Traviling to Spain

[GuyWill_1001991]

I have used my phone in Spain about 4 times and use the settings provided by smarty but it is so un reliable and drops out all the time and cannot be relied on. All other UK networks seem to work fine, it's so frustrating that I am thinking of changing provider. 

[DavidPi_2605800]

I've moved from Giffgaff to SMARTY because of poor signal on roaming in the EU.

Is SMARTY any better? Thank you

[Michael_T]

I have used roaming in Spain twice this year, without any major issues.  The only gripe was Movistar was often selected by default but most of the time this only offered minimal 4G, mostly 3G.  Orange I discovered was better, so I changed manually to it and then got 4G almost all the time then.
Also, if you’re used to using Wi-Fi calling at home, switch it off while you’re roaming because public/hotel Wi-Fi isn’t the best, and this could explain why your calls are dropping.

[MSF]

@Michael_T  I would normally agree with your comment about public/hotel wifi....until recently!

I was away in the UK and found that the hotel wifi was actually around 90Mbps (SpeedTest). I had noticed that it was going well and decided to check the speed.

[Michael_T]

@MSF  yeah, I’ve seen good speeds abroad too, but often they throttle certain things like Wi-Fi calling/video calling, because they know that this is going to be well utilised…I suppose it is trial and error…ie try the free approaches first and switch to mobile data if it falls over 😉!

[MSF]

@GuyWill_1001991 I have used EU roaming a number of times without problem I must say.

[Chalkychap]

Not many UK mobile service providers have inclusive roaming in the EU.

SMARTY allows you to use your UK allowances while roaming in the EU (with a 12GB roaming data limit) - which provider would you choose @GuyWill_1001991?

[GuyWill_1001991]

Hi Thanks for the reply, overall I am happy with smarty but when I am in Spain it only works now and then, all the other UK suppliers are a rip off on the money they want. Just want to know how to get the smarty sim working when abroad. I can't be the only one having this issue. I have an iPhone 14 Pro

[Chalkychap]

I'd agree with @JJP2 on using an eSIM from the likes of "Airalo", "Holafly", "Soracom Mobile" et cetera when travelling abroad - especially outside SMARTY's EU inclusive roaming area.   

[JJP2]

When in Spain, you will of course be roaming on Spanish networks, such as Movistar, Orange and Vodafone.

When in Spain, are you mostly in large towns and cities, where mobile coverage is good, or rural countryside, where mobile coverage wont be as saturated ? 

It may well be worthwhile you investigating buying a local Spanish SIM card, depending of course on how many trips you make each year, and the duration of those trips.

Personally, I very rarely rely on roaming when abroad, buying local SIM cards, or travel esims like "Airalo" or "Holafly".