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flyersphanatic9

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 3, 2013
2
0
Hey guys, I have a few questions about using my iPhone 5 abroad, any help is greatly appreciated!
I have an unlocked AT&T iPhone 5.
In the next week I will be traveling to Amsterdam, Prague and Berlin before settling in London for 4 months to study abroad.
I read some old threads on the forum and believe I will buy a SIM from either Three or GiffGaff for my time in London.

My question is: what would my best strategy be for getting my iPhone to work in the first three countries before I get to London?

Thanks!
 

nburwell

macrumors 603
May 6, 2008
5,448
2,360
DE
Your best bet is to but a local SIM card from each of the three countries you visit before you settle down in London. I'm sure you can easily find them in airports and train terminals in your travels. You may also have to cut the SIM card down if the place doesn't sell nano SIM cards that the iPhone 5 takes.
 

takeshi74

macrumors 601
Feb 9, 2011
4,974
68
My question is: what would my best strategy be for getting my iPhone to work in the first three countries before I get to London?
Not much you can do from here if your device is already unlocked unless you want to sign up for a roaming service. You'd need to pick up your SIM when you get there.
 

flyersphanatic9

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 3, 2013
2
0
So I should be looking for pre-paid SIMs when I arrive at each destination? Typically are those expensive? I'll be spending 4 days in Amsterdam and 2 each in Prague and Berlin. Thanks guys.
 

andychelt

macrumors member
Oct 7, 2011
52
3
Are you able to get a sim card before you travel? I assume you are mostly after web access?

You could then go with a Vodafone UK Pay As You Go sim card. If you top it up with £10 this can give you 300 texts and 500mb of data for 30 days in The UK in addition to the £10 credit which you could then make use of abroad as Vodafone charge £2 per day for 25mb of data which works in all the European countries.

A single £10 top up would give you 25mb of data each day for 5 days. (as long as you make sure not to go over the 25mb limit otherwise it's then £0.69p per mb)

I realise 25mb of data each day isn't massive but when I travelled to the US recently I found 25mb of data was enough for emails, reading the news, Facebook and using google maps each day. :)
 

Mrbobb

macrumors 603
Aug 27, 2012
5,009
209
The EU is a big country now, maybe u only need one carrier to take care of everywhere. Where are the travelers when u need one? Perhaps in an iphone.uk forum?
 

Daveoc64

macrumors 601
Jan 16, 2008
4,074
92
Bristol, UK
The EU is a big country now, maybe u only need one carrier to take care of everywhere

In the same way that the US, Canada and Mexico are just one big country - i.e. they aren't!

Each country in the EU has its own set of carriers and going between them will count as roaming.

Roaming is heavily regulated (with price caps and consumer protection rules) if you roam from one EU (or EEA) network to another, but there's not really a plan that would cover multiple countries comprehensively.
 
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