Yea, it probably will - and I’m considering that. 
Payg don’t support esim yet, maybe when they launch they’ll be able to as that would be ideal. Smarty £8 is 12gb data I think?
Three have some good deals on at the moment. Does Smarty’s include roaming?
If Three works for you, Smarty might be cheaper - and no roaming fees in EU (for now) with a 12GB fair use allowance.
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Have they actually said that this is the case? Just because you’re on 5G doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll have a faster connection. In fact Vodafone 5G in my house is usually slower than their 4G. That soon changes if you go outside, though.
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They air 5G here, but has zero impact.
I would switch 5G off and it remains the exact same, their coverage map doesn’t say it’s live here either.
There’s been many notifications of works here from them so likely to go live soon. Middlesbrough has band 28 (700mhz) 5G live which gives an ok result.
I have a giffgaff sim idle for payback from their community, so I’ll test it out in a few weeks.
So I’ve switched over to Vodafone esim. Asked Vodafone to give me a blank sim as a back up. This’ll be perfect for travelling also as I can pop in a physical local SIM card.
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On my EE contract, (it’s free as it’s a pre 2019 contract) EU roaming costs me nothing and if I want to go to the U.S, I simply need to select the ‘roam further’ add-on as a smart benefit (so free), if it wasn’t a smart benefit, it would cost £10, iirc for the month, I get to use my entire data allowance + calls/texts
If you got your contract after 2019, it’ll cost you £2 a day, OR you can buy the roaming add-on for £10 for that month.
Edit, so I can’t use all my data if in the states
I’d have to get a local SIM if I was going to the USA for a month, when I was in Spain, I used 16GB in a week
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Just so anyone who doesn’t have a Smart Plan knows - the Roam Further add-on is prorated, so it’ll only cost £2.50 per week (so activate on the first day you’re there, and text to stop as you’re leaving).
This was the case in 2019, and i don’t think it’s changed?
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Oh, I thought it was a flat fee, not Pro rated, I actually had it wrong
EU roaming after July 2021:
Roaming, before July 2021:
They advertise it as a monthly fee, i found out via customer services that they charge pro rata!
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I’ll be staying on O2. The slower speeds are disappointing, but I think I can tolerate them. I use Virgin Media for home broadband so the attraction of O2 is the Volt benefits.
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That’s the same here. It’s pretty great volt and combined with o2 priority and airtime rewards you can get good deals
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Update on the esim. I’ve got to say running 2 networks on the iPhone is seriously draining the battery.
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Poor signal can do that, does the new one have poor signal in your area?
One is Vodafone 4G full signal and the other is O2 5G 2-3 bars.
I’ll eventually have to buy a separate phone in this case or the cheaper alternative would be glueing myself to a power bank.
You shouldn’t see (ideally).serious battery drain then, I’d turn off 5g on the O2 if you can.
So I’ve done that just now and I’ll monitor and see if it makes a difference.
I’ve had EE on eSIM and Vodafone on SIM for a couple of months now and can’t say that I’ve noticed any extra battery drain.
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If you’re running speed tests that’ll rob your battery, otherwise should be fine.
I have a stand wireless charger on my desk so it charges all day.
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