Portugal PAYG data sim cards - NOS or MEO

[GHA]

Been using NOS for data for ages now in Portugal, usually fine - stream web radio all day & youtube movies at night. Dual sim phone as hotspot. Usually between 4Mbs & 8Mbs on speedtest.

But lately in Faro it seems to be getting worse, sort of gives up for a while then back again. More off than on this saturday lunch time. Maybe everyone watches cat videos at the same time? Don't think it's the phone but might be...

So - anyone else on NOS experiencing this?

And what about MEO? Same price but NOS you can buy more time online which is really handy - can you do that on MEO? Worth switching to MEO?

Both sims are free from any NOS/MEO shop, no passport or ID required, just buy the sim & it's about €1 a day all you can eat though they say there's a cap.

Ta

 

[Graham376]

Normally use contract Vodafone but use Meo PAYG sim when heading up Guadiana as Voda doesn't work until Alcoutim. Works fine on the mooring off Faro as well, fast enough to stream live UK TV OK.

 

[GHA]

Normally use contract Vodafone but use Meo PAYG sim when heading up Guadiana as Voda doesn't work until Alcoutim. Works fine on the mooring off Faro as well, fast enough to stream live UK TV OK.

Had MEO up the river before, plenty fast. And NOS came back to life after lunch enough to download a 1.1Gb torrent in a couple of hours. But no idea if it's my phone, the area or just NOS that makes it drop out.
Or if you can get more data online from MEO when it runs out.

 

[Graham376]

Had MEO up the river before, plenty fast. And NOS came back to life after lunch enough to download a 1.1Gb torrent in a couple of hours. But no idea if it's my phone, the area or just NOS that makes it drop out.
Or if you can get more data online from MEO when it runs out.

Couple of hours for 1.1 Gb is very slow. MEO is time and Gb limited. It usually cuts off half a day after time limit and it's best to have 2 cards as, if you top one up before it has run out, then any remaining data/time is lost. We wait for one to cut off and then use the second one. They seem to be valid unused from purchase for anything up to 12 months so always good as a standby. Top up at ATM, don't know if it can be done on-line.

 

[Munz]

I've been using the NOS data package (kangaru?) last year(s) on the Algarve and now in Seixal next to Lisbon, and I've occasionally been seeing it getting very slow during the day...
So it's not just your phone I think.....

 

[GHA]

Couple of hours for 1.1 Gb is very slow. MEO is time and Gb limited. It usually cuts off half a day after time limit and it's best to have 2 cards as, if you top one up before it has run out, then any remaining data/time is lost. We wait for one to cut off and then use the second one. They seem to be valid unused from purchase for anything up to 12 months so always good as a standby. Top up at ATM, don't know if it can be done on-line.

Torrents download rate is invariably constrained by the file servers, couple of hours ain't bad
NOS says it's data limited but appears not to be, never cut out and last time I looked it was something like 100Gb in a month, good reason to stick with NOS if MEO actually is, if NOS would stop cutting out!

Anyway, the far better than sliced bread node-red to the rescue, to actually see what's going on anyway, speedtest download rate running once a minute into a database >>>

 

[Graham376]

Just done a speed test on Vodafone using Ookla speed checker - ping 24ms, download 35.4Mbps, upload 21.60Mbps