Roming and Mobile Data in Europe

[RTuesday]

Originally Posted by ripit

... I will be traveling mostly in France, Switzerland and Italy for 3 weeks in June/July. ....the Vodafone Passport,... but data looks like it is killer @ nearly $.02/MB.

Do you mean $.02/kB? ($20/MB)? If not, please tell me how I can get that rate.

You could consider getting a data-only sim, and switch around when needed (or just carry a basic phone for voice plus the fancy phone for data).

For data, Virgin Mobile UK (not the US one) is around $10/MB, and there's a Swiss one that is a similar price (see previous posts here). The VM one would have the advantage of giving you multiple roaming networks in each country, so good coverage. It's what I use for the odd times when I need data access without wifi (Nokia 770, plus Nokia 6131 phone).

Free wi-fi isn't unheard of in Europe, but it's not so standard in hotels. The B&B chain (budget out of town hotels mostly in France) had free wi-fi chain-wide (in the lobby and nearby rooms) when I used it last year. Many other hotels charge for it.