We priced a single 7-day trip across the four major UK networks and a SIMOVO eSIM, for ten of the most popular destinations. The same week of mobile data costs anywhere from £0 to £56 - and most travellers have no idea which until the bill lands.
Data collected 8 June 2026 · All prices in GBP, taken directly from each provider's published rates
Key findings
- On a 7-day trip, the cost of mobile data on a UK network ranges from £0 to £56 for the same week , depending only on which network you are with and where you go.
- A SIMOVO unlimited 7-day eSIM is cheaper than both Vodafone and Three in all 10 destinations tested.
- In Japan , a SIMOVO eSIM costs £19 for 7 days versus £49-£56 on every UK network - a saving of up to £37 on a single trip.
- Three of the four major UK networks - EE, Vodafone and Three - have reintroduced daily charges for EU roaming. Only O2 still includes it.
- On EE, a traveller outside the EU who buys no roaming pass gets no mobile data at all ; voice calls fall back to £2.46 per minute .
- Across 10 representative trips, SIMOVO totals £179 against a four-network average of £310 - over 40% less .
- Japan is the most expensive mainstream destination on a UK network: EE charges £8 a day with no weekly pass, so a week costs £56 in data passes alone.
Why this matters
The era of the phone that just works abroad is quietly ending. After Brexit removed the EU guarantee of surcharge-free roaming, three of the UK four largest networks brought daily EU charges back: EE at £2.72 a day, Vodafone at £2.75 a day, and Three at £2.75 a day on its entry plans. Only O2 still includes EU roaming - and even that has strings attached, as we explain below.
For long-haul travel the numbers are far steeper, and far less visible. Most people discover what their network charges in Japan or the USA only after they have landed, switched their phone on, and started a clock running at up to £8 a day. This report puts the actual, current numbers side by side so the choice is made before departure, not after the bill.
The headline comparison
The table below shows the cheapest published way to get usable data for a 7-day trip on each network - the best daily charge, pass or bolt-on available - against the SIMOVO unlimited 7-day eSIM.
| Destination | EE | O2 | Vodafone | Three | SIMOVO | Cheapest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spain | £16.50 | £0.00 | £16.00 | £19.25 | £12.00 | O2 |
| France | £16.50 | £0.00 | £16.00 | £19.25 | £14.00 | O2 |
| Italy | £16.50 | £0.00 | £16.00 | £19.25 | £12.00 | O2 |
| Greece | £16.50 | £0.00 | £16.00 | £19.25 | £12.00 | O2 |
| Portugal | £16.50 | £0.00 | £16.00 | £19.25 | £12.00 | O2 |
| USA | £30.00 | £49.00 | £56.00 | £56.00 | £39.00 | EE |
| Japan | £56.00 | £49.00 | £56.00 | £56.00 | £19.00 | SIMOVO |
| Thailand | £30.00 | £49.00 | £56.00 | £56.00 | £19.00 | SIMOVO |
| Turkey | £30.00 | £49.00 | £56.00 | £56.00 | £10.00 | SIMOVO |
| UAE | £30.00 | £49.00 | £56.00 | £56.00 | £30.00 | EE / SIMOVO |
Carrier figures: cheapest published 7-day pass or bolt-on. SIMOVO: unlimited 7-day single-country eSIM (2GB/day high-speed, then unlimited). Sources listed at the end.
The pattern is consistent. Against Vodafone and Three - which charge a flat £56 for a week of long-haul data - SIMOVO is cheaper in every single destination , by as much as £46 on a single trip. Where SIMOVO does not take the top spot, it is beaten only by a network running a deliberate loss-leader: the O2 included EU roaming, or the EE discounted long-haul pass. More on both below.
How much you could save
| Destination | SIMOVO | 4-network average | Saving vs average | Saving vs dearest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spain | £12.00 | £12.94 | £0.94 | £7.25 |
| France | £14.00 | £12.94 | -£1.06 | £5.25 |
| Italy | £12.00 | £12.94 | £0.94 | £7.25 |
| Greece | £12.00 | £12.94 | £0.94 | £7.25 |
| Portugal | £12.00 | £12.94 | £0.94 | £7.25 |
| USA | £39.00 | £47.75 | £8.75 | £17.00 |
| Japan | £19.00 | £54.25 | £35.25 | £37.00 |
| Thailand | £19.00 | £47.75 | £28.75 | £37.00 |
| Turkey | £10.00 | £47.75 | £37.75 | £46.00 |
| UAE | £30.00 | £47.75 | £17.75 | £26.00 |
| All 10 trips | £179.00 | £309.94 | £130.94 | - |
Buy a SIMOVO eSIM for each of these ten trips and you would pay £179. Pay the four-network average each time and you would pay £310 - £131 more for the same ten weeks of data.
Where a SIMOVO eSIM comes out ahead
On these four destinations, a SIMOVO eSIM is the cheapest option in the whole study. Tap through to the eSIM for your trip:
What each network actually charges
EE
EE includes EU roaming for a £2.72 daily charge, or £16.50 for a weekly pass. Long-haul, it splits the world into zones: the USA, Thailand, Turkey and the UAE sit in ROW Zone 1 at £30 for a 7-day pass - competitive, and the reason EE undercuts SIMOVO on the USA. Japan is the outlier: it falls in ROW Zone 3, which has no weekly pass at all, only an £8-a-day option. A week in Japan on EE therefore costs £56 in data passes before you make a single call. Crucially, outside the EU, EE provides no mobile data whatsoever unless you buy a pass - and voice falls back to £2.46 a minute.
