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Mobile Phone network / Which network provider

  • April 17, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 66 views
R

Hi 

Thanks to this community wife/I have now managed to put our plan together. We are travelling for the 1st time on this type of holiday.

Help/suggestion.

We have have Lebara network provider SIM phone ( UK based). This provides us with the ability to roam within EU - at no extra cost.Though just returned from Prague and it did not work there - The google map was just not picking up the data. We plan to travel to following countries - noting 1 of them is not part nof EU.

  1. Norway
  2. Sweden
  3. Denmark
  4. Germany
  5. Austria
  6. Switzerland
  7. France

Any suggestion as to how best to make sure our google maps works, so we are able to find our way in that given country/location and we are able to acess our passes/tickets etc on our phone.

is Esim the way to go - or is there a SIM only provider that gurantees good signal across all the countires.

Or would we need to see how we get on each country and then buy either Esim/local sim in that given country.

I am from a generation where we had everythig printed and had paper copy in our poccession. But now trying go change with times.

Any help suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

Best answer by BrendanDB

With any SIM card from a provider in the EU you can “roam like at home” in all the aforementioned countries, sometimes with the exception of Switzerland.

Norway and the UK are part of the roaming programme, although not in the EU.

eSIMs work quite well. Slightly fiddly to get it working, but there are good guides on the pages of eSIM providers. I used Airalo, it had good coverage. But a bit pricey normally, but they throw around a lot of discounts.

If you just buy a prepaid sim card of some bigger telecom provider anywhere in the EU, you can probably save yourself in Europe (but be wary of Switzerland). Might be cheaper than the eSIM providers as well.

    3 replies

    A
    Railly clever
    Forum|alt.badge.img+10
    • AnnaB
    • Railly clever
    • April 17, 2025

    Neither Norway nor Switzerland are part of EU.

    I guess you need to check with your provider why it didn't work in Prague.

    For some providers you need to activate the possibility to use roaming abroad before leaving your home country. 

    Please note that I don't work for Interrail/Eurail and that I don't reply to personal messages.
    Z
    Engin-ius
    Forum|alt.badge.img+7
    • zagmund
    • Engin-ius
    • April 17, 2025

    I have used sims from a number of providers in all of those countries without issue.  I can’t say I’ve used 1 single sim in all the countries, but I’ve definitely roamed to all of them.

    My normal suggestion (although I haven’t used them in 3 or 4 years) is Lyca mobile.  Typically I would pay €15 for a month and never hit any capacity limits or connectivity issues.  Tesco mobile (if you are in the UK) should be a reasonable bet also.

    I’ve heard good things about esims but I may be half a generation behind you and haven’t actually used one yet.  Until I’ve tried one and know how it works and why it works I’ll probably stick with what I know - sim from one of the many virtual providers.

    BrendanDB
    Full steam ahead
    Forum|alt.badge.img+8
    • BrendanDB
    • Full steam ahead
    • Answer
    • April 18, 2025

    With any SIM card from a provider in the EU you can “roam like at home” in all the aforementioned countries, sometimes with the exception of Switzerland.

    Norway and the UK are part of the roaming programme, although not in the EU.

    eSIMs work quite well. Slightly fiddly to get it working, but there are good guides on the pages of eSIM providers. I used Airalo, it had good coverage. But a bit pricey normally, but they throw around a lot of discounts.

    If you just buy a prepaid sim card of some bigger telecom provider anywhere in the EU, you can probably save yourself in Europe (but be wary of Switzerland). Might be cheaper than the eSIM providers as well.

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