Overseas Prepaid Mobile Internet Problems

Knowing how to avoid Overseas Prepaid Mobile Internet Problems involves a lot of research and some experience.

Most long time readers of the site know I am obsessed with finding the best data and SIM card deals so you can have the internet on your smartphone when overseas so you can have a hassle free mobile experience and avoid data roaming bill shock (or muy expensive data roaming caps from your robber baron mobile provider).

I've been through all the travails in my quest to have the internet at my fingertips when on the road.

If you are are unaware of my Overseas Prepaid Mobile Internet Problems, how about this: $2400 data roaming bill, $2000 data roaming bill (despite having a data roaming cap) then $0.

That my friends is something I want to save you from.
(More links at the end of the article!)

My experiences

I've tried hacking Orange SIMs to enable tethering (fail), hacking my phone to work with Orange France SIMs (success), tried hacking a Vodafone Spain SIM from a dongle to work in an iPhone (success), blown 40EU of credit on an Orange France SIM on two Tweets as I didn't understand the product and happily ended up getting unlimited data for 9EU in 2011 (more on that product later!).

Overseas Prepaid Mobile Internet Problems

Overseas Prepaid Mobile Internet Problems can be distilled down to:

• Language barrier (websites, shops, customer service, recharging)
• Finding (sometimes hard) and obtaining the right product (language, in-store product knowledge)
• Cost

Language Barrier

If you speak the local language to a reasonable level you can usually get what you need (assuming a suitable product exists).

Sometimes though, this still doesn't help. Back in 2010 I went into an SFR store in Oloron St Marie with a faulty SFR (Vodafone France) SIM card and the store person refused to believe the product I had even existed! Even with a store person speaking English, me speaking English-French, a note from another store in St Gaudens explaining what product we had and a call to head office, I walked out with my problem unsolved.

Language also comes into play when using the menus and customer service for recharging. Sometimes customer service won't speak English or won't speak it well enough when you ring. If you are able to recharge via a menu or text process, this is often in the native language. If you are ringing up an IVR (interactive voice recording) to recharge via a menu system, you might struggle too.

Even if you are prepared by doing lots of research and understanding exactly how an overseas prepaid data SIM works and in particular how to recharge it, you can get into trouble.

Recharge processes and instructions can be complex (Orange France Internet Max recharge instructions) and change over time with no warning.

And even with really clear instructions (like my Orange France Internet Max recharge instructions), people can still experience trouble getting things to work.

User Experience

User experience can vary considerably. A mate Ben used a prepaid TIM data SIM in Italy a couple of years ago and said it was easy to buy and use, whereas others have told me they had nothing but trouble.

The same goes for the Orange France Internet Max product. I had absolutely no issues using it whatsover but other users have emailed me and have been plagued by issues.

In 2011 I went into a Movistar Spain store with my question displayed in Spanish in Google's Translate app on my iPhone, plus I had the name of the product, but the assistant couldn't help beyond giving me a SIM with 10MB of prepaid data (I ended up using it for 200MB of data before I got kicked off the network). In actual fact a customer told her which product I needed.

I then bought a Vodafone Spain data SIM with a dongle that didn't work with my MacBook. However, the SIM itself worked in my iPhone (go figure) despite the product literature saying it wouldn't.

Finding the right product

Finding the right products (if you can find any!) means trawling through the websites of your local providers for SIMs with overseas data caps (avoid unless desperate) or spending a lot of time looking for overseas providers.

A lot of the time the overseas providers don't have international visitors in mind and don't have their site (or key pages) in English. The French telcos are key offenders in this regard.

So, unless you can speak the language (and speak it well), you could struggle to locate something online.

This makes finding 3rd party solutions even more important.

Cost of overseas prepaid SIMs

Overseas data roaming is for suckers and the very desperate. No offence if you're desperate – you don't have any other options.

If you're not desperate – don't be a sucker! – look for local solutions.

They are almost always cheaper and usually available (at least in developed countries you're likely to go as a cyclist).

Here's an example of how expensive roaming and caps are, using Australian telcos – $160 for 60MB from Telstra? Highway robbery I say.

Overseas prepaid data solutions

There are lots of different solutions from different providers so it's a case of doing some research for the country you're going to.

I'm a big fan of third party intermediaries that can ship you a SIM preloaded with credit and pre-configured so you can use it on arrival.

At least in terms of countries you'd go to for cycling, there are two companies I recommend.

Over on the Overseas Prepaid Mobile Internet page I've started cataloguing the solutions I think are best (if you've got one that's not listed, let me know).

Mobipassport is a great option and cover loads of countries (including Asia and soon Australia which is great for those of you coming to Oz for the Tour Down Under).

Whilst Mobipassport has solutions for France, Germany and Spain, there's a big gap with Italy missing.

That's where I recommend Cellular Abroad. Cellular Abroad has an awesome SIM for calls and data (data €9 for 1GB for 1 month) and data SIMs (more expensive but UNLIMITED data).

Their Italy solution in particular is very cost effective and has some great features.

Read more about Cellular Abroad's Italy Prepaid Mobile Internet product.

More reading

• How You Can Easily Save Money on Your Mobile Phone When Roaming
• Save Hundreds and Get Unlimited Internet On Your iPhone in France
• Avoiding mobile phone international roaming bill shock
• Mobile data roaming for Australians going to France
• Mobile phone data roaming tips for France
• Overseas prepaid mobile internet information page
• Prepaid mobile internet in France
• SFR Vodafone prepaid mobile internet in France
• Prepaid 3G Internet with Orange Mobicarte
• How to set up Orange Mobicarte Internet Max
• How to avoid a data roaming bill
• How to save money on mobile roaming
• Australian data roaming cap plans
• Mobipassport prepaid internet SIM review