Info on Voice & Data SIM Cards for Europe (and Australia/USA)

[Addie]

Hi all,

Just stuck my head in this forum and saw that there wasn't a great deal of information on voice and data SIM cards, so would like to contribute what we have found to be the best SIM for Calls and Data, predominantly in Europe but also relevant for further afield in the case of the Toggle.

Toggle SIM Card (for Calls)
The Toggle SIM firstly gives you a UK mobile number, so your friends and family can call you for the same price as a regular UK call (so free, if they have inclusive minutes). It is Pay-As-You-Go and can be topped up online either manually, or automatically once you get down to a specified amount.

You can receive that call for free in Australia, Austria, Belgiun, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and USA.

The following countries allow you to receive that call for a 19p connection charge Cambodia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Hungary, Indonesia, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Romania, Slovenia, Thailand and Vietnam.

The clever bit is that in certain countries you can register for a local number. You can have upto 9 numbers on a SIM card, either free for 30 days (after which you can re-register) or pay £5 to add one to the SIM card for a year. This has two benefits.

1.) By having a local number in the country you are in, you can call back to the UK for just 3p a minute to a landline or a mobile. You can also call any other Toggle countries for the same rates - occasionally mobiles are 9p rather than 3p.

2.) If you have friends, relatives or need someone in a particular country to be able to call you then you can give them a local number if you have one. So if you are Australian for example you could register for an Australian number and wherever you could receive that call for free in Europe.

Those countries where you can register for a local number are: Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK (by default) and USA.

Text messages are 7-9p. Data is 15p per Mb in Europe which is cheaper then the current EU roaming cap of 45p.

EuropaSIM Card for Data
The EuropaSIM is great for use in a iPad, tablet or MiFi device. It gives you unlimited data anywhere in Europe (as well as Turkey) for €3/day - so about £2.50 on todays exchange rate.

A day is 'midnight to midnight, central European time' rather than 24 hours from first use. There is a 500Mb fair usage policy which once exceeded will see your speeds slow, but its still possible to browse the web after this point.

Countries where it can be used are: Albania, Andorra, Austria, Azores, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canary islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Island, Finland, France, French Guyana, Germany, Gibraltar, Great Britain, Greece, Guadalupe, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madeira, Malta, Martinique, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Reunion, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands & Turkey.

I run a blog EuropeByCamper.com and on the back of our 12 month trip around Europe setup Motorhome WiFi dealing in long range WiFi and 3G solutions, predominantly for Europe, where we sell the two above SIM's.

The SIM cards I mention below can be bought from us, but of course you can buy them directly from the relevant companies directly, in this case Toggle Mobile and Europa SIM.

Hope this information is of use, I'd be happy to answer any questions anyone might have

Adam