This thread is about the UK Three network’s ‘Feel at home’ promotion. Peter, if this is the wrong place for it, please feel free to move it!
This promotion allows a UK subscriber, contract or PAYG, to use the SIM in quite a long list of foreign countries at exactly the same rates as in UK, without any roaming charges. I’ve used it extensively in Scandinavia and in the US. On my US trip this month I saved £765.83 in phone charges to UK according to 3, although I don’t know how they arrived at that! All the calls were crystal clear and dialled mostly without international prefixes. I did not use the phone to call numbers in the US.
What’s not so good is the data rates. While 3G over AT&T or T-mobile was always available, the upload speed was so slow that most outgoing emails involving attachments (small .jpgs) would never complete before reaching a hotel wifi. This has to be the result of deliberate throttling and was definitely not the case last year. This made the data connection virtually unuseable.
For US phone calls I used a Tracfone flip phone ($5 in Wal-mart) with $20 credit that lasted me out. Data is more difficult and after the disspointment with 3, it’s probably back to pre-paid AT&T or T-mobile sims bought on UK ebay, which is irritating and expensive.
Any other views would be appreciated, since having mobile 3/4G is an important part of my travelling due to unreliable hotel wifi’s and frequent blocking of VPN’s. Especially for downloading that Foreflight sectional that you forgot to check before takeoff!
I have a UK Three contract and use it extensively, but not in the US, apart from occasional calls to the UK – I obviously have a US phone here which also has an international option, so I don’t really need the Three phone in the US. Can therefore not comment on the data rates, although in all other countries I have used it in, this was never a problem. Could it be that your ‘el cheapo’ Walmart phone is crap?
For people who travel frequently to the US a local phone is much better. You can get an ATT tariff w 2Gb of data and unlimited calls for USD 45/month and then switch it to the two USD/day tariff when you leave. The trick here is that the two bucks are only charged if you use the phone that day, so you won’t pay anything until you’re back in the US. Once here, you then switch back to your unlimited plan. Also much better for people who want/need to call you locally.
I use 3 around Europe and have never had a problem. I lived in Italy for a year using my UK 3 account which worked perfectly. Occasional issues finding a signal but once found, no problems with data whatsoever.
I haven’t been to the US recently so no comment there.
The landscape of “mobile internet” changes every time one does a trip 
In Europe I now use mostly my Vodafone “Euro Traveller” which transports my UK allowances (1GB data, etc) to anywhere in Europe, for £3/day paid on each day on which it gets used. So if I go on a 5-night trip to Europe I get a bill for 6x£3=£18 which is reasonable (cost of a sausage in Switzerland ).
I no longer use the often crappy hotel wifi, unless it is really good (maybe 20% of the time it “exists”).
Vodafone do a “World Traveller” for, IIRC, £5/day, so that would do the USA bit.
Obviously if you were out there for a year then it would be 365x£5=£1825 which is a bit much so this is not a useful long term solution. Probably a local contract with a chunk of data, and VOIP would be the best way – exactly what I have on my phone right now, with Localphone VOIP on my S6 and Didlogic VOIP on the previous Nokia 808. Many VOIP solutions don’t integrate well and some are really crap but these two worked well for me. I pay some fraction of a cent a minute to the USA.
Vodafone don’t block any ports and the data rate is normally very good, up and down. I have found that some local networks do port blocking however; Vodafone either don’t know about this or they can’t do anything about it. I had this in Spain most recently. A VPN is the solution… but I have that only on my laptop (tethered to the phone, in this context).
The best comment I can offer is that you need more than one way to get mobile data. That’s why I have a tablet with a SIM slot (for a locally bought SIM – usually a hassle) and a laptop with a PAYG Voda SIM which works everywhere (at a price).
The reason I am on a Vodafone (contract) is because they are the least crappy UK network (the countryside especially has really crap coverage here) and their Euro Traveller.
I just changed my Vodafone contract.
For € 54 plus € 4,99 for the EU wide flat i get:
3 GB all over the EU
flat rate for all phone calls inside Germany and up to 500 min per day in every EU country
flatrate for SMS
2 extra SIM cards are € 9 each.
All 4G
172 Driver, thanks for the reply. I access mobile data using various idevices and the throttled data was with the same ipad that had worked perfectly last year in the US, for instance displaying real time weather on Foreflight during flight. The Walmart phone is a PAYG that I bought exclusively for calling and receiving US calls (Most of my US contacts have difficulty dialing international numbers!!!). You can buy this for cash without needing a zip code.
The problem with the AT&T contract is that you probably need a US address, zip code and US credit card for that. An AT&T main board director once told me that “they don’t want just anybody getting a mobile phone in the US”. Presumably this chap didn’t frequent Walmart much. Maybe AT&T rules have softened now – I haven’t tried recently (because Three has worked so well) and would be very interested to know if it is possible for a non-resident to get this type of contract now, using a foreign credit card.
Note that AT&T phones don’t work in UK, so it’s impossible to verify that your SIM still works before you arrive. Most PAYG SIMs expire between trips, so it’s back to square one every time.
Many pilots I know use 3 Feel at home. I pay £15 a month sim only and rarely have a bill more than that.
Aveling wrote:
The problem with the AT&T contract is that you probably need a US address, zip code and US credit card for that.
I’ve had mine for years, long before I moved here and, IIRC, before I had a US credit card. There is a simple way to find out – go online at ATT, navigate here and see if you can set one up. Btw, there is a little-know workaround for a US CC billing address: if you have a European AMEX you can add a secondary address to it. Just use a friend’s address and Bob’s your uncle….
chrisparker wrote:
Many pilots I know use 3 Feel at home. I pay £15 a month sim only and rarely have a bill more than that.
Exactly what I do.
Aveling wrote:
Note that AT&T phones don’t work in UK, so it’s impossible to verify that your SIM still works before you arrive. Most PAYG SIMs expire between trips, so it’s back to square one every time.
