Does anyone know whether the $50 international pass (not the Global Pass $50 option) offers high speed tethering, and if so, whether they have a separate limit? Global Pass has 5gb high speed tethering limit, but the international pass does not specify. I would prefer to go international pass route, since it allows me to set the start date rather than being tied to the billing cycle but would need to be able to use tethering / hotspot to do some work abroad (wifi abroad prevents VPN access). Thanks,

An esim in current phones expands the possibilities for travel data service quite easily. An Airalo $20 Euro esim gives 5Gb of 4G data for 30 days, and allows tethering. You can configure the service start date at time of purchase so it is in effect wheels down. I have used them on a few continents and they are reliable and save the hunt for a cell store with an honest rep who speaks English and has a sim in stock. The newest iPhone has dual esims, so you can have your main voice line on esim and still add a second esim data line. This will allow for making free WiFi calls to and from the US over the simulated WiFi the IMS service permits.

Yes. It includes tethering but it all comes out of the same bucket. Be aware that T-mobile uses STUPID "abuse" monitoring*. If you use the full 15GB abroad, be sure to burn through more than 15GB of mobile data when back in the US.

Even if you purchase a 15GB pass. T-Mobile defines roaming abuse as using more than 50% data abroad for x number of cycles. In the past I've gotten nastygrams from them threatening to cancel my account because I use little data domestically (always on wifi) but used slightly more abroad. In one case I had the 15GB Global plus plan and used 110mb in the UK and 100mb in the US. They threatened to cancel me for "abuse." After complaining on reddit, other uses told me to just burn a ton of data domestically to avoid this stupid ratio/based system.

Airalo is really a great solution for the technically adept. I just added a regular T-Mo Data pass for my parent's trip to Europe.... but for me I'd go the airalo route.

I always found T Mobile’s customer service to be super helpful. If I ever had an issue with anything you can just speak with them and they’re very, very reasonable

I’ve used T-Mobile all over (Europe, Asia, South America) and I’ve never had an issue

I agree. I do the same for my MIL who just wants her phone to "Work" while she is away. Pretty bulletproof.

I thought that they would be more forgiving if you bought an international pass/plan. I guess not. Also I knew about the ratio but always thought there might be some threshold. So 7 GB internationally and 8 GB domestically would be ok, but you'll get the notice if you do 100 MB internationally and 80 MB domestically?

Yep. Absolutely... even if you have the $50/month Global Plus plan add-on. This is what made me rage-cancel my T-Mo service. :)

Sorry to hear, I’ve never had that issue with T-Mobile

To be clear, T-Mo is great, and has been traditionally the best for international travelers. It is just their fraud algorithms are trash for people who don't use much data domestically.

As a best practice I always run up the domestic data use after an international trip.

I remember reading that you'll get the note if over a period of 2 or 3 billing cycles your international data use is higher than domestic.

I agree with your synopsis, it’s typically not after one billing cycle ( I haven’t heard of that ) it has to be habitual

I've not really worried about it and haven't ever been contacted. I've traveled internationally since the benefit was introduced 8 years ago. At first, I was a bit apprehensive since when this came to be in November 2013 it almost seemed too good to be true.

It doesn't have to be "higher" just high ratio. I switched to T-mobile just after black Friday promotion in 2018. After X'mas 2018, we went on a trip to Europe for 2 weeks. I don't remember how much data we used but it can't more than what we used in the US in most of December and January. All the phones got the threatening text messages about abusing data thing. That's the only time we got it though. We spent 1 week in Mexico after that and did not get that message.

FWIW, I have a business plan with TMO with a few lines. :pne of the lines is used almost exclusively outside of the US. I've never gotten any sort of message about data usage.

Pre-Covid, I was overseas twice a month for work. I never used much data domestic OR overseas... always less than 5GB total per month (domestic + international). The instance I talked about may have been after several months of a higher roaming rate than domestic...which is possible. But I was PISSED as I explicitly bought a 15GB roaming bucket for an extra $50/month and still got nastygrams when my actual total data usage over the period of the year was on average <1GB/month with a high of 5GB in a single month. The month I got the nastygram I has only used 110mb overseas.
But I agree with the other poster, it seems the workaround is just artificially running up domestic data.

From what I gather from the reddit /r/T-Mobile sub is that the ratio seems to be a simple 50%. If your roaming is over 50% roaming for x number of cycles you get threatened or cut off. This makes sense in the context of their "free" roaming... but needs to be made more lenient for people who explicitly buy their international data buckets and don't get anywhere near actually using all of the data they've purchased.

Anyway, for me it is now a moot point. I since that incident went back to FI... then subsequently to AT&T. For my upcoming UK trip, I'll actually avoid US carrier data by just plain getting an Airalo eSim for my high-speed data needs.