Yes. It works internationally in the same 120 countries and at the same throttled speed as every one else:

https://www.harbormobile.com/plans/

My personal issue is that I am double subscribed at the moment. I have Verizon and TMobile tablet SIMs. One is going. International v. all of TMobiles' 2g domestic areas????

How is it if you only use it intl? If I was to get it, most of my use would be abroad. How does Harbor Mobile or Tmo look upon that? Any account closures?

One Canadian reported that his account was closed. He was a Toronto resident which surprised me because you would've thought that the ordinary cross-border traffic from weekend shopping in Buffalo etc. would've kept him okay. My principal use is in the United States. The Canadian also kept the phone on Wi-Fi for significant periods hoping that with T-Mobile's Wi-Fi calling, this would pacify the system.

Just Say No to KnowRoaming
 

I do around a week a month in another country and I currently use the $50/mo T-Mobile plan that gives me free 2G-ish data in 100+ countries. But I am tired of the slow data and paying for a 2nd line - I have ATT in the USA - so I decided to try KnowRoaming.

1st problem: I tried to install it all while on a trip (Amsterdam) but couldn't figure out part of the registration process till I got back and had back and forth with their support team.

2nd problem: after I registered, I couldn't apply the promised credit without another back and forth with support, which keeps telling you to watch some stupid video instead of telling you how to fix the issue.

3rd problem: on the next trip (Accra), it took me most of the day and multiple emails to their support line (first response: watch a video!) to get the system working. Once it was working, it seemed to work fine.

4th problem: once back in the USA, I couldn't get data. It took a bit of fiddling (I'd given up on their support line by now) to get my data working again.

5th problem: I couldn't get messages either, which they don't warn you about, and that took me signing out/back into my Apple ID on the phone to re-authorize the phone number.

Overall, a real pain in the butt for no real savings. Had I been fully able to use KnowRoaming while in Amsterdam or Accra, I would've been spending way more than $50 on data (even with their $8/day unlimited), so I'm better off with 2 lines and zero problems than all that hassle to get onto and then off of their service.

Now I still need to figure out how to peel off their sticker and get their code off my phone.

So if you travel often, don't KnowRoaming. Go T-Mobile and save yourself a headache.

Verizon PrePay also has tablet plans. 300 MB/day for $5 which would get me through a pinch for Maps and e-mail.
http://www.verizonwireless.com/wcms/...p/prepaid.html

Maybe try domestic T-Mobile for LTE first and swap for Verizon PrePay sim as needed? Depends on if you'd find it more frustrating to get local sims overseas (though you also have the AT&T grandfathered international roaming business plan, right?) or swapping out a tablet sim domestically.

Their support is hit or miss. First time they were horrible then second time great. I think it really depends on your sticker. Mine has been awesome, but yeah the way they install a config profile and you have to manually delete that when you get back to your home network sucks. They claim their app does it automatically but that is just not the case.

So far its worked everywhere I need it but requires lots of phone reboots to make sure it is always working. I am pretty technical so its easy but I would not recommend this for my wife or anyone that does not know how to filddle with very technical settings on the phone.

Doe the Verizon SIM die from non-use?

Knowroaming's Canada rates seem to have dropped a bit. Hopefully, they soon add it their unlimited data countries.

I finally got to test the KnowRoaming sim sticker out on a recent trip to Singapore (I originally wanted to test it out on previous trip to South Korea, but I just could not get the service to work. Sorry, didn’t take any photos of the sim sticker, etc but the KnowRoaming website does explain everything in quite a bit of detail, including various Youtube videos.

Just to back-up a bit, what is KnowRoaming? Basically it is a service whereby you place a specially designed sticker (that has various sim contacts) over your existing sim card. You then use your sim card as you would usually do. With Android phones, KnowRoaming utilises the Sim application toolkit (Sim Toolkit). When you are in your “home” country you use your phone as usual. However the magic is supposed to happen when you are abroad. When abroad, you use the KnowRoaming service to help reduce roaming rates. The ultimate benefit is for data roaming, where, you are charged about US$8 a day in countries where KnowRoaming has an agreement. At moment the coverage includes most of Europe and North America (but not Canada) and some parts of Asia Pacific (the Asia Pacific coverage is limited to the bigger economies and at present China isn’t covered). US$8 a considerably cheaper than what local networks are charging for data roaming (for example with Hong Kong mobile carriers daily data roaming rates are roughly US$17 – 25 a day). You can also benefit from cheaper call and SMS rates.

So that’s the theory, how was it in practice? I should point out, I’m basing my experience on an Android phone (Sony Xperia D6633, which is a dual sim phone). The procedures for iphones may vary slightly.

Overall I was able to get the service to work, but this was after numerous emails to KnowRoaming support and many phone restarts, going into Sim Toolkit.

