I've found the same to be true as well, but at 128 kbps I've not have had much success with Google Voice. The other limitation with T-Mobile DIGITS is that short codes are blocked.

I have an older phone that doesn't support eSIM, so I do a SIM swap with a local SIM after I land or use Skyroam. I use the free international data to bridge any gaps in between.

I have the 256kbps Free Roaming service on all my lines. I find it a great place to start when arriving at a new roaming location. It seems to be more than twice as fast as the basic 128k, and I wonder if part of the bandwidth is used for "Housekeeping" and unavailable for data service?

I travel with an iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPad Mini 5, and iPad Pro 11", all of which are esim capable. Typiclally an esim service like Airalo ends up on the Mini 5, which is my daily out & about device while exploring. Great for mapping and browsing, and fits in a back pocket of my pants when walking and not needed. Hotspot is permitted on Airalo, so that is used for service on my phone, and by my wife or others I may travel with. With the Airalo WiFi connection, we can all also make free calls to and from the US on our T-Mobile cell service while sightseeing. Everything but the Airalo device can be on WiFi only service, and have good connectivity and no fear of roaming charges from US calls.

Try this:

https://esim.me/

Works with any network you can generate an eSIM for

There's an existing thread for this product. I haven't purchased it myself since I was waiting for a few data points. The customer service team appears fairly responsive, but the product isn't seamless. There are some caveats such that I'll likely continue to use Skyroam until I replace my current phone with a dual eSIM capable one.

T-Mobile recently improved their roaming with Magenta and Magenta Max. We upped our Magenta plans to Max for one month. The high-speed data did work for 5GB then it dropped down to 256K. I could not get more than LTE/4G in Italy even though I have an iPhone 13 Pro. It did show 5G when we connected in Germany though but by that time I was down to 256K.

Roaming was okay. I seemed to have more problems than my family using iPhone 11 keeping a regular connection with my newer iPhone in Italy. I would often show no service when they had it and I'd have to go to airplane mode and try to get connected again.

I was curious how 256K was and it was definitely useable if you are using Google maps, data message applications like iMessage for text messages, general surfing, and data voice calls. It was very slow at sending photos in iMessage so if you are planning to send photos at 256K be very judicious or you'll lock up iMessage waiting for it to be sent. It also did not like Apple Music. It seemed to be okay with YouTube using low video like 240.

I am kind of torn about 256K - works great if everything is going as planned, but when you need data fast in case something unexpected comes up, it probably will be painfully slow. We had some unexpected transportation snafus on our trip and am glad that one of my family member's phone had a local SIM in it. It's great that is in included but there are some potential negatives depending on situation.

After the 5Gb ran out, I would probably just buy the $35 5Gb or the $50 15Gb data pass instead of rolling with 256K speed!

Thanks for the report. I'm still on a legacy Simple Choice plan for some promotional add ons that I would lose if I changed my plan. It's still more cost effective for me to remain on this plan even at the expense of high speed data overseas or included calling in the US and Canada. If I need high speed data I buy a package, use a 3rd party hotspot, or get a local SIM card.

I'll chime in and say that 256k is fine for just about everything. I have offline maps :pn my phone and that makes route planning happen pretty darned fast.

On an iPhone, I have a hard time really getting use out of Google Maps cached maps. I find that I have to go into airplane mode to get the cached map to render. I wish it would just come up while trying to communicate with home base, but I get zilch if I have no or slow cell, until I flip into airplane mode. Then it'll render fine. And, typically, I'll forget to turn off airplane mode.

I totally agree with you, if I ever have something important there’s always an WiFi in a cafe nearby. I also have off-line translation in the languages of my choice. Never did the off-line maps because it’s always work flawlessly at the lower speeds I have an iPhone XR

Would generally agree until there is no WiFi nearby. Two instances on recent trip. Delayed TrenItalia train (delays seem the norm from what I experienced) where there was no wifi on the train and I had to look for alternate trains to take. Fortunately, the train we were connecting to was delayed and a bunch of the passenger made it to the second train. Trans-Atlantic flight cancelled at MXP and had to look United app to see what alternates were possible while also calling United customer service to protect us/get seat assignments on alternatives. Of course the MXP airport wasn't working for any of us.

I think next time, I'd either buy the 15GB $50 pass (like I have in the past) or give the new e-sim roaming vendors a try where you just sign up and they send you a QR code to set up the iPhone with a 2nd SIM for data.

I hear you, but when I was in Rome and Naples it worked flawlessly for me. I understand there’s going to be an issue that’s an outlier. I’ve used T-Mobile on extensive international travel and never bought a program nor a pass.

I generally look at high-speed international data plans as a form of insurance. You probably won't need it, and by and large, 256kbps is likely fine for most cases.

But then there are the cases where ... when you need it, you really need it.

I'm pretty good at navigating public transit and such, but I've had my fare share of "stuck in a train station in a foreign country where nobody speaks English fluently and I need to catch my plane" and being able to Google Translate or search for help online beyond what Google Maps offers ... it can be particularly valuable in a pinch, and honestly, it's something where paying an extra $10-15 to solve a problem can be totally worth it in exchange for avoiding a whole ton of stress.

I appreciate your position and thoughts. As an aside, Google translate has offline downloadable language translations in the App

I haven’t tried it yet but ONE Plus International is supposed to have double the standard snail speed (I’m still in my 5GB high speed). If it is indeed 512 then it should be serviceable for basic stuff.

Local SIMs are the best bet but this is great for transits and short visits where getting a local SIM is either a pain or just doesn’t make sense. I use it as my dual SIM secondary line so occasionally if I’m in a dead spot on the primary I can toggle and get data where I’m at. It’s generally a great thing TMO offers that the other big carriers don’t. If they could just get rid of the 50% rule it would be hands down fantastic.