Best SIM Provider out there?

IC3

IC3

Soldato
Joined
3 Dec 2011
Posts
10,228
I have been with 3 for a long time as its cost effective, coverage is ok'ish and they do good deals on renewals. However lately they seem to be getting worse and worse with the coverage and consistency in Mobile Data speeds...

I was planning on switching to EE, but just saw a post on here that they'll introduce a roaming fee which is a bit of a deal breaker for me... The question is, who is the current go to?
 
They will all reintroduce it. Only a matter of time. Was just s question of who is going to do it first
 
As above, don't think it's a good idea to pick solely based on roaming.

Instead I would focus more on what network offers the best coverage in your area.

If you do travel a fair bit, getting a local SIM is usually the cheaper way.
 
I've found Lebara to be far superior in coverage than Three. Lebara use Vodafone's network.

Good customer service, referral codes and cheap too with uSwitch deals.
 
Customer service wise they are all bad as each other. The main thing is, who has best coverage and data speeds in your area.

Roaming charges should not be the decider. As they will charge £2 per day or £10 month roaming (I think) so not the end of the world.

for me Vodafone has been great in and around Manchester. But when I visited London a few weeks back it struggled a little bit.
 
After many years of Three, switched to Lebara (Vodafone) and very happy with coverage, can actually watch videos on mobile data now.

Again though, it's a bit of a, "how long is a piece of string" question as wildly depends where you live.
 
EE have a good deal of 160GB for £20pm SIM only at the moment. I managed to get it down to £16 with my work discount scheme.
 
I've found Lebara to be far superior in coverage than Three. Lebara use Vodafone's network.

Good customer service, referral codes and cheap too with uSwitch deals.

I just took a Lebara uSwitch deal for my daughter's phone and it's all up and trucking. What isn't clear to me is what happens when her allowance runs out, do I have to do something to get her more allowance or does it just revert to the extortionate base rates (please tell me it's the former!)?

TIA
 
I just took a Lebara uSwitch deal for my daughter's phone and it's all up and trucking. What isn't clear to me is what happens when her allowance runs out, do I have to do something to get her more allowance or does it just revert to the extortionate base rates (please tell me it's the former!)?

TIA

I think I went over my allowance once and it did get expensive, but I noticed quickly and paid a data booster to cover me for the rest of the month. It didn't use the funds in my account, annoyingly, which was £10 as part of the uSwitch deal so as far as I can tell account credit is useless if you're on a monthly contract. Ensure you set up blocks when certain limits are reached.

I've just been looking for their data costs when in the US: £14.99 per MB and there's no way to buy an add-on for that zone of travel. So I'm going to have to get a Three PAYG SIM for that. UK Lebara and Three don't do eSIMs either (unlike Swiss Lebara) so it's going to be a bit of a faff.
 
EE have a good deal of 160GB for £20pm SIM only at the moment. I managed to get it down to £16 with my work discount scheme.
How do people use 160GB of data in a month? Insane. I read an article saying the average is under 3GB. Data to me is about as much use as a chocolate teapot. I live in London so my commute is on the tube. If I want to watch or listen to anything, it's pre-downloaded via home (or work) internet.

Also wanted to add that it seems O2 are currently the only of the big providers that do not charge per day for roaming.
 
My wife is on Three, and will be switching back to Vodafone the moment her contract finally ends, as Three's coverage and signal quality is ******* hideously ***** round our part of the world...!!

How do people use 160GB of data in a month? Insane. I read an article saying the average is under 3GB. Data to me is about as much use as a chocolate teapot. I live in London so my commute is on the tube. If I want to watch or listen to anything, it's pre-downloaded via home (or work) internet.
A lot of what I watch cannot be downloaded, or is at least a faff to mess around with (and not always legally obtainable), so streaming is a way more convenient option. HD video at about 1GB per hour-long episode, that's easily 60-80GB in a month... more if what I'm watching is in 1440p, or if I'm in lots of video chat meetings, or if I'm downloading and playing games, or uploading HD photos and video to social media, etc etc etc.... not that I personally do much of that myself, but I can see how a 'power user' of phones can burn through a lot of data.
 
How do people use 160GB of data in a month? Insane. I read an article saying the average is under 3GB. Data to me is about as much use as a chocolate teapot. I live in London so my commute is on the tube. If I want to watch or listen to anything, it's pre-downloaded via home (or work) internet.

Also wanted to add that it seems O2 are currently the only of the big providers that do not charge per day for roaming.

I never use anywhere near that much either, but it was essentially the same price (if not cheaper) than other deals with less.
 
Having gone through the online checkout process on a few provider's websites recently (in my hunt for a cheap eSim), they all give you an option to set a cap on extra charges on top of your monthly amount. If that's what you mean.
 
You don't even need to do it on the network side. Not sure about iOS but Android phones have a built in capper:

aoSk24j.png


Just set it slightly below your actual limit just in case, since it will read differently from what your network sees, although I haven't noticed any large differences between the two readings.
 
In regards to CPI and RPI price rises, does that affect new and recent contracts and upgrades?

Is there a cut off date?


Edit. Yes any new contract will have an increase.
 
Last edited:
Yes all the ones I was looking at specifically said prices will be rising in April. I’m guessing by 10%. #lolbrexit
 
Back
Top Bottom