Applying the sim sticker was generally fine, just follow the instructions provided by KnowRoaming. What I did find though, was that after the sticker was applied, putting the sim back into the phone, was a bit of a tighter squeeze (no surprise there though). You then download the Knowroaming app and this is where things are supposed to run. With Android, you have a constant notification with the Sim Toolkit, which can be annoying. This can be turned off, but you need to email KnowRoaming support for instructions. While in your “home” country, there is really no difference from using your phone as normal.

You can purchase 1 day, 3 day or 7 days data passes, however the price still works out at about US$8 a day. Reason for purchasing multi day passes is you don’t need to worry about buying a pass daily, which can be important (more details below). You can purchase the passes before you get to your destination, but they can only be activated when you are using the KnowRoaming sim.

Now when abroad what should theoretically happen is that you should automatically switch over to the KnowRoaming sim. You do need to have data roaming enabled. You should know the KnowRoaming sim is working, because this should be updated on the Sim Toolkit and on the KnowRoaming app, which should show the KnowRoaming sim as the active sim. Once this happens, you need to update your APN but this wasn’t working. This is where things got a bit convoluted for me. While Sim Toolkit was showing the KnowRoaming sim as active, the KnowRoaming app wasn’t. Also it seems I was not being connected to a network. After emailing support I basically had to go through a 12 step process of disabling the KnowRoaming service and then re-enabling it. After that the APN worked. Word of caution here, the minute the APN starts working and you are abroad, data starts getting used. This means any credit you have starts getting eaten. You need to activate your pre-purchased data pass ASAP. This is quite annoying I have to say. And this is why, if you can, you might want to purchase the multi day packages, because once your package runs out, your prepaid credit will get eaten up.

I noticed that while Sim Toolkit was showing I was using the KnowRoaming sim, the KnowRoaming app had me on my “home” sim. There were a lot of emails with support to try and fix this. This involved things like reinstalling the KnowRoaming app, logging in and out of the app and manually disabling the service and re-enabling it, but to no avail. This did mean to that it took a few tries to actually get my data service to be activated. The data service was working fine once activated, but I would not be able to activate another day’s service, unless the KnowRoaming app shows you on the Knowroaming service. Speaking of the app, I did find using it quite cumbersome, and sometimes took a few key presses to actually get it to react. The problem was down to the fact I was using a dual sim phone. It seems the KnowRoaming app does not like dual sim phones. I have a dual sim phone so I can keep my work number and personal number on the same phone. The only way I was able to get the KnowRoaming app to work was to disable my other sim card.

So what do I think of the service? When it works it’s great. The price point is probably very good for a weekend trip, anything longer, you are probably better off getting a local sim card. This is the perspective of an individual user. For a business, the KnowRoaming service does has some obvious benefits. You save on data roaming and your employees don’t have to mess about with changing sim cards, etc. However the setup of the service (especially the first time round) is a bit convoluted, which I can see people being put off by. KnowRoaming support is very responsive, but I found they didn’t really solve my problem (this was down to me trying different things out).

Would I use this service again? That really depends. The fact that for me, I had to turn off my other sim card, this is really not practical. If they are able to deal with this issue with their app, then maybe I would use the service. I also feel it needs to be a bit more “user friendly”. I am reasonably technologically capable, but I could see the likes of my wife or some of my colleagues struggling to deal with the service if things do not work. If KnowRoaming are able to sort their app and the process of using their service out, then I would maybe use it again. I would definitely use it again if they bring the price of their data plan down and also increase their coverage, especially in Asia Pacific. At the moment, as it presently stands, I won’t be using their service.

Thanks for that detailed review. I have the same phone and given all the issues to set it up, it'll just be quicker to buy a sim on arrival.

Hi

I've been in a few discussions with Knowroaming about my issues, and in all fairness they have been very helpful. They went through every issue in detail and they ended up buying the D6633 to test out. They have also updated their app to it should be more streamlined now. I would contact them to see if they have ironed out the bugs as a result.

I probably won't be using it now, but may do in the future. My reasons for not using it aren't to do with the sticker itself now, but other reasons. But if I were you, I would give them a try if you think the service might benefit you.

For me, I'm not sure if I would really make much use of it. EU roaming I do on my PL phone or Toggle and I would probably use this when I will be in Russia. But given that prepaid sims are available, I would probably just end up picking up a sim in Russia and using that. But I'll keep this in mind.
thanks

Have there been any updates on this? I have a friend who uses KnowRoaming and seems happy with it. I'd like to get it for an upcoming trip to Denmark and Norway, but their website still says it doesn't work with Verizon. Has anyone been able to get it to work with them?

Hello

Flyertalk newbie here. Long time lurker to this useful site. Does anyone have recent experiences with the KR SIM Sticker? I am travelling to Italy this fall for a 16 night transatlantic cruise. 2 days in Italy, 2 in France and 3 in Spain. This seems like a perfect solution to buying 3 separate local SIMs or paying for EU data roaming. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Tom

You might be better off grabbing a SIM in Italy like the Vodafone one. Their Smart Passport plan includes: 3 Euros/day, you get each day 500MB of data, 25 min each of incoming and outgoing calls, and 50 sms messages.


http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...sim-italy.html