Data SIM for world travellers!!

[goeasy123]

Data SIM

The Sail Life YouTube channel brought this to my attention. This is 300GB with roaming for a monthly fee 43,90€. You don't need a home country contract. Speeds up to 150MB. 4G and 5G coverage. Sim card can be used in these countries:
Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, French Caribbean, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, USA, Finland, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, La Reunion, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom of Great Britain, Czech Republic, Romania, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey. Azores, Guadeloupe and Saint Martin (French Caribbean), Guam, Guernsey, French Guiana (French Caribbean), Isle of Man, Mayotte Island, Aland Islands, Jersey, Kosovo, Madeira, Martinique (French Caribbean), US Virgin Islands, Vatican.

 

[geem]

Data SIM

The Sail Life YouTube channel brought this to my attention. This is 300GB with roaming for a monthly fee 43,90€. You don't need a home country contract. Speeds up to 150MB. 4G and 5G coverage. Sim card can be used in these countries:
Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, French Caribbean, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, USA, Finland, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, La Reunion, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom of Great Britain, Czech Republic, Romania, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey. Azores, Guadeloupe and Saint Martin (French Caribbean), Guam, Guernsey, French Guiana (French Caribbean), Isle of Man, Mayotte Island, Aland Islands, Jersey, Kosovo, Madeira, Martinique (French Caribbean), US Virgin Islands, Vatican.

The problem for me is it misses out most of the Caribbean. I have phone signal on my UK phone in the French Caribbean and Europe already which is why I keep it activated for £10/month

 

[Refueler]

I used to have an International SIM ... claimed similar to OP's link.

But what was reality ... each country still added on charges depleting the 'credit' on the SIM faster than a rabbit gets .......

A couple of countries that were listed actually BLOCKED the SIM because of 'irregularities' in charges.

The SIM provider in the end left the market and myself and all my guys around the world just buy local PAYG SIM's ... of course some places like Singapore have a limit as to how many sims you can take against your Passport ... Korea (maybe changed now) but PAYG sim was only available with a phone as well ...

I see there are adverts in CA magazine at times for 'Worldwide SIM' .... how good ??

I know I will now get 'bombed' for this by Live-Aboards - Long Distance cruising people - but I am skeptical of these worldwide sims after the experience I had with mine and my guys ...
If there really are good WW SIM's - then I'm all ears.

 

[Refueler]

Cautionary tale :

Late 2021- I had to go to Geneva to visit clients. I have two sims ... both full data / voice / sms EU wide at fixed price per month.

In GVA - I made use of UBER and of course their mapping to see where taxi was etc.

On return to Latvia - my phone bill was earthshattering !! I went into the Phone Co's shop asking .......

Sir - Switzerland does not accept such plans and all data etc is priced at their rates + roaming.

OK that is not terrible ... until you see how UBER was doing it ... on investigation of the system - I was being billed for not only Latvian SIM roaming in Switzerland - but also International rate to Holland where the data was being streamed out from !!

Bye Bye UBER !! I'll stick with the Limo Service I normally used .... significantly cheaper !!

Just thought I'd pass it on ...

 

[geem]

Lots of cruisers here buying the RV version of Starlink. We buy a local SIM when we are not in the French Islands for all the data we need at about half the cost per month of Starlink.

 

[JaninaofDorset]

i think i will make use of local sims and free cafes too...and also not be connected with anything ???‍

 

[roaringgirl]

Cautionary tale :

Late 2021- I had to go to Geneva to visit clients. I have two sims ... both full data / voice / sms EU wide at fixed price per month.

In GVA - I made use of UBER and of course their mapping to see where taxi was etc.

On return to Latvia - my phone bill was earthshattering !! I went into the Phone Co's shop asking .......

Sir - Switzerland does not accept such plans and all data etc is priced at their rates + roaming.

