jspira

I think the title of this thread says it all but this sounds like a great price for unlimited (albeit throttled) data in Europe.

I'd recommend turning off automatic updates of one's smartphone, however.


T-Mobile Launches Open Europe Business Traveler Plan

h15t0r1an

Hmmm... would be nice if they make this available to us folks here in Europe too!

MareLuce

Could I get the chip and the service by-the-month for my Huawei Mi-Fi, without signing a contract commitment?

GuyverII

This is awesome, but I need it for Asia as well!

HKG_Flyer1

No kidding... I just got socked with a $1,600 T-mobile phone bill (primarily data roaming) during my most recent trip to Indonesia. I didn't really use the phone for calls.... the only things I recall doing were using Google Maps a few times and posting some photos to Facebook.

Feel like a real sucker. I've been traveling internationally for 20+ years and should have known better.

Global_Hi_Flyer

Well, that certainly makes my decision process more difficult. I'm headed to Asia in a month and was about to move off my T-Mo Blackberry to ATT to use their (expensive) data roaming plan when I travel. Most of my travel is to Europe, though, and this plan is far better for that purpose.

If I make the ATT move, I want to do so before they hard-push the new plans (like Verizon did)... but was waiting for the new iPhone (needed for a flight-planning program). At the same time, I'd dump the ATT hotspot.

Maybe I spring for a Nexus with pentaband radio, do this TMo plan, and get a no-contract ATT Sim for Asia travel & domestic hotspot & dump separate hotspot. Meaning I'll still have 3 devices.

Decisions, decisions.

mcgahat

Ouch. It is easy to do these days as your phone has lots of things going on in the background that a lot of users do not know about so it may be seem like you arent doing much but in the background a lot of apps are updating etc.

DeltaFlyingProf

This is pretty good news. However, you would still be charged for roaming phone calls if you turn on your phone and someone calls you. This is frustrating especially when you refuse the call because it gets sent to voicemail and you are charged for a call from Europe to the US for the duration of your caller listening to the welcome message and leaving a message.
I guess I can use this on my data-only device. Though in most cases I buy local SIM card, but if going through many countries, this avoids having to get a SIM card in each country.

Dubai Stu

Get a Google Voice number and unconditionally forward your phone number to it. Install the app on your Android phoine. You'll get visual voicemail, unlimited texting to the US, and can make VOIP Calls Over 3g with GrooveIP.

nmenaker

I wonder if there is any way they would make this available on their paygo solution.

mcgahat

This is exactly what I do.

chx1975

What sort of ...... phone do you have that does not disable data when roaming out of the box? o_O

HKG_Flyer1

Yeah, I'm finally beginning to understand that. I got hit last year with charges for phone calls, so I moved to Skype and thought that had solved the problem.

Eh... not so much. I think what I did that really killed me was using Google Maps to monitor my location in real time a few times when I was in a taxi making road trips to unfamiliar locations.

Dunbar

At a $15-20 per MB international roaming rate in Asia (according to google) it would only take ~80-100MB to get to $1600. I can do that in a day or two without trying very hard (much less a week.) I can't believe you'd just wing it though. It's not exactly a secret that international roaming rates for data are astronomical. At least the carriers are starting to offer reasonable international data plans for travelers.

HKG_Flyer1

Like I said, I was a real idiot. I remember thinking at the time... "hmmm... this is fun (using Google Maps to track my journeys through back streets of Jakarta). I wonder why I've never done this before, hope it doesn't use too much data." Famous last words.

I'm now going to spend some time on the prepaid SIM card w/data thread.

It's strange, I'm usually pretty smart about stuff like that--- just had a momentary lapse in judgement. I think what threw me off was that on prior trips I had not really used much data on my Blackberry-- so I focused on getting rid of the phone roaming charges by using a combination of Skype and UMA. At the same time, I escalated my data usage sharply-- so I got hammered again, just in a different way.

I'll be much, much smarter in the future.