison S23: https://www.verizon.com/sales/nextg...ry=Smartphones&multiLineSeqNumber=2&mtnFlow=D
US carriers often insist on you providing your device’s IMEI number to provision the eSIM remotely rather than give you a QR code.
 
My O2 SIM connected to Orange and then vodafone ES in a bar in Spain last night, leaving Orange selected for 4 hours and it's still on No Service - what's the deal with that? How does it know to only allow me when the other network (Movistar) has No Service?
interesting, what phone do you have?

i thought it should eventually work but maybe they are able to detect coverage somehow!
 
Honestly the next time I'm in the US I will just use US Mobile again I think. £19 is a fair price for the service provided and id be more than happy to use them again, been very reliable.
Was the $25 Unlimited plan for reference.
Some folks on Reddit also Tello quite well for a US eSIM for visitors. It's also $25 - I don't think it does the IMEI checks? Not certain - not researched it myself. But I'm sure you're eSIMed out for this trip :ROFLMAO:


Doesn't look half bad either really especially given international routing. It's probably still worth having Three for anyone visiting from the UK given the low cost, it'll work on landing and for calls back to the UK.

Not sure if I can link to it here but someone on Reddit tested Tello and got pretty good speeds/low latency (still not great compared to what we see in Europe, but can't win it all) - they also tried a few other travel eSIMs plus Mobimatter Spark's EU+USA eSIM (routes via Orange Poland) and latency was 400ms+ which is much poorer!

Also worth mentioning if using Three Go Roam a good way to call US numbers (if needed) is via doubledial's free 0800 service, instead of the £1.40/min.
 
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