Best International SIM card for data in France, Belguim and Netherlands

January 28, 2014 2:30 PM

I am going to be in Paris, Belgium and The Netherlands for about six days each. I will have an unlocked iPhone 4S (from AT&T) and will want to use data while there. Which international SIM card should I get?

Also, should I order it ahead of time to be shipped to me here in Minnesota or pick it up in Paris?
I don't need phone minutes or text messages, but if the best deal includes them, that's okay of course. Seat61.com referred me to gosim.com. It looked like a good deal until I saw the Belgian data rates: $20.00 per MB! That may be a typo/error, since the French and Dutch rates are more like 25 or 35 cents per MB. I am guessing I would use about 100MB. I'd like to spend $50 or less on this.

posted by soelo to Technology (7 answers total)

Best answer: In case you didn't know, T-Mobile eliminated international roaming and fees for data and text in certain countries. So, if you used T-mobile, you could get free, unlimited, international data and texts. T-mobile also eliminated contracts. So it's worth considering if using T-Mobile might be a solution. Your AT&T phone will work with T-mobile as well.
posted by jardinier at 3:04 PM on January 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

You can get temporary international roaming through AT&T for less than $50. I got 300 MB for $60 when we went to the UK and Belgium last year on my 4S. You don't need to switch SIMs. Just make sure you keep track of how much data you are using because AT&T will automatically charge you for additional data if they think you go over, but you can challenge the charge with screenshots of your data usage tracked on your phone.
posted by bedhead at 3:25 PM on January 28, 2014

I would pick up a Vodafone card in your first country and top it up significantly enough for the rest. See if you can get the 'Op Ries' function out of the Netherlands, it offered me a flat 2e a day fee for a limited set of voice, data and text when i travelled to Italy etc. You may get something similar out of a French SIM
posted by infini at 3:55 PM on January 28, 2014

Small correction: that would be 'Op Reis', not 'Op Ries'. Pronounced 'Op Rice', not 'Op Reese'.
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:33 AM on January 29, 2014 [2 favorites]

I bought a SIM card with data in France from Orange that worked in Spain as well. Might be an option. Was about $20 for two weeks.
posted by kjs4 at 3:45 AM on January 29, 2014

We used EuropaSim. It's an Italian Vodafone SIM, and for €3 a day we had more data than we could use. You do need to order them ahead of time and have them shipped to your home, though.
posted by escapepod at 3:48 AM on January 31, 2014

Response by poster: I went with T-Mobile and had unlimited data the whole time. It cost about $80 after buying the sim and paying for a month of service. I haven't cancelled yet, so I may get a little money back. I really liked knowing that the sim would work before I left and not having to worry about how much data I was using the few times I got lost.
posted by soelo at 8:41 AM on May 22, 2014