Mutter Bundle #15: Tram-Stomping, Border-Crossing, Number-Crunching Post
27 Mar 2025 23:28
Glasgow, Scotland.
31 Mar 2025 08:35
Prague, Czechia.
01 Apr 2025 23:36
Here's me standing in Poland, eyeing up Germany, which is just across the river.
12 Apr 2025 19:05
Glasgow, Scotland.
12 Apr 2025 19:05
VOXI vs giffgaff, roaming costs compared (one example scenario) in my giffgaff Community post. The importance of doing the maths.
Say, someone snapped up a VOXI SIM special offer that gives 75GB, plus unlimited data when accessing certain popular social media and streaming services (some would argue it’s essentially an unlimited data SIM). If that person goes abroad twice a year for two weeks at a time, they'd pay £17 each time for the 15-day pass that gives up to 20GB of data. That’s £34 extra a year, or just under £3 extra a month. Based on that kind of usage, the plan, with the 20GB EU roaming allowance factored in, would work out at under £15 per month, which is a bargain for what it offers.
A 30-day £15 giffgaff plan with 50GB domestic data and 5GB roaming allowance, plus... what... £2.99 per month for a HulloMail subscription if you want Visual Voicemail (which comes as standard with VOXI, albeit only on iPhones), might not seem as attractive for someone with that usage pattern. Especially if VOXI covers their roaming data needs by up to 20GB of data per trip, which is pretty comfortable compared to the 5GB cap on giffgaff.
That figure will, of course, differ for others depending on how often they travel to the “roam-like-at-home” destinations.
16 Apr 2025 19:48
SLICE vs spusu, hands-on comparison as of 16 Apr 2025.
As someone who uses both SLICE and spusu SIMs (both are EE MVNOs), here’s a quick summary of my experience so far. Spoiler alert: SLICE comes out on top.
Why I’m still hanging on to the spusu SIM (one of my two main numbers is on it) and can’t go all-in with SLICE just yet:
- Call forwarding, which I rely on;
- WiFi Calling, which does help;
- Voicemail forwarding as attachments to any email address I choose.
Why I’d love to ditch the spusu SIM:
- Huge latency/ping issues;
- Slower speeds (tested on the same handset);
- Slightly poorer call quality, no proper HD calling feel (folks on various forums reckon it’s down to a lower-quality codec spusu uses).
Where SLICE, in my opinion, beats spusu hands down:
- Better speeds;
- Crisper call quality;
- A clean, smooth, and eye-candyish app;
- Community.
So yes, SLICE wins overall. That said, I’m still going to continue with the SLICE+spusu setup for a while, even though I’ll end up overpaying a bit for such a setup. Fingers crossed, I’ll be able to switch to SLICE completely before too long.