OK that is not terrible ... until you see how UBER was doing it ... on investigation of the system - I was being billed for not only Latvian SIM roaming in Switzerland - but also International rate to Holland where the data was being streamed out from !!

Bye Bye UBER !! I'll stick with the Limo Service I normally used .... significantly cheaper !!

Just thought I'd pass it on ...

Something weird going on there. One doesn't normally pay for the movement of data apart from the last leg between cell-tower and phone. Are you perhaps using your phone bill to pay for your taxis?

 

[roaringgirl]

I've got a phone that will take one SIM and one eSIM. You can buy eSIMs for most countries before you even arrive there, or use the local offerings.

 

[Refueler]

Something weird going on there. One doesn't normally pay for the movement of data apart from the last leg between cell-tower and phone. Are you perhaps using your phone bill to pay for your taxis?

It was only time before someone came in on it ....

I repeated what was found when we looked at the make up of bill - the shop and I together.

The Taxi bill was accounted for and deducted - so was not the factor .......... what was left after Taxi deductions AND tips added was !!!!!!!

 

[Buck Turgidson]

Data SIM

The Sail Life YouTube channel brought this to my attention. This is 300GB with roaming for a monthly fee 43,90€. You don't need a home country contract. Speeds up to 150MB. 4G and 5G coverage. Sim card can be used in these countries:
Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, French Caribbean, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, USA, Finland, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, La Reunion, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom of Great Britain, Czech Republic, Romania, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey. Azores, Guadeloupe and Saint Martin (French Caribbean), Guam, Guernsey, French Guiana (French Caribbean), Isle of Man, Mayotte Island, Aland Islands, Jersey, Kosovo, Madeira, Martinique (French Caribbean), US Virgin Islands, Vatican.

It's a paid promotion and they are a really expensive and poor method. See above. This is the sort of tat they sell in inflight mags.

 

[Trident]

I have the Starlink RV package (prices came down quite a lot) and it can be used for unlimited data and a lot further offshore than a mobile signals (though not across oceans yet) Its a game changer for never having to worry about getting local sims etc and coverage will be pretty universal by the end of this year

 

[bergie]

Data SIM

The Sail Life YouTube channel brought this to my attention. This is 300GB with roaming for a monthly fee 43,90€. You don't need a home country contract. Speeds up to 150MB. 4G and 5G coverage. Sim card can be used in these countries:
Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, French Caribbean, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, USA, Finland, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, La Reunion, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom of Great Britain, Czech Republic, Romania, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey. Azores, Guadeloupe and Saint Martin (French Caribbean), Guam, Guernsey, French Guiana (French Caribbean), Isle of Man, Mayotte Island, Aland Islands, Jersey, Kosovo, Madeira, Martinique (French Caribbean), US Virgin Islands, Vatican.

So, I ordered this SIM for our cruise this summer. Seemed like a decent deal since last year having to buy local cards in Sweden and Finland was quite a hassle (you can generally only top them up if you have a local bank account).

However, yesterday I tried to activate the SIM and failed. After inquiry they responded that they no longer offer this 300GB plan, and instead only offer 18GB. It is unclear to me if this was a scam all along, or whether something changed outside of their control. In either case, the service is now completely useless.

For record, we never paid them anything, as the billing was supposed to start only when we plug in the card.

Oh well, back to debating whether to get Starlink (expensive, uses way too much power) or go through the local SIM hassle again.

 

[roaringgirl]

I pay about £40 a month for extended roaming, free calls and texts and 60GB a month on my normal phone contract. Unless your job is video editing or you spend all you time below decks watching hi-res video, you'll struggle to get through 60GB!

 

[bergie]

I pay about £40 a month for extended roaming, free calls and texts and 60GB a month on my normal phone contract. Unless your job is video editing or you spend all you time below decks watching hi-res video, you'll struggle to get through 60GB!

We do "boat office" to enable us to cruise for the entire summer season. With Zoom calls and all, our data consumption is quite a bit more than that.