UK mobiles in FV

[FVmouse]

Hi All,

If I want the fastest 4g signal possible on the island from a U.K. SIM card is there a best choice of UK provider ? Or do all U.K. SIMs hook up to the same mast and network irrespective of which U.K. provider you choose ? 

If not then is it a matter of deducing which is the best Spanish network in my area of the island and then choosing a U.K. SIM which hooks up to this particular network rather than a different slower one ?

Many thanks.

[Sam]

Your phone is usually switching to the fastest network and checking if that's the case every few minutes. No matter what UK operator you're using. This is at least how I understand it/worked in the past for us.

Tip: 3G could sometimes be faster than 4G - try to manually disable 4G and test the speed.

[FVmouse]

Are you sure that EU roaming works like this (all U.K. SIMs equally enjoy the best possible EU roaming signals at all times) ? Or do certain U.K. operators and networks have deals with certain Spanish operators and networks ? I find it hard to believe that a U.K. Orange SIM will have access to the Spanish Vodafone network and vice versa, but certainly hope this belief to be wrong....

Anyone know for sure ?

[Sam]

Just tried to connect on my UK SIM to Vodafone, Orange and Movistar, all good.

...Orange UK merged with T-mobile into EE (Everything Expensive?) a decade years ago IIRC.

[FVmouse]

Thank you very much for the info. Which U.K. SIM are you using please ? Have you ever observed a difference in performance over the U.K. alternatives ? Or have you observed any difference in performance vs Spanish SIMs ?

Just wanting a small number of alternative U.K. and Spanish date SIMs to use when over there. Will obviously search out the best value but want to be sure this doesn’t come at the cost of performance.

Thanks again.

[Ducks]

do certain U.K. operators and networks have deals with certain Spanish operators and networks 

I believe this used to be the case, but I think officially, it went out the window once the EU roaming regulation came into effect.

That said, I have never seen my Vodafone phone from home on anything other than Vodafone ES here. Meanwhile, our local-number Orange phone is always on Orange while in the same house, so there may be something to your concern... 

Never had a problem with performance on either, though.

[FVmouse]

Thanks for the reply. It just seems like such a fundamental question across the EU that I’m surprised the situation is not totally 100% clear. That said, I trust Sam’s observations.

[windermeregolfer]

We have just arrived on the island and my BT Mobile sim has auto connected to Orange, but it can also see and connect to vodafone ES or Movistar if I wanted to.

No problem making calls either local in Spain or back to UK  or using data with in my package which costs £13 per month with unlimited calls and texts plus  12GB of mobile data a month.

Hope that helps

[FVmouse]

Many thanks for the information.

Have you tried selecting each of those three options and running a speed test on each. I would be very interested to know the results and I imagine it would be of interest to you too. 

Thanks again.

[windermeregolfer]

Many thanks for the information.

Have you tried selecting each of those three options and running a speed test on each. I would be very interested to know the results and I imagine it would be of interest to you too. 

Thanks again.

Will try it when out and about as when at the villa phone connects to the Wifi, I could switch Wifi off on my phone I suppose but think it would be better to test when out and about.