Data Sim Cards

Frank II, I've heard that a firm in the U.K. is offering a PAYG SIM, but unfortunately I haven't been able to find any details. AFAIK, data plans are only available on a monthly contract, and only for residents. One of the "travel phone" firms appears to offer a SIM that includes data, with a rate of $0.015/kb. As I don't have a Smartphone, I have no idea how much data the typical user would need, so don't really know if that's a good rate or not? They have a toll-free number, so I'm sure they'd be able to provide all the details. If you want to have a look, Here's a Link. The other firms in that market may have similar plans but I haven't checked. I must be one of the last "holdouts" that doesn't have a Smart phone. I'll be looking at the iPhone 5 when it's released (possibly this summer?), but until then my venerable Motorola Flip will have to suffice for voice and text. Good luck!

Frank II, I was just checking through some of my Cell phone files to get information for another reply here, and discovered another choice. Have a look at This Site to see whether this might work for you. I've never used their services so don't have any comments to offer. I believe one of their products is designed for iPhones. Cheers!

I haven't used them...so I can't say for sure, but bumped into these folks off of the Ryanair website..... http://www.maxroam.com/ looks like they have a PAYG data plan.

Thanks for the info I checked Maxroam. They offer a Sim for the Ipadwhich would work. It's 75 Euros for the card and that includes 50 MB of data. If I was just checking email, that would last about a month. However, if I was "surfing the net," that would include somewhere between 30 and 35 pages. I do more than that in a day. The other one, looked good on the surface, until you read the fine print. It was even worse than Maxroam. If just checking email, then these services aren't bad. But to surf the net, it gets to be outlandish. There are enough wifi places to check email. Oh well, the good news....when I upgrade my cell phone, I won't need to just look for one that is "global ready."

Frank, I think no matter what provider you use, you need to limit your surfing to when you have free (or cheap) wifi. Probably a good idea to do most of your email checking with the free wifi as well. I am guessing you are making the skype calls when you have the wifi. Then just use the data plan to check mail if you have an extended period without wifi, or in case of an emergency. The cost of maxroam sound about the same as the cost of AT&T mentioned in the other thread. I think the biggest difference (plus) between the prepaid and bill service isn't the cost per megabyte but simply with the prepaid if you attempted to surf three hours a day with maxroam your service would shut off early during the first day, and you would have to pay more money and would know you were burning thru $400 per day in data charges is you so choose to do so. With the billed services you come home to a news story worthy bill.

I forgot...I could rent a mifi device for $18/day. Unlimited usage. And discounts for longer trips.

That's the same company Ed suggested earlier in the thread.

It should depends where in Europe you are going. I am going to Italy. I understand I can buy a data sim card with english prompts for my android phone for $5 the $1 a day from TIM. IF you need multiple countries international plan might be best that works in many countries but if you re in 1 or 2 countries for an extended period I'd investigate what is available for visitors in that country.

Lisa, would you tell me where you got than info...I'm curious to see the deal being offered.

Frank-
I read it somewhere then I went to the tim.it website (using google chrome) which translated it to english.

Lisa, I think you should check it again. I looked over the entire website and found the offer. Only, it's not a SIM card. It's for TIM customers who want to add a data service to their TIM phone. If you look at the instructions, you have to contact TIM for them to activate this service. No where does it say anything about a SIM card.