Internet travel. Analysis of foreign SIM cards

    imageBefore traveling, I just bought a local sim-card and threw it away at the end of the trip. But then the travels became more complicated, transplants and several countries appeared in one trip - and each time buying a SIM card would not have had the time or money. And then I started looking for that perfect sim card that works worldwide and for a penny). Naturally, such a card does not exist, but I found several products that complement each other perfectly. The topic is relevant not only because of summer. Recently, roaming in the EU was canceled, and the northern countries received special rights to take the roaming fee, and the southern ones changed tariffs. Infu updated for himself, but will be useful to every traveler abroad.

    There are three main universal products on the market: MTX Connect , DrimSim , AirBalticCard Card. Four prepaid tariffs from foreign operators that you can buy on your own next trip or through intermediaries in Russia are still worthy of attention: Saunalahti from Elisa FI (Finland), Internetikaart from Elisa EE (Estonia), Mundo from Orange ES (Spain), Vodafone 25 from Vodafone IT (Italy).

    The variation in prices is decent. Below you will find a large comparative table with countries and prices, as well as a brief summary for each product.

    Minisheet:

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    Large Spreadsheet - on Google Spreadsheet .

    For convenience and clarity, prices are presented for 100MB and 1GB, because these limits really fit into the smartphone and router, respectively. The best prices are marked in bold, the good prices in plain text, and the not very favorable prices in gray. When assessing, I proceeded from the fact that + 10-20% of the price does not solve anything, I gave preference to tariffs without packages - with payment for actually consumed traffic.

    AirBalticCard Card


    The leader in prices is only in 13 exotic countries where packages of € 1 / 10MB / day, € 5 / 50MB / day and more profitable are available. Good prices in 49 more countries, incl. in the EU, where the tariff is € 0,0015 / 100KB with payment only for consumed traffic.

    The main tariffs are opaque with a wide variation in prices. Everything becomes transparent only if you use traffic packets that are manually connected via ussd. There is no mobile application, only a web-cabinet, you can also manage via sms / ussd. Of the bonuses - a SIM card with a number, free incoming voice / sms around the world; works at € 0 balance. Formally, the numbers are Estonian, but they belong to a special range, calls to which are expensive from anywhere in the world. But there is a feature that allows you to call with skype and viber, it is cheap and relatively convenient. AirBaltic has been known to everyone for a long time on the market and uses the travelsim.com platform from Top Connect, a large Estonian company. Support is not very fast.

    Delivery by regular mail (10 days to St. Petersburg). € 10for a SIM card with a balance of € 0. Payment by card from the site with a commission of € 0.5.

    MTX Connect


    Price leader in 19 countries. Good prices in 23 more countries. Unified and most transparent tariffs. The first tariff - Pay As You Go - pay only for the consumed traffic € 0,029 / 1MB / day worldwide. The second tariff is a monthly fee of € 3.49 / 150MB / day worldwide, or € 3.49 / 250MB / day in the EU. There are more expensive and favorable rates.

    There is a mobile application and website. Of the bonuses - “free chat” - free use of instant messengers for 90 days after replenishment of the balance ( upd. I personally didn’t work, maybe it doesn’t work only in Russia, or it works very well very slowly ). The SIM card does not have a number, which means voice / sms is not available. The company has been on the market for a long time, offices around the world, a member of GSMA. Support is operational.

    Delivery by regular mail (10 days to St. Petersburg). € 5for a SIM card with a balance of € 7. Top-up from € 5, payment by card or paypal without commission.

    DreamSim


    Price leader in 76 countries. Good prices back in 30 of the world, this is the maximum coverage. Tariffs are opaque with a wild variation in prices, but convenient - payment is only for the consumed traffic ( upd. A controversial statement, since € 0.15 was charged off from me for the session instead of € 0.01 ). Everything becomes clear only if you use a mobile application in which there are always current rates.

    All control through a mobile application for iOS or Android. Of the bonuses - a SIM card with a number, free incoming voice / sms around the world; works at € 0 balance. UK mobile numbers are issued, but they belong to a special range, calls to which are expensive from anywhere in the world. There is information that the product platform is chillisim.com. The company is listed par from BVI. The product has been recently launched on the market, however this is not the first project of the founder, the previous domoy.eu is also connected with sim cards. Support did not try, but the whole process is as clear as possible.

    Delivery by courier is very fast (the next day in St. Petersburg). € 10 for a SIM card with a balance of € 0. Top-up from € 1 through the application without commission.

    Internetikaart by Elisa EE (Estonia)


    The leader in prices in 6 countries, including Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Iran and, naturally, Estonia. Good prices in 23 more countries. Roaming is far from all over the world.

    Unified and transparent tariffs. Payment from € 2.5 to € 10 is debited automatically when entering the network when the “Day ticket” is activated - € 2.5 / 400MB / day in the EU, € 10 / 400MB / day in the US and € 10 / 150MB / day in a number of other countries.

    Management from the site. Of the bonuses - a sim card with a number. Elisa is a large Scandinavian telecom operator, the quality of communication is excellent throughout Europe, almost everywhere LTE. Classic prepaid. A card can be bought at any corner in Estonia for € 3 without documents. Card replenishment from the site.

    Saunalahti by Elisa FI (Finland)


    Price leader only in Finland. But good prices are still in 25 countries, mainly in Europe. Roaming in a limited number of countries.

    Unified and transparent tariffs. Payment only for consumed traffic without a monthly fee. Tariff € 1 / day maximum for home traffic + € 0,00727 / MB roaming component. Favorable for consuming 1GB or more per day.

