Iceland and mobile phones

[beast5680]

Quick question as i know some on here have been to iceland on trips, will a uk mobile phone work over there like they do in mainland europe or is there no coverage etc? the other half is going over next month on a trip

cheers in advance

[freelanderpx54]

Depends on the phone. If it is tri or quad band then probably. The main problem is cost. You pay a high premium to phone home (UK) and if someone phones you whilst you are abroad then you end up paying for the call as well. Check out the tariff as it may work out cheaper to use a phone card.

We got royally ripped off phoning home from Egypt, about 80 minutes of calls cost us around £120 - you liva and learn

[Wonka]

Vodafone has the best coverage - and for most of the way around route 1 (ring road) there is uninterrupted coverage. I just looked at my mobey bills and I think I spent an extra £30 in a week of roaming last year.

[thermidorthelobster]

Good coverage near towns, not so good in mountains / interior.

I have a satellite phone I can hire you if you need it;  however the footprint doesn't cover North West Iceland, so it depends where she's going!

[beast5680]

She starts off in rekyavik for a few days then goes up to akureyri for a week then back to rekyavik again but in between is doing trips out round the surrounding areas, she,s on vodafone now so that should be ok , i have read a few sites that say buy a sim card out there as its cheaper so i,ll put that to her
David, i,ll bear the offer in mind and ask her thanks very much :D

[UKJeeper]

Well, the good news is that Voda is actually a provider up there, so you can a get local sim card from them and it should work in her phone.

Another option, though its probably too late, is to have a mobile phone with Skype and Wi-Fi. Find a Wi-fi hotspot and make free phone calls home.