Global sims for mobile phone communications

[Ric]

The next iPhone is rumoured to have an Apple sim - that will be the answer for anybody who travels a lot. Just arrive in a new country and sign into a local carrier with billing to your Apple account. Of course, the carriers are all up in arms at the throught of Apple "stealing" their customers - but I suspect the market clout of Apple will win in the end.

 

[the lloyds]

whatever you do - Do not buy World Sim, it is useless. It works in Europe but completely does not work in Caribbean and they charge you £1 a minute to call helpline who do nothing. When you try to use it you just get a message from local carrier saying calls are barred on this phone. Its OK for people calling you but calling out is near impossible

 

[knightvision]

I've been using http://www.truphone.com/uk/consumer/sim/ as you can port you UK number onto the SIM and have on the same SIM, local US and European numbers. Works fairly well so far

 

[wingssail]

World wide, the best solution, in our opinion, is buy local sim cards. Cheap cheap cheap, even when calling home, and you can use them for local calls almost free. Buy an unlocked smart phone and then buy data packages, and use the phone as a hot spot for your tablet and computers. Our total phone costs, for two phones, is around $13/mo, more of less, Caribbean more, Asia and central America less. Data Packages, with 3GB of data (which we use every month), costs about $30-$60, but that is not enough for Netflix of many news videos. A good WiFi antenna for your boat allows you to take advantage of free WiFi where ever it is available and save on your phone costs. The advantage of a smart phone, used as a hot spot, over the Huawei E5330, is that you can talk on it. With an Internet connection you can use Skype or other Voice of IP solution for even less cost.

When we get to a new port, the first thing we do is buy two sim cards, his, hers. This way we get Internet almost all of the time, near any coast.

BTW, my friend Omar recommended, and we've started doing it when we are in a country where they have this option, is "put time on your phone, and buy one day's Internet data at a time." That costs from $30-$45 a month if you buy one every day. it si an online or SMS option on the phone, takes 10 seconds.

Downside to all of this? You'll have to figure out the key strokes to navigate all the options all over in every country, and some phone stores can't tell you how, but after a few countries, you can sort of figure it out yourself.

After a year you can make jewelry out of your old sim cards,

Fred, SV Wings, Puerto Vallarta

 

[CatCouple]

I have used it for more than a month more than twice a year no problem. 3 in Turkey is v expensive ( as is all comms ) but Greece on 3 is reasonable but not included in their At Home deal.

The rule is actually no more than one month up to three times in any year usage in the 'at home ' countries .

The' at home' countries are
Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Macau, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, USA.

Other countries will have their own roaming charges.

Here is the 3 'small print'

Feel At Home is intended for our UK customers who are visiting one of the destinations for short trips, like holidays or business trips. If you only use your plan in a Feel At Home destination for a complete month, and this happens three times within a year, we may have to suspend international roaming on your account, which would mean you wouldn't be able to use your phone or device abroad anymore. We’d let you know if this were likely to happen. If you spend a full month abroad but some of that time is spent in a destination that isn't included in Feel At Home, the restriction won’t apply.

 

[LadyInBed]

For local country sims this site may have some useful info

http://roamerapp.com/community/index.php?/forum/3-i-am-going-to/

 

[Boo2]

...also you get 4gb to use your device as a hot spot....

Aiui, this is only valid in the UK though. Don't know how thoroughly 3 police it...

Boo2