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Roaming SIM for voice?

dabigm

ULTIMATE Member
Does anyone know/recommend a roaming sim for voice?
I don't really need it for data, but I would like one of those SIMs that will join the strongest network available / will join any network it can find. I spent the weekend at a place where both my EE and Three SIMs didn't work at all and I realised how bad it was not to even be able to make phone calls. I'd also like to be able to port a number to it if possible.
 
Does anyone know/recommend a roaming sim for voice?
I don't really need it for data, but I would like one of those SIMs that will join the strongest network available / will join any network it can find. I spent the weekend at a place where both my EE and Three SIMs didn't work at all and I realised how bad it was not to even be able to make phone calls. I'd also like to be able to port a number to it if possible.

You could install an eSim like BNEsim which will switch to whatever network is available and for calls you need Xpatfone which uses mobile data or wifi from anywhere in the world. You can port your number over too.
 
You could install an eSim like BNEsim which will switch to whatever network is available and for calls you need Xpatfone which uses mobile data or wifi from anywhere in the world. You can port your number over too.
thanks i'll check out BNEsim. I have VoIP on A&A at the moment, but yeah I was completely without a working mobile service this weekend, and unable to contact several people who i really needed to. I had to find a local pub and use their WiFi !!!

thing is i already have two unlimited data sims, so i really only wanted it for voice in an emergency but perhaps i'll have to look at the data ones.
 
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At least with BNEsim you've got three of four major networks available. O2, EE and Three. The only one they don't partner with is Vodafone. You can buy a one off 1GB or 3GB that can just sit there until you need it.
 
At least with BNEsim you've got three of four major networks available. O2, EE and Three. The only one they don't partner with is Vodafone. You can buy a one off 1GB or 3GB that can just sit there until you need it.
yeah i find that a bit odd, on one page they say they do partner with vodafone but on the uk local sim it says o2/ee/three. I'm thinking 1GB should be fine too, it's more than enough minutes for voip calls. It's a pity you can't set an app to use a specific SIM/data connection though that would be a really nice android feature.

Thanks.
 
That looks ok. Bit of an odd pricing model though. I would very much prefer to have all the networks. Especially if vodafone are going to swallow three in the future.
 
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ok yeah BNE 100% does not have vodafone. despite occasionally being referenced on their site, their support initally told me it would connect to vodafone, then i asked why it says O2/EE/Three on all the UK ones and they admitted it won't do vodafone in the UK. So BNE are out.

Also looking at Scancom's "UK Multi-Network Quad Band Data Sim" but the reviews are terrible. Also found this, but I know absolutely nothing about them
 
Anywhere sim is good but isn't all that, I found it kept defaulting to Vodafone which has a poor signal here, as bad as o2 (or is that NOo2). You could manually pick a network to roam on.

Has anyone checked with BNE whether they include Vodafone (will it matter if VF and 3 merge?)
 
ok yeah BNE 100% does not have vodafone. despite occasionally being referenced on their site, their support initally told me it would connect to vodafone, then i asked why it says O2/EE/Three on all the UK ones and they admitted it won't do vodafone in the UK. So BNE are out.

Also looking at Scancom's "UK Multi-Network Quad Band Data Sim" but the reviews are terrible. Also found this, but I know absolutely nothing about them
£8.50 a month?

RWG do a multi-network sim? https://www.rwgmobile.wales/webshop/multi-network-sims/ but not tried it myself, prob will soon. Pricing is far more reasonable but it is data only.

(I think in this day and age a backup data sim that can roam on all networks is a must.)
 
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bit weird anywhereesim and anywheresim appear to be the same company, but the pricing structures are totally different.
 
Just coming back to this, so i've decided to do some testing and despite me saying I wouldn't touch RWG .. in the end, I did :ROFLMAO: I decided as long as I don't port any numbers to it I'd take the risk and give it a try. but I have to say the reviews about their support are true. Zero responses from them. At all. Thankfully despite them saying you have to email to activate it, it worked immediately as soon as I put it in the phone.

Anyway, I also decided to go for the anywhereesim as well. These are the only two that I could find at the time that seemed to be UK companies and also covered all 4 networks.

So here's what i've found and a small comparison

Both SIMs will join a network, however the RWG SIM always wants to join EE. It doesn't matter if there is a stronger signal with another network, if there's an EE signal, it will join it. Trying to force it on to another network fails each time. I can't explain this, I know there is such a thing as it being "steered" but I would have thought I could manually select a network but not from what i've tried. EE if it's available. Otherwise it will join another network if EE is not around. I've not been able to test out Vodafone because the places i've taken it caused it to join either EE or O2.

The network appears as EE Tele2 IoT

Data is slow as ... very very slow. A check on whatismyip etc comes up as some 3rd party hosting company (forgot which, will check and update later). But it does eventually work.

I paid £30 for 12 months. 1GB each month. No 5G.

Now on to the real winner I think: anywhereesim.
Able to swap it to any network I want. No problem.
Added ability to make calls (RWG is data only)

More expensive at £50 for 12 months.
Able to select any network.
Data speed doesn't appear to be capped, but im not going to test this extensively given I have limited data. But much faster than the RWG SIM. Even on the same net
Downside: they've also not responded to my pre-sales questions. Not support, but pre-sales. not a good look.

But at least my wife and I now have a SIM that should give us emergency data/calls via VoIP if there's a working network of any kind nearby.
 
Just coming back to this, so i've decided to do some testing and despite me saying I wouldn't touch RWG .. in the end, I did :ROFLMAO: I decided as long as I don't port any numbers to it I'd take the risk and give it a try. but I have to say the reviews about their support are true. Zero responses from them. At all. Thankfully despite them saying you have to email to activate it, it worked immediately as soon as I put it in the phone.

Anyway, I also decided to go for the anywhereesim as well. These are the only two that I could find at the time that seemed to be UK companies and also covered all 4 networks.

So here's what i've found and a small comparison

Both SIMs will join a network, however the RWG SIM always wants to join EE. It doesn't matter if there is a stronger signal with another network, if there's an EE signal, it will join it. Trying to force it on to another network fails each time. I can't explain this, I know there is such a thing as it being "steered" but I would have thought I could manually select a network but not from what i've tried. EE if it's available. Otherwise it will join another network if EE is not around. I've not been able to test out Vodafone because the places i've taken it caused it to join either EE or O2.

The network appears as EE Tele2 IoT

Data is slow as ... very very slow. A check on whatismyip etc comes up as some 3rd party hosting company (forgot which, will check and update later). But it does eventually work.

I paid £30 for 12 months. 1GB each month. No 5G.

Now on to the real winner I think: anywhereesim.
Able to swap it to any network I want. No problem.
Added ability to make calls (RWG is data only)

More expensive at £50 for 12 months.
Able to select any network.
Data speed doesn't appear to be capped, but im not going to test this extensively given I have limited data. But much faster than the RWG SIM. Even on the same net
Downside: they've also not responded to my pre-sales questions. Not support, but pre-sales. not a good look.

But at least my wife and I now have a SIM that should give us emergency data/calls via VoIP if there's a working network of any kind nearby.

You could have gone with BNEsim only 77p per month for a Gigabyte with roaming in the eu. For calls use KeepCalling which lets you share the same credit among several devices.
 
You could have gone with BNEsim only 77p per month for a Gigabyte with roaming in the eu. For calls use KeepCalling which lets you share the same credit among several devices.
Just testing them out at the moment. Problem BNE was that it didn't have vodafone. But perhaps when these expire I might look at them again. I already have a SIM with EU roaming too. But I did check out BNE as well. Oh i'll check out KeepCalling thanks but i recently signed up for freevoipdeal too.

There's also something called MOGO too, but didn't get around to it. Had to pick two so went for Anywhere + RWG
 
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For a solid roaming SIM that focuses on voice, you might want to give the Anywhere eSIM a try. It covers all four major UK networks and supports porting your number too.
 
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