Tag: roaming

Brexit. The roaming nightmare could return.

Britain is now spending billions on Brexit. Those in charge and the British elite have now been given free reign – without EU oversight – to dodge tax regulations and to force businesses into spending £13 billion every year to continue trading with the EU. Those costs, of …

Vodafone 5G expands further across Europe

Thanks to the many benefits of being in the EU, you can go abroad right now and benefit from inclusive roaming on your phone. If you’re on Vodafone, you get 5G roaming, and this has just expanded so that 62 towns and cities deliver the super-speedy system. Vodafone …

Vodafone 5G Roaming goes live, and it’s the same price as 4G

There’s 55 cities and towns across Europe where you can now get Vodafone 5G roaming. That’s more than any other network. So, if you’re off on your holiday and you have a Samsung Galaxy S10 5G or the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3, you can roam for no extra …

Three roll out their own Brexit bus

OOoohh… bit dangerous this. Driving a bus round with promises written on the side. How much do we believe that ? 🙂 So, whilst Parliament goes into a full-on meltdown about a Brexit which nobody can agree on, Three have driven up and down the road outside to …

Three quietly launch 4G roaming

Roaming plays a big part of your decision-making when choosing a network. Being connected is more vital now than it has ever been. Many customers on Three have been asking when they will get access to 4G roaming that other networks have offered for a while now. Whilst …

Vodafone – Watch out when you Roam Further

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be in the USA. As it was a quick visit, I’d not really organised any local SIM and took my normal Vodafone handset. When the plane touched down I received the usual text message from Vodafone advising on …

International roaming with SMARTY. Tested.

As we mentioned earlier, SMARTY, the simple SIM only network, are backed by Three. Travelling within the EU, as you would expect, is included in your normal usage. You can head to Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, where-ever. Just use your phone as you would back in the UK. Further …

SMARTY goes roaming.

The simple SIM only network from Three (covered earlier here) has a straightforward offering. There’s three packages – either a 2GB one for £7.50 per month, a 4GB one for £10 or an 8GB for £15. All have unlimited calls and unlimited texts. You just need to find …

EU tech benefits that Britain has ditched

Last year, after a lot of waiting and a lot of discussion, we finally got proper roaming across the bulk of Europe. It doesn’t cost you any extra, and many Brits are only just realising what a good thing it actually is. Fly to Germany, Spain, Cyprus and …

Vodafone changing Global Roaming in May

Vodafone have always had some great roaming offers, and they often get quite public about being the best network for roaming. They’re are not just just great on their pricing abroad, they offer the most locations for 4G roaming from any UK network, and when I tried in …

Three help ease roaming fears

When it comes to taking a break abroad, it is so easy to take your eye off the ball and a simple error could because a massive headache. From passports getting lost to wallets getting stolen, there is lots that can happen out of the blue and turn …

#MWC18 – Cellhire mobile data and Mifi hire

So this is going to be my last #MWC18 related article. However, it is one that has been very important. Why? Well, we were actually able to deliver the content thanks to this very gadget. Oh, and we were on a boat. A boat. We needed a solution …

Three ditches roaming charges in 11 more destinations outside Europe

Whilst not everyone will be heading to Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, Vietnam or Mayotte; those that do will now benefit from worry-free roaming on the Three network. The UK network now has an impressive 71 destinations worldwide included in their “Feel …

Planning a break abroad? Check out Data Passport on Three

With the summer well and truly over here in the UK, some people including myself still plan on a well earned break abroad. Roaming has been a big topic of discussion this year with networks scrapping their EU roaming rates. Three UK were one of the first to …

Now the smartphone takes over your holiday too

On a recent trip abroad, which happened in an EU country after the big “roam like home” rules applied, there was a definite split between the age groups on phone usage. Some mom’s and dad’s in restaurants still hunted for the free WiFi, but elsewhere on the beach …

Three UK are the only network to hold roaming prices post-Brexit

Can our hung parliament and chaotic government really “take back control” from the EU? Who knows, but it does raise an interesting question. What will happen with our newly-acquired EU roaming deal? After Brexit, if we ever get it sorted out, will Brits see a return to the …

Going on holiday? Yes, USE your phone!