    Management from the site. SIM card with number. The call quality is excellent, almost everywhere LTE. Classic prepaid. A card can be bought at any corner in Finland for € 6 with a balance of € 5 without documents. Recharge with a card from the site from € 5 without commission.

    Mundo by Orange ES (Spain)


    Price leader in EU, Romania and Morocco. Roaming in a limited number of countries.

    Uniform and understandable tariffs, but traffic packages are available only with a monthly fee, a tariff change with a monthly fee and without it costs € 3.65. Payment for traffic packages is € 7 / 1GB / month, € 10 / 2GB / month and more profitable. With the free “Everywhere” option, € 5 / 100MB packages are available in a number of exotic countries.

    Management from the site or from the mobile application. Of the bonuses - a sim card with a number. Orange does not need to be introduced; their communication quality is excellent throughout Europe (and also in Morocco and Tunisia).

    The card can only be bought at Orange offices in Spain, you will need a passport and half an hour. You can also buy from an intermediary in Russia - ₽2700with a balance of € 20. Top-up with a card from topup.orange.com from € 5 with a commission of € 0.65.

    Vodafone 25 from Vodafone IT (Italy)


    The leader in prices in the EU along with Orange ES, but the number of roaming countries is much smaller. Uniform and understandable tariffs without a monthly fee. Payment for a traffic package € 6 / 1GB / month. Management from the site or from the mobile application. Of the bonuses - a sim card with a number.

    The card can be bought at Vodafone offices in Italy. You can also buy from an intermediary in Russia - ₽3400 with a balance of € 15. Card replenishment from ricarica.vodafone.it from € 5.

    What I use myself ...


    • AirBaltic - for voice on trips worldwide, via viber / skype .
    • Saunalahti - for trips to Finland and installation in a router in the EU.
    • DrimSim + MTX Connect - together they cover 90% of the countries worldwide on traffic, ordered, I will try both.
    • I will refuse Orange ES.
    • Megaphone with Corporate Unlimited tariff gives you free access to the EU and the ability to connect the World Online option in case of urgent need.

    Recommendations


    • Ideally have two international SIM cards, and so that at least one has the ability to make an outgoing call by voice. A bunch of DreamSim + MTX Connect Pay As You Go is currently a great option.

    • Before each trip (or on the way to the airport), check the optimal tariffs in destination countries, as for products like DrimSim and AirBaltic Card, they are constantly changing, and home operators release interesting options such as World Online (Megaphone) and Zabugorishte (MTS).

    • If you need a lot of traffic for a mobile router in Europe, but without buying packages and monthly fees - Saunalahti from Elisa FI, or any other local SIM card with similar nishtyak.

    • At least once a year, you need to replenish the balance of SIM cards by the minimum amount and perform some paid action, for example, sending SMS.

    • It is better to turn off auto payments and use a separate bank card in the product currency (EUR) to replenish. AirBalticCard and DrimSim store the card data at home, and MTX Connect creates a pre-approved payment when paying through PayPal. I use USD and EUR cards from Rocket Bank or Tinkoff for payments , the products are free and very convenient!

    • Keep in mind that in daytime packages the time is usually considered to be until 00:00, and for Elisa EE it will be Estonian time, Elisa FI - Finnish ... You need to be prepared for double cancellation, and keep the necessary amount of money on your balance so as not to be left without traffic.

    Productive and vibrant travel!

    upd v . 1 - Orange & Vodafon . There is information confirmed by some comments that the products from Orange and Vodafon have two significant drawbacks.

    Firstly, it is impossible to replenish the balance with a card of another country (for example, Russia) through the native office. Because of this, you have to resort to the services of intermediaries and pay a commission, or somehow replenish the account through friends in these countries. Personally, I have always replenished Orange ES through topup.orange.com with a commission.

    Secondly, these guys can block SIM cards, which spend most of their time outside their home country. I can neither confirm nor deny the information regarding Elisa, but the last Finnish sim from Elisa FI lived with me for more than a year, until it broke through my fault.

    upd v.2 - DrimSim vs. The MTX . Having both sims on hand, I can say that MTX out of the box messengers do not work for free, and DrimSim has a strange SMS tariffication for activating Apple FaceTime.
    Finally, the sim from MTX came and after a few dances with a tambourine, it worked. It should be noted that the support is fast, trying to help.

    The cost of traffic .
    DrimSim charged me € 0.15 per SMS. Judging by the info from the support, this is an SMS from Apple to activate FaceTime. However, nowhere in the tariffs did not find € 0.15 for SMS in the UK.
    screenshots
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    MTX did not write off a cent, as stated - redirect to your site to activate the tariff. However, there are no free instant messengers either. Telegram seems to write Connecting ... , then Updating ... , but nothing works. Whatsapp is constantly in a state of connection ... . After contacting support, free messengers promised to connect.
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    Network search .
    DrimSIM - iPhone does not need to be turned off, the network catches immediately immediately after inserting the sim and starts working. MTX is capricious, you need to turn off the phone and wait a long time until it catches the network; but even after that, the network is unstable and constantly falls off at first, although the reception level is normal (-90dB). Perhaps it's all about Tele2, which is a partner of DrimSIM.
    Screenshots
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    When pasted into MiFi (Huawei E5776), both sims are picked up only somewhere after 3 minutes.

    Delivery .
    DrimSim - the next day by courier in St. Petersburg. MTX - 10 days by registered letter by Russian post, tracking will be sent on request.

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