O2
O2 is the only major UK network still including EU roaming at no extra charge, which is why it shows £0 across the five EU destinations. But free deserves scrutiny - see the next section. Outside its Europe Zone, O2 charges a flat £7 a day through its Travel Bolt On, which covers the USA, Japan, Thailand, Turkey and the UAE at £49 for a week.
Vodafone
Vodafone charges £2.75 a day in its Europe zone (or £16 for an 8-day pass), and £8 a day everywhere else that matters - the USA, Japan, Thailand, Turkey and the UAE all land at £56 for a week. It is, alongside Three, the most expensive option for long-haul travel in this study.
Three
The Three Go Roam in Europe option costs £2.75 a day on its entry plans; Go Roam Around the World and Around the World Extra both cost £8 a day, putting every long-haul destination here at £56 for the week. Notably, Three places Turkey in its most expensive band - so a week of Turkish data costs £56 on Three but £10 on a SIMOVO eSIM.
What the O2 free roaming really means
The O2 £0 in Europe is real, but it is not a gift, and it is far narrower than it looks. Four things every traveller should know:
It is paid for by everyone. Included roaming is recovered across the entire O2 customer base. The millions of customers who rarely leave the UK are subsidising the minority who travel often - you only come out ahead if you are a frequent traveller.
It is Europe-only, and capped. The £0 applies solely inside the O2 Europe Zone and stops at 25GB. It is not a worldwide benefit.
It disappears the moment you go long-haul. Leave the Europe Zone - for the USA, Japan, Thailand or the UAE - and O2 charges £7 a day, the same model as everyone else.
O2 is the last network doing it. EE, Vodafone and Three have all reintroduced EU daily charges. The O2 inclusion is a competitive loss-leader, not the market norm.
This is the real distinction. Network roaming - free or not - is something you pay for every month, whether or not you ever board a plane. A SIMOVO eSIM costs the same whether your UK SIM is a £60 contract or a £6 SIM-only deal, and you only pay on the weeks you actually travel.
The hidden cost: doing nothing
The most expensive roaming mistake is not choosing the wrong pass - it is choosing none. On EE, switching your phone on in the USA or Asia without a pass gets you no data at all and £2.46-a-minute calls. On Vodafone, data in its Rest of World zones requires a separately purchased extra before your phone will load a map. Across every network, the traveller who assumes their UK allowance simply follows them abroad is the one most exposed to bill shock - which is precisely the ignorance this report is named for.
Where the networks still win - and why we are telling you
A study that claimed SIMOVO was cheapest everywhere would not survive contact with a journalist own phone bill, so here is the honest picture. The O2 included EU roaming beats SIMOVO across the five European destinations. The EE £30 long-haul pass beats SIMOVO on the USA (£30 versus £39) and ties it in the UAE. The SIMOVO advantage is sharpest where it matters most for the unprepared traveller: long-haul destinations on the three networks that charge full price for them, and anywhere a customer would otherwise pay £8 a day.
Methodology
Scenario. One traveller, on a standard Pay Monthly contract taken today, on a 7-day trip, needing usable mobile data for the whole trip.
Carrier basis. The cheapest published 7-day option - daily charge, weekly pass or travel bolt-on - for each network and destination.
SIMOVO basis. The unlimited 7-day single-country eSIM (2GB a day at high speed, then unlimited at a reduced speed), chosen as the closest like-for-like to the networks unlimited or full-allowance passes.
Destinations. Spain, France, Italy, Greece and Portugal (EU), plus the USA, Japan, Thailand, Turkey and the UAE (long-haul) - high-volume UK outbound destinations spanning EU and long-haul.
Currency and dates. All figures in GBP. EE rates from its price guide effective 31 March 2026; Vodafone from its charges guide effective 14 April 2026; O2, Three and SIMOVO collected live on 8 June 2026. Every figure is taken directly from the provider - no third-party or reseller pricing is used - so the study is fully reproducible.
Conclusion
The roaming market has quietly split in two: networks that charge you every month for a benefit you may rarely use, and pay-as-you-travel data you buy only when you need it. For European city breaks on O2, the included roaming is genuinely hard to beat. But for long-haul travel - and for anyone on EE, Vodafone or Three - a SIMOVO eSIM is cheaper in every destination we tested, by as much as £46 on a single week. The one thing that is never cheap is finding out the hard way.
Sources (all provider-direct, collected 8 June 2026): EE Plan Price Guide (eff. 31 March 2026); O2 Using your phone abroad and O2 Travel Bolt On pages; Vodafone Charges Guide (eff. 14 April 2026) and Global Roaming zones; Three Go Roam pages and roaming-cost guide; SIMOVO destination eSIM pages (GB store). SIMOVO Research, 2026. Figures are accurate as at the collection date and subject to change by the providers.
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