Cell phone info (NU Connectivity Requirements):
Possible options to meet NU's Connectivity Requirements in the Republic of Ireland (ROI) and the North of Ireland (part of the UK)
1. Use my current phone and phone service with its international services
2. Use my current phone and get a SIM Card to use in that phone
3. Buy a "burner" phone that will work in Ireland and Northern Ireland (UK)
Picking a plan
- NU's Connectivity Requirements (The section that pertains to our trips is Requirements for Non-High-Risk Locations)
- NU’s connectivity requirement means that you are able to be reached on your phone even if you are not on wifi.
Possible options to meet NU's Connectivity Requirements in the Republic of Ireland (ROI) and the North of Ireland (part of the UK)
1. Use my current phone and phone service with its international services
- This is definitely the easiest of all the options but not all U.S. cell phone service providers offer a reasonably priced plan. That is, they may offer plans where you are able to use data, calls, and texts but you are paying each time you do it. I have noticed that more and more providers are offering reasonable plans so you will need to check your provider.
- If you plan to use your U.S. service provider, you will need to have International Roaming. When you are checking that you have this service available, you are checking that you can make and receive calls while you are in Ireland and the North (UK). That is Roaming. You will see other international services which allow you to make calls to other countries from the U.S. which is not roaming and is not what you need. You need to be able to make and receive calls while in Ireland and the North (UK).
2. Use my current phone and get a SIM Card to use in that phone
- If you are going to get a SIM card to put in your U.S. phone, you will need to make sure that can be done with respect to both communications protocols as well as if your phone needs to be unlocked to use a UK/Ireland service provider SIM.
- You should do the following:
- Research a UK/Ireland service provider. The three big ones are Vodafone, eir, and Three.
- Determine if your phone will work on these networks (protocol-wise).
- Determine if you need an unlocked phone to use one of their SIM cards.
- If you need an unlocked phone and yours is not unlocked, talk to you U.S. service provider to find out how/if you can get it unlocked
- If you need an unlocked phone and can't unlock it, you will need to use either Option 1 or Option 3.
- I called Dublin Airport and they said there are SIM cards available everywhere at the airport (in stores and in vending machines).
3. Buy a "burner" phone that will work in Ireland and Northern Ireland (UK)
- If you are planning on getting a burner it would be better to purchase one here in the U.S. (that will work internationally) and then get a SIM card phone at the Dublin airport. The airport representative that I spoke with said that there is a phone store in the airport but it is only high-end, very expensive phones.
- If you look at the Pay-as-you-go section of Vodafone (IE or UK), eir, and Three website you can look at the phones they are selling. Then you can look for these online here. I have done this and seen some on Amazon.
Picking a plan
- You will need choose a plan based in either Ireland or the UK.
- They you'll want to make sure that you'll be able to roam to the country you don't choose as a base.
- Usually you can roam across the border for free.
- But some plans will limit your usage in terms of limited minutes, GBs of data, or number of texts. So just check it out.
