PrePaidGSM.net Forum (Archived) - Experiences from travelling Part II

My second trip of 2007 was a weekend in & around Dublin for the Ireland v Wales football match. (For the record, the weekend was good fun but the game was bloody terrible!) This little entry isn't about purchasing/using Irish SIMs but may be of interest to "3" customers...

As a post-paid 3UK customer, I was looking forward to the fact that I would be able to use my phone overseas without getting hit for the usual silly roaming charges thanks to 3's "3 like home".

As soon as I arrived in Dublin I switched my phone on and was quite surprised when it selected Vodafone IE: I had to manually select 3 IE. Indeed several times after this, the phone seemed to end up on Vodafone IE - presumably switching over where the 3 signal was not too great. So I would urge any 3 users to be careful that you are actually using the 3 network else you could end up with charges you hadn't bargained for!

As far as usage was concerned. From memory (it was a weekend of much alcohol!) the signal reception in the centre of Dublin seemed fine for the most part. However we were staying in a little town called "Bray" which is approximately 25km south of the city and signals on the journey between the two places could be patchy (this would often be the time when the phone decided to change to Vodafone) as it could occasionally be in Bray. However for the most part I had no major problems doing all the usual things (including 3G data usage).

Using your phone "like home" seemed almost too good to be true, and a quick look at my bill after the trip confirmed that there were no hidden charges so it was a generally positive experience. Congrats to 3 for pioneering this, and I hope other operators do the same soon. Just be careful your phone doesn't stray onto another network though!

Next up (and in the Americas forum) our trip to Toronto, Canada.