Today is June 15th 2017. This article, though, will be ignored by many. For reasons I can’t quite understand, it’s difficult to get clear and concise information across to some. I noticed this at the airport recently. We’d just landing at BHX (Birmingham Airport) and, despite standing next …

Tesco Mobile cut roaming charges in 48 destinations

Here in the UK we’ve had our fair share of elections and referendums. Nobody seems to be in control and #Brexit is slowly turning into a bit of a mess. No worries though, because we’re still part of the EU, and the good thing about that is that, …

O2 announce inclusive European roaming too

Wanna know what’s good? The fact that, on June 15th, you don’t need to worry about using your mobile when you travel out of the UK and into the rest of Europe. Now sure, we don’t know what is truly going to happen when Brexit kicks in, but …

Three add two new destinations to their Feel at Home network

You know Three. They’re the network who are exclusively ranging the Lenovo P2. We reviewed the P2 and were properly impressed. Three are also the network covering 98% of the population and carry 35% of the UK’s mobile data. They’re also famous for their Feel At Home offering. …

EE scrap roaming fees in tariff refresh

EE have today become the latest UK network to announce roaming changes in Europe just in time for summer. It comes just after Vodafone did the same thing in April and about 9 months after EE launched an inclusive EU roaming package. The UK’s largest network has confirmed …

Vodafone ditches roaming charges for 40 destinations

Voda have announced a number of things this morning, but the one that will have caught your eye is the roaming charges change. The network is to remove all additional charges in 40 foreign destinations. A lot of these are European countries and these charges were due to …

MWC – Remember when we used to hunt for WiFi?

After returning from the Barcelona madness, I’ve finally got chance to reflect a little on the experience. It’s somewhere I don’t get to see a great deal, and instead it’s the inside of taxis or the rather excellent Metro system which runs through the city that I see …

MWC – Behind the scenes. Our truly mobile HQ.

Here at Coolsmartphone we live and breathe mobile, so we figured that being shackled to a LAN connection just wasn’t the thing to do, especially when you’re in Barcelona covering the biggest mobile conference around. So I decided not to spend all my time in a hotel and …

EU Shock-free roaming now just months away. But..

Let’s put aside the “Trump” business and all the #Brexit news shall we? I’m here to tell you that being part of Europe is a good thing.. for your phone bill. Whilst we in the UK are part of it, roaming charges are no longer a problem. From …

So, you’re going abroad and want to stay in touch huh?

It’s the season to be jolly, but not everyone gets to be at home with their family. If you’re in a different country, whether it be because of work, holiday or you just don’t like your family very much, you’ll probably be huddled around a WiFi access point …

Euro Data Pass ditched, Travel Data Pass appears instead

Using your phone abroad is still something we have to think about ahead of our flight. Operators like Three have their Feel At Home service and other networks have packages and bolt-ons or a certain amount of roaming minutes and data included. EE have today unveiled the Travel …

Anywhere you roam, you’ll always take a signal with you

Long-term readers will know that we are particularly annoyed about the continuing patchy signal problem across the UK. We hear networks claiming that they’ve invested many millions to fix it, and they tell us it’s getting better, but even though we have 4G, we still struggle to make …

European roaming law gets update – no 90-day limit

OK, story so far then. We’re all fairly familiar with the “bill shock” that comes with a trip across a local border here in Europe. Take a short trip on the Eurostar and your phone suddenly costs a whole lot more to use than it does back home. …

EE Launch “Roam like home”

Hmmm… A roaming service that lets you use your phone abroad for no additional fee? Just as if you were in the UK? We’ve totally never heard of that before, and it’s in no way similar to anything any other network is doing… Today EE, who got the …

Three Feel At Home – Speeds abroad on test

This has been a hotly debated topic. It’s understandable because, when you’re in the UK using Three on a brisk 4G connection, you get certain expectations about download speeds. It’s these expectations that you might take with you when you go abroad and, with the Three Feel At …

Three increase Feel at Home to 42 locations

Three were caused shockwaves in the industry when they originally announced “Feel at Home”. The roaming offer let’s you use your calls, texts and data in selected foreign countries, just as if you were home. Over time more and more locations have been added so customers can enjoy …

KnowRoaming now offering unlimited data in over 90 countries

Remember that clever KnowRoaming sticker that we tried out? It sticks onto your existing SIM card but, when you go abroad, it’ll let you roam without that bill-shock problem. Now, for $7.99 (which is £6.09) per day, you can get completely unlimited data in places like Canada and …

Now Vodafone add inclusive roaming too

It’s something we’ve already seen Three and Tesco Mobile doing, but now Vodafone have added some roaming goodness as well. Inclusive roaming across 40 locations is now available, and it’s 4G roaming t’boot. The list of countries look to be European and are as follows… Albania, Austria, Belgium, …

ChatSim Review

I saw these guys at Mobile World Congress and their offering is certainly an interesting one, and remarkably simple too.. Start with the ChatSim chat plan. It’s €10 a year and this will let you send unlimited and free text messages and emoji anywhere in the world. Wait …