Which Mobile Phone Network Operator (Sim Card) is best for Digital Nomads?

[nelsonic]

@iteles' uncle Mike is about to retire and has been saving up (for a while) for his "round-the-world-trip" ...
He is going to be away from the UK for over a Year!! 😮
and wants to know what the best mobile operator is for his travels.

• Limited Phone calls and SMS
• Uses "WhatsApp" a lot for messages, images and VoIP calls
• Will be sending emails with photos

Which are the best operators for both quality (first) and price (second) ?
Fairly certain this overlaps considerably with the research that "Digital Nomads" do before they head out on their travels, so any insight would be very much appreciated! thanks!

[nelsonic]

Going with "Three" because of best price, data allowance and "Feel At Home" policy
Which allows us to use our Data Allowance in EU (

http://www.three.co.uk/Support/Roaming_and_international/Roaming_Abroad/Destinations
Which has way more countries included!!

http://www.three.co.uk/standalone/priceplan-details?planid=1400624203433

[nelsonic]

https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/awards/

Everyone is a winner for something... 😆
Three wins in the most categories.
And specifically for both Data and Roaming which is exactly what remote people need. 😉

[nelsonic]

Good thread on Quora: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-best-international-data-SIM-card-in-Southeast-Asia

[nelsonic]

https://www.flexiroam.com/about (seems legit)

https://www.flexiroam.com/coverage

https://www.flexiroam.com/pricing

cc: @iteles Includes JP, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), Philippines & Thailand
Thoughts?

[nelsonic]

By contrast "Go Sim" costs £90/GB http://www.gosim.com/data-sim-card.html

[nelsonic]

@iteles we don't need to decide today... 😉

[nelsonic]

I switched to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_UK http://www.three.co.uk back in 2017
and it has been really good because I've spent chunks of time away from the UK.
And in Feb 2019 I switched my plan to £10/month for 8GB data and unlimited calls/texts ...
The plan I ended up getting was not on their website only available over the phone 🙄
I'm going to continue with 3 for as long as I can as it's been cheap and good service.
If 3 update their pricing or roaming policy because of Brexit I may be forced to switch ...

If I were a Digital Nomad thinking of travelling around Europe, Asia or America (both south and north),
and had an address I could use in the UK to register for a 3 Contract, I would go for one of these plans:
http://www.three.co.uk/Store/SIM/Plans_for_phones

Unlimited

Moderate Usage

Both of these have "Go Roam": http://www.three.co.uk/go-roam

Which allows me to use my 8GB data in 71 destinations including "exotic" Digital Nomad favourites like Columbia, Costa Rica Canary Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Panama, Indonesia (Bali), Singapore and Vietnam http://www.three.co.uk/Support/Roaming_and_international/Roaming_Abroad/Destinations
(sadly no Thailand, Malaysia, India or South Africa ... so can't work remotely from those places sans Wifi...)

As mentioned above the service has been good for me in PT and I've occasionally been without internet for a whole week and only burned through a couple of GBs of data without any degradation in speed/bandwidth. They might limit my data if I went closer to the monthly cap ... but if that happened I would receive an alert and would temporarily pay for more data. £5 for a day of "unlimited" if I needed it.

Just search for "Three Data Passport" to read more.

@iteles I'd highly recommend you switch from GiffGaff to 3 even at their lowest monthly plan.
It will work out cheaper for you and you won't get penalised for going abroad.

@SimonLab if you are planning on working remotely from Belgium/France I would recommend you consider this too as 3 has better coverage than GiffGaff (O2) abroad and you won't be penalised for being away from the UK.

[nelsonic]

Lame: 🙄

Thanks Brexit! 🤦

http://3.uk/ess

[nelsonic]

Brexit!! 🤦‍♂️

If the UK was still in the EU this would be illegal. 🇪🇺
But like this I'm going to have to switch Mobile networks ... ⏳
So I need to re-open this and do research ... 🙄

[SimonLab]

Just saw this article this morning:

However I haven't checked their contract prices.

[nelsonic]

Interesting. Wonder what the fine print will be though ...
3 doesn't charge roaming during their "fair use" period. But I appear to have exceeded it even though I only use a few MBs of data per month - my phone is always on WiFI - they've decided I'm not worthy of paying them €100's for it anymore ... 🙄