List of countries can be found in this document:

http://s.tmocache.com/Company/pdf/IT...by_country.pdf

Would an unlocked mifi not work better for you? If you are just hitting UK and NL, I would just pick up a local sim in UK and another in NL. Then share prepaid data on the mifi. Since you'll be relatively stationary (not country hopping over very short durations) this should be fairly manageable. You can them keep your US sim in your phone and use a data based messaging platform to text (iMessage, whatsapp others)

Not to mention you'd likely get LTE speeds and data bundles on the order of GBs not MBs for a very low monthly rate

I just got back from a multinational trip: Canada, German, Japan. The coverage was pretty reliable, albeit slow. I'd assume it was around Edge speeds and left something to be desired. It's good enough to check email and map directions. Although, I'd be sure to have the map downloaded before hand. The GPS functionality came in very handy.

With every country visit, T-mobile would send me a text welcoming me and telling me to buy up to Global Data plan. You don't need to and data worked fine. Just be sure to enable data roaming in your phone settings.

I went to a T Mobile today and they said that data speed is 2G. You mentioned how slow it was. Was it really that bad?

I'm not who you directed the question to, but I'll weigh in with my experiences. It is 2G, but it's plenty fast enough to email, check FB and FT. as well as use the various airline/ hotel apps to make reservations or check in. I was able to stream music (not Pandora, but that's Pandoras licensing issues rather than the speed), but not quite fast enough for video.

Hi aroundtheworld,
1. How the speed for navigation? Will the 2G data speed be enough for iPhone generic map navigation or google maps?
2. Did you try VOIP apps like Vonage Extensions? If you did how was the voice quality?

Thanks

I used google maps for navigation without probs, seems a bit slower than 4g/ lte, but certainly useable.

I did not use any VOIP apps. I actually told my office to communicate via text/email just so I could try out the global data coverage. I use an android phone and the wifi calling over the hotel wifi worked just like it always has.

Thanks for the clarification.

I will be renting a car to drive in Germany and in the Swiss and French alps.
My only need is a navigation device while driving and very minimal data.

T-mobile seems to offer a data only (NO VOICE) plan for $20. With a DATA ONLY and NO VOICE plan will the Iphone map or google map app work?

Thanks

After monitoring this thread and some other sources, I took the plunge a few days ago and switched from a basic AT&T plan to a Simple Choice plan and an iPhone 5s, our first time ever with a data plan.

After a day trip to Canada we flew to Bangkok and from there we're going to the Maldives, which is excluded from the list of cheap countries. I'm trying to figure out two puzzles and am asking for advice.

T-Mobile tells me I have already racked up $4.40 in calling costs. I called a rep to find out what caused that and she can't tell me for "reasons of privacy." I haven't used the phone all that much and I suppose it's possible I've already used 22 minutes between Canada and Bangkok but I doubt it and they haven't been posted yet. My first bill is already posted but these calls occurred after that. How soon will I be able to see the charges?

Second, when I mentioned to the rep we were next flying to the Maldives she strongly advised me not to turn the phone on, even after I told her I had been planning to use hotel Wifi. Why would that incur T-Mobile costs if it's on WiFi?

I would greatly appreciate anybody who can confirm whether she's right or wrong about that.

Thanks in advance.

Long time TMO user here. I travel with iPhone for years, most recently with 5s. Have used older 3 and 4s models extensively in Bkk and never a problem with roaming charges.

Re Canada calls, can you access your usage via internet and check call log?

In Maldives, merely have 5s on airplane mode with the wifi turned on. That way your 'phone' is off but you can still access email, internet, other apps via wifi.

If you're super paranoid, go to settings, cellular and turn off data, LTE and Roaming.

Thanks. ^ That was our understanding before the phone call. This phone rep identified herself as being located in Missouri and I don't think she's visited the Maldives. ;)

I'm not worried about the $4.40 charge as long as it's not multiplied X100. ;)

We used TMO Global Data in both Chile and Italy (mainly Sicily) and extensively for navigation. Worked fine. I recommend Waze over Google Map / Nav and recommend you load the entire route when you start so if you hit a dead spot of coverage you're cached.

My wife's N7 tablet was on data only ($20 plan dropped to $10 as it piggybacked on my voice/data plan) and hers worked fine.

Bear in mind this is NOT 2G, it's still 3G/3G-HSPA (quasi-4G) but it's throttled to 128Kb. Difference?

EDGE: latency pings: 700-1000ms
HSPA: latency pings: 80-400ms

[NOTE above ping times should be to servers in the US as when you roam you are essentially tunneling data from carrier you are roaming on back to T-Mobile. You are NOT getting an internet connection in the country you are roaming in but a tunneled connect to the internet via T-Mobile in the US. All data roaming works this way regardless of carrier - ping times are higher when roaming as all data has to roundtrip travel across longer latent links - when doing speedtest also if you can turn off gps/location then it will do IP location which will be in the US and allow a US server to be picked closest to T-Mobile's data exchange point to Internet]

Hint: If you see multiple carriers you can roam onto ; try another one. First reason; you may be seeing a carrier with a locally saturated network ; second reason; the backhaul that carrier has to roaming partner may be saturated.

On the call charges; as soon as bill is ready it will itemize. I believe it is on the cards to get the data before billing sometime later this year. Also DO note; if you receive incoming calls that you REJECT as far as the roaming carrier is concerned they diverted a call back to your voicemail and so a 1 Min charge will occur on phone "rejected calls". Suggest if you want NO