The purchase and activation process of this British phone card from Lebara was like a roller coaster for me. The frustration of being unable to activate and the surprise of sudden activation alternated. For me, who just lost 1,000 yuan unboxing the Pixel 9a and the US version of iPhone 13, it was almost unbearable. Fortunately, there was a good result.
Next, I will briefly share this card.
1. What is the advantage of Lebara's physical SIM card?
Look at two pictures first
1. Package price
2. Roaming instructions
Chinese literal translation: "At Lebara, we understand how important it is to stay connected when travelling. That's why we've included the EU, India and China in our Roam Like Home service. This means you can use the included data (up to 30GB) plus UK minutes and texts to connect locally in the roaming country or back to the UK at no extra charge. You can also use the included international minutes to make calls to countries within the EU when roaming in the EU. You can't use the included international minutes to make calls to India or China when roaming in those countries."
That is to say: for the first 9 months, you can pay 1.65 pounds per month to get 100% pure UK mobile ISP IP, 30G international roaming traffic, and free incoming calls and text messages. However, within China, there is no way to use the international call minutes in the package to make free calls to local Chinese phones.
Calls to China/UK: 25p/minute
Text messages to China/UK: 19p/message
I think that's enough.
2. Lebara purchase method and link
1. Purchase link
Official website:https://aklam.io/ioJgtu
You can’t see the above special packages on the official website, so enter from this link:
35G version:https://www.lebara.co.uk/en/msm/p/44000017
50G version:https://www.lebara.co.uk/en/msm/p/44000053
If you don't plan to go to the UK/EU, the 35G version is enough because the maximum international data usage is 30G.
2. Purchase and transfer
Currently Lebara only has physical SIM cards, which only support free postage within the UK.So we need to use UK Postbox. If you don’t know, you can go back to the last tutorial.
It is said that eSIM will be launched in the second half of the year, so you can wait and see.
[However, the package benefits are good and the purchase threshold is low, so it is very likely that the wool party will be overwhelmed. There may be problems such as: package removal, reduction of benefits, raising the threshold, and limiting activation. ]
3. Actual price
Taking the 35G version as an example, when placing an order, you need to pay the first month's package fee, 1.65 pounds, and the activation time is limited to 30 days.
Through UK Postbox, it can be delivered within two weeks. Forwarding fee: 12.3 pounds
Collection: 1.65+12.3=13.95 pounds, approximately RMB: 134 yuan.
Holding costs for the first 9 months: £1.65/month = RMB 15.83/month
You can also wait and see. From time to time, Lebara will launch limited-time promotions for packages at £1 per month.
3. Lebara activation method in China
There is a chance that Lebara cannot be activated in China, please be aware of this.
If you read the introductions of mobile phone card bloggers, most of them will tell you that Lebara can no longer be activated and needs to be activated in the UK. But in fact, this statement is debatable.
1. You can contact customer service to activate it, but it depends on your character.
Personal experience: When I failed to activate manually, I contacted the customer service (agent) to confirm the reason. The agent clearly told me that it was not possible to activate in China and I had to return to the UK.
Then two days later, I consulted customer service about the possibility of manual activation.
The other party asked me to provide my mobile phone number and SIM card’s ICCID, and said that they would submit it to the technical team and try to handle it within 24 to 48 hours.
It was Friday. Then, here comes the fun part.
2. Self-activation method, there is a probability of failure, depending on the device
In China, the way to activate Lebara is as follows:
- Turn off mobile location
- Turn on airplane mode
- Connect to UK IP Wi-Fi
- Insert the SIM card
- Turn on Wi-Fi calling
- Dial 5588, answer, hang up, activation successful.
After receiving the SIM card, I used this method to replace three mobile phones: Huawei mate50pro, iPhoneX and Pixel9proFold, but none of them worked.
Then, while waiting for the customer service to manually activate the card, I tried to insert the card into the iPhoneX again. The moment I inserted the card, I received a text message about the package activation. I did not dial 5588. Of course, 5588 can be dialed later.
Therefore, I am not sure which of the above operations will lead to successful activation. You can judge the risks and operations of the activation operation by yourself. If you only have an Android phone, I personally think that the probability of activation failure is higher.
After successful activation, you can see the package details in the Lebara APP. Otherwise, it will show that there is no package.
4. Lebara Network Performance
I personally think it's a pretty good level. I'll also post the video later so you can judge for yourself.
Watching YouTube and Disney Plus is relatively smooth. Judging from the data, watching Netflix should also be a good experience. However, the video is very stuck, which can only be attributed to the unstable network.
Well, that’s all about Lebara’s UK physical SIM card. If you need a high-traffic SIM card with a pure UK ISP IP, or if you plan to travel to Europe or the UK during the summer vacation, you can consider it.
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