Sponsored Links

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

Recently, I spent a week in Croatia.

Three networks in the country:
A1 (A1 HR)
T-Mobile (HT HR)
Telemach (TM HR)

My O2-UK PAYM SIM allowed connections to:
5G on HT HR
4G on TM HR when forced to 5G/4G, otherwise 3G
No connection to A1 HR

My 3 UK PAYG eSIM allowed 5G connections to all networks.

In Split and Zagreb, signal strengths were better than what we get in the UK. It was difficult to get worse than 100dBm outdoors, and much of the time it was better than 80dBm. Speeds were better too, mostly over 100mbps outdoors and often several hundred or even over a gigabit.

Best result:
1000181868.webp
 
I was in Fuerteventura last week and found a strange glitch if you roam on Yoigo. The network sends your phone the mainland Spain timezone although Fuerteventura is in the same timezone as the UK. Very confusing and dangerous if you set your alarm to catch a flight 😅
Luckily my iD mobile SIM connected mostly to Movistar and Orange - but with 5G support :)
 
I was in Fuerteventura last week and found a strange glitch if you roam on Yoigo. The network sends your phone the mainland Spain timezone although Fuerteventura is in the same timezone as the UK. Very confusing and dangerous if you set your alarm to catch a flight 😅
Luckily my iD mobile SIM connected mostly to Movistar and Orange - but with 5G support :)
Back when I was on sky mobile it kept on putting me on Yoigo which barely worked.
 
I was in Fuerteventura last week and found a strange glitch if you roam on Yoigo. The network sends your phone the mainland Spain timezone although Fuerteventura is in the same timezone as the UK. Very confusing and dangerous if you set your alarm to catch a flight 😅
Luckily my iD mobile SIM connected mostly to Movistar and Orange - but with 5G support :)
Does Orange have 5G now too?

Last time I was in .es it was 4G+ only on all. Then I was aware of Movistar 5G roaming with Three but not orange.

Yoigo is trash.
 
That's interesting.
Sky always locked to Orange where possible as far as I knew.
When I went back in January for a week, I went to torrelavega in cantabria and for the first half of the week the roaming barely work kept getting no service for3 days until sky turned it off and on. And I was on Yoigo quite a lot while staying in cartes but once getting out I was going on orange which worked just about.
 
Spent last week in the Netherlands with spusu, was only able to connect to Vodafone. Though at Schiphol Airport I ended up on KPN. Had no issues, both were 5G and though I didn’t do a proper test, Vodafone was pulling around 100 Mbps in Emmen.
 
Spent last week in the Netherlands with spusu, was only able to connect to Vodafone. Though at Schiphol Airport I ended up on KPN. Had no issues, both were 5G and though I didn’t do a proper test, Vodafone was pulling around 100 Mbps in Emmen.
KPN at Schiphol is great. Even their 4G connection gave me over 100mbit/s
 
Friend in France on Three PAYM (paying their silly £2 a day... but anyway) found they had no ability to make any outgoing calls on any of the 4 networks.

Wasn't with them so couldn't really troubleshoot but they'll be using it as basis for a refund...
 
Friend in France on Three PAYM (paying their silly £2 a day... but anyway) found they had no ability to make any outgoing calls on any of the 4 networks.

Wasn't with them so couldn't really troubleshoot but they'll be using it as basis for a refund...
That's really weird.... When I was there in January, calls worked on all networks. It was 3G, but it worked.

Bouygues worked best.
 
Friend in France on Three PAYM (paying their silly £2 a day... but anyway) found they had no ability to make any outgoing calls on any of the 4 networks.

Wasn't with them so couldn't really troubleshoot but they'll be using it as basis for a refund...
Strange... I was in Paris last month with iD (I think they use the same roaming as 3?) and everything was fine? Maybe wrong settings or they were in an area with a patchy network?
 
Friend in France on Three PAYM (paying their silly £2 a day... but anyway) found they had no ability to make any outgoing calls on any of the 4 networks.

Wasn't with them so couldn't really troubleshoot but they'll be using it as basis for a refund...
They may need to turn on dial assist in their phone settings to make it work, or change the numbers to 0044 I think it is.
 
They may need to turn on dial assist in their phone settings to make it work, or change the numbers to 0044 I think it is.
On another note...
I can't wait for VoLTE Roaming to become more widespread.
Dial assist and changing numbers is a thing of the past with VoLTE R as you're not touching the roaming network for calls at all... Everything goes via the home IMS. Used VoLTE R in the US with Three, had full HD+ Voice and standard dialling available. It was great
 
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Vodafone UK ISP Logo
Vodafone £24.00 - 26.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
NOW UK ISP Logo
NOW £24.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £25.99
145Mbps
Gift: £50 Reward Card
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £17.00
200Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Youfibre UK ISP Logo
Youfibre £23.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (6024)
  2. BT (3638)
  3. Politics (2720)
  4. Business (2439)
  5. Openreach (2405)
  6. Building Digital UK (2330)
  7. Mobile Broadband (2143)
  8. FTTC (2083)
  9. Statistics (1899)
  10. 4G (1813)
  11. Virgin Media (1762)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1582)
  13. Fibre Optic (1467)
  14. Wireless Internet (1462)
  15. 5G (1404)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules