Going to Spain from the States, SIM card change?

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Zorachus

[H]F Junkie
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Dec 17, 2006
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So my family and I are finally going to Europe, for our first time, to visit my Brother who lives in Spain now. I have a question on how our smartphones will work there?

All 4 of us, have Google Pixel phones, running on T-Mobile in the States. What do I need to do, so our phones will work there in Seville?
 
I moved to Italy a few years ago with T-Mobile initially and have been traveling around Europe a lot since then. T-Mobile covered us here technically, but only on Edge type networks, which is virtually useless. So I added international 4G/LTE to my line at least until I moved to a EU carrier (Vodafone), which I recall being pretty expensive relative to any prepaid data service here (an extra $50 for that month if I remember right, and don't remember how much data I got with that). Their 4G service was also on a smaller regional carrier (TIM) here that had less coverage, but of course YMMV on that in other countries.

So for countries outside of the EU where Vodafone doesn't cover or when I go back to the US to visit, I use my 2nd eSIM (since my physical SIM is Vodafone) either with Google Fi, or I buy a temp eSIM and service from this site and it works great while being super cheap as well: https://mobimatter.com/.

I was recently in Switzerland for a long weekend trip and got 1GB of 4G service there to navigate around on for $3.50. Can't beat that.

Also, here's a tip for when you go to add the eSIM, since the service will only send you a QR code to scan it with your camera and that's typically how you add it, but if you don't have a laptop or another phone to scan the QR code from, it's awkward to add.

Scan the QR code on your screen from a screenshot with Google Lens or something to get the actual link. Then in when you go to add the eSIM in the settings, on the screen where the camera is scanning for the QR code, click the "need help?" at the bottom left of the screen and then the "enter manually" link so you can just paste in the eSIM URL from there. The carrier will provision you almost immediately and you'll have the service you purchased. Easy peasy.
 
Zorachus said:
Thank you, we're excited, my first time to Europe. Not a fan of the long flight, but I guess I'll deal with it.
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Just remember, a long flight is much better than a flight that was supposed to be long, but ended prematurely. :p
 
Zorachus said:
Thank you, we're excited, my first time to Europe. Not a fan of the long flight, but I guess I'll deal with it.
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Your welcome.

Only been to Europe once but loved it the entire time!


What tier or level seats do you have? Guessing just coach.
 
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