Hello,
We are a family of 6 traveling from India. We were exploring options for our primary use case of staying in touch with each other.
2 of us already have T-Mobile International roaming SIM cards. The other 4 (traveling from India) we're exploring options on either buying a local SIM card once in Europe vs buying an international plan from here.
Any inputs/suggestions are much appreciated!
-Kalindi
I recently bought a SIM card for my iPad for Germany, Austria, Italy and France, but was told it wouldn’t work in Switzerland because it is not a Schengen country (and it didn’t.)
I recently bought a SIM card for my iPad for Germany, Austria, Italy and France, but was told it wouldn’t work in Switzerland because it is not a Schengen country (and it didn’t.)
Has nothing to do with being a Schengen country - it has to do with the country being part of the EU or European Economic Area (EEA) which is really where the "roam like at home" rules are in place. Plenty of other non-Schengen countries (like the UK, at least for now) are part of EU or EEA and enforce "roam like at home" rules, so you can use a SIM from one of the countries in another.
Switzerland is not part of the EU or EEA, so mobile operators don't HAVE to allow free roaming there. But some do anyway. Vodafone for example does seem to allow it in some cases - my Dutch Vodafone SIM includes free roaming in Switzerland, even though I've not tried to use it there - yet! Check with the individual provider and see if a specific SIM or plan works in Switzerland or not.
Hi, Kalindi, one quick note: Switzerland is part of Schengen, and most pay-as-you-go plans allow roaming throughout the EU. We just moved to Switzerland, and until I have my residency card, I can't get a phone contract, so I bought a prepaid SIM card from Yallo: https://www.yallo.ch/en/prepaid. The coverage is excellent, and you only pay for the data and calls you actually use. Good luck, and enjoy Switzerland!
Good to know. I bought the SIM card from an "O" store, so will shop around more next time.
Hi, Kalindi, one quick note: Switzerland is part of Schengen, and most pay-as-you-go plans allow roaming throughout the EU.
Yes, Switzerland is part of Schengen, but that has nothing at all to do with mobile phone roaming - that is regulated by the EU or EEA as I explained above. Switzerland is not part of either the EU or the EEA. And some mobile operators don't allow free roaming in Switzerland even though they must within the EU and EEA.
There is some more explanation here:
