Apple SIM Partner AlwaysOnline Expands to U.S. and 28 More Countries, Launches New U.K. Plans

[MacRumors]

Otono Networks today announced that its global 4G LTE roaming network AlwaysOnline Wireless will be expanding to the United States and 28 additional countries, bringing its total number of countries covered to 74.

The other new countries are: Albania, Antigua & Barbuda, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Guam, Iceland, Jersey, Kenya, Kuwait, Macau, Malta, Mauritius, Moldova, Montenegro, Oman, Peru, Qatar, Serbia, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Turkey, and Turks & Caicos Islands.

AlwaysOnline Wireless provides 4G LTE data by the hour, day, or megabyte, enabling owners of cellular iPads with Apple SIM to purchase short-term plans for on-demand access to high-speed data while traveling. Plans range from $0.99 per hour for 50MB to $59.99 for 5GB, valid for 15 days. All prices are in U.S. dollars.

Apple SIM, a special SIM card that works across multiple carriers, is included in cellular-enabled iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 4, and iPad Pro models sold in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

AlwaysOnline Wireless coverage map​

AlwaysOnline launched in late 2015 in, among other places, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. In the U.S. and select other countries, plans are available to international travelers only -- not residents.

Through a separate partnership with GigSky, Apple SIM is available in over 140 countries. Other Apple SIM partners include carriers AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile in the U.S., EE and Three in the United Kingdom, Deutsche Telekom in Germany, Three in Hong Kong, and au by KDDI and SoftBank in Japan.

Meanwhile, AlwaysOnline has introduced new 4G LTE plans in the U.K. offering 2-3 times more LTE data in the country. Prices range between approximately £0.37 per hour for 100MB and 5GB for £22.55, valid for 15 days. These plans will be available directly on cellular iPads through a new partnership with British carrier Three.

AlwaysOnline Wireless data plans can be purchased on compatible iPads by tapping Settings > Cellular Data > Set Up Cellular Data. No Wi-Fi connection is needed to purchase a plan. iOS 9.1 or later is required.

Article Link: Apple SIM Partner AlwaysOnline Expands to U.S. and 28 More Countries, Launches New U.K. Plans

 

[JayJamesWaller]

Is there anything similar for iPhones? I'm in the UK and would love to find a carrier that lets me use data in Colombia at a price that won't leave me homeless when I arrive back in England...

 

[big-ted]

$200 for 3GB in Malta, or $30 for a local Vodafone sim purchased in the Airport with 5GB on it
[doublepost=1475505838][/doublepost]

Is there anything similar for iPhones? I'm in the UK and would love to find a carrier that lets me use data in Colombia at a price that won't leave me homeless when I arrive back in England...

I assume you have tried a local PAYG SIM?

 

[JayJamesWaller]

$200 for 3GB in Malta, or $30 for a local Vodafone sim purchased in the Airport with 5GB on it
[doublepost=1475505838][/doublepost]

I assume you have tried a local PAYG SIM?

I haven't, but I suppose that would be my only option. Just wondered if there was a deal like Three do here where you can use your data in many other countries and it doesn't cost a penny extra.

 

[nebo1ss]

Always wonder why anyone would use this instead of local SIM. I have five SIM cards from countries I visit regularly, I just top them up each trip. Most of these carriers tell you that the Sim will be invalid after three months but I have never experienced that. I just returned from Canada last week and had forgotten to take my Rogers SIM with me and was able to pick a CHATR SIM at Walmart for $25 with unlimited talk and text for 30 days but no data. The only annoying thing about it is they also charge $10 for the SIM itself.

 

[profets]

It's a very nice idea, but the rates are just terrible.

 

[69650]

This is why we need an Apple MVNO. Use your data allowance anywhere in the world.

 

[jjwarwick]

That's seriously expensive.

Their UK partner network Three offer a "ready to go" SIM with 12GB of data that lasts a year for £30. Just walk into any three store and pick one up. It works across most of Europe.

It's what I use with my iPad as it gives me access on the odd occasion I don't have wifi without paying for a monthly contract.

 

[JosephAW]

I wish there was a way to turn off 3G and 1x data on my phone because I only get internet when it's on LTE.

 

[OllyW]

Is there anything similar for iPhones? I'm in the UK and would love to find a carrier that lets me use data in Colombia at a price that won't leave me homeless when I arrive back in England...

You can use your normal monthly data allowance at no extra cost in a lot of countries if you are on Three.

 

[Christoffee]

Greenland is MASSIVE! I hate he Mercator projection.

 

[theBB]

Always wonder why anyone would use this instead of local SIM.

Reasons? Well...

A few years ago, I tried to buy a local SIM at Heathrow, so that I could contact and meet my friend arriving on another flight. The vending machines carried some no-name company cards at a noticeable mark-up with only voice and text prices listed, no data was mentioned. I went to a different terminal with a Vodafone store, but they claimed that they didn't have any SIM cards left. (I'm pretty sure they were lying.) Needless to say, meeting with my friend took much longer. By the time we got to the city and checked into our hotel, all nearby Vodafone stores were closed.

On another trip to Taipei, my flight arrived past the store closing hours, so I couldn't shop for a SIM card until the next day and stores didn't open until 11am.

They were refusing to sell SIM cards to tourists in Japan and India when I visited them.

Some European countries require SIM card purchases to be made in person in physical stores, but no stores are open on Sundays. Some places require local credit cards and local addresses to buy a SIM card online.

 

[sirdir]

Always wonder why anyone would use this instead of local SIM. I have five SIM cards from countries I visit regularly, I just top them up each trip. Most of these carriers tell you that the Sim will be invalid after three months but I have never experienced that. I just returned from Canada last week and had forgotten to take my Rogers SIM with me and was able to pick a CHATR SIM at Walmart for $25 with unlimited talk and text for 30 days but no data. The only annoying thing about it is they also charge $10 for the SIM itself.

I would have agreed in the past, nowadays, for many people even this doesn't make sense anymore. When was in the US with my Spanish Vodafone SIM this spring, I was quite pleased to learn that I can roam there 'for free', i.E. can use the same amount of data as at home. A lot of other SIMs offer 'free roaming' in many countries... I just tried 'freedompop' - even they offer roaming in many countries.

 

[Rigby]

Always wonder why anyone would use this instead of local SIM. I have five SIM cards from countries I visit regularly, I just top them up each trip.

Problem is that it can be a hassle and cost a lot of time, especially if a trip includes multiple countries. In some countries you need a local address and/or credit card, or it's hard to figure out the right plan if you don't speak the local language etc. The UK is one of the easiest for getting a local SIM, but even there it's not possible to reload using a US credit card, so you first have to find a store that carries "top up" cards and figure out how to use them etc.

Having a SIM that works globally with reasonable pricing would be great. Freedompop (rebranded Three SIM) works pretty well, but unfortunately doesn't cover Canada. In Europe the problem should mostly go away next year since the EU is doing away with roaming fees, so having a SIM from any European carrier should cover the entire EU (hopefully that will still include Britain even after Brexit).

Of course, another problem is that sometimes you need to be reachable under your own number while traveling (especially on business trips), so that you'd have to carry two phones when using a local SIM. The best solution would be if the carriers finally did away with the inflated roaming fees. I'm not saying they should waive them completely, but the prices that e.g. AT&T and Verizon are asking for even small amounts of data are ridiculous.

 

[odoy]

Very cheap. Yeah! When I travel I buy SIM cards at the airport. For example Vietnam 20GB, 9$​

 

[ncc1701d]

Is there anything similar for iPhones? I'm in the UK and would love to find a carrier that lets me use data in Colombia at a price that won't leave me homeless when I arrive back in England...

I travel a fair bit and I use "know roaming" in a lot of places. I use a local SIM card for Australia and USA, but know roaming for pretty much anywhere else.

It's not super fast speeds and prices don't compare to a local sim, but once you get the hang of it, it's not too bad. Still much better than straight up roaming.

https://www.knowroaming.com/

 

[sir1963nz]

That's seriously expensive.

Their UK partner network Three offer a "ready to go" SIM with 12GB of data that lasts a year for £30. Just walk into any three store and pick one up. It works across most of Europe.

It's what I use with my iPad as it gives me access on the odd occasion I don't have wifi without paying for a monthly contract.

Thats exactly what I did as I went through the UK to the USA go that SIM, threw it in my iPad, turned on "personal Hotspot" and the three of us shared the connection. It was a damn sight cheaper than anything we could do in the USA. The hotel in Vegas wanted to charge us US$10/day for ONE device ! and here we had a portable connection that we used to upload photos etc to Facebook while we were on public transport.

 

[weckart]

In Europe the problem should mostly go away next year since the EU is doing away with roaming fees, so having a SIM from any European carrier should cover the entire EU (hopefully that will still include Britain even after Brexit).

Sadly not. The EU has rolled back from this promise because the carriers were up in arms about a race to the bottom, where people living in EU countries with expensive phone rates would just buy a sim from the country with the cheapest rates and perma-roam to save money. Then consumer bodies complained about the safeguards built into the plans to stop this and now we have stalemate.


http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/eu-roaming-free-plans-scrapped-mobile

 

[Rigby]

Sadly not. The EU has rolled back from this promise because the carriers were up in arms about a race to the bottom, where people living in EU countries with expensive phone rates would just buy a sim from the country with the cheapest rates and perma-roam to save money. Then consumer bodies complained about the safeguards built into the plans to stop this and now we have stalemate.


http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/eu-roaming-free-plans-scrapped-mobile

From what I read they are still planning to roll this out in 2017, with the onerous provisions removed. Your own source seems to confirm that too:

<begin quote>
It appears that the EU still intends to roll out the scheme, but is now revising the plans to assuage concerns about the proposed 90-day limit. A Commission statement reads: "The Commission services have, on the instruction of President Juncker, withdrawn the draft and are working on a new version."
[...]
The European Commission has not announced any delays to the original proposal's launch timeframe.
<end quote>

 

[mpainesyd]

It is worth travelling with an apple sim ($7 from an Apple Store in Australia) simply as a backup if other internet connections are not available. It is easy to start a Gigsky subscription at any time. Also I have found that Hotspot works so other devices can connect through the ipad.
It might not be great value but it is certaintly much cheaper than aussie telco roaming charges.

 

[Mildredop]

How long before phones don't have SIMs?

 

[wayoutwest5505]

That's why we need A New World Order, so everything will be the same every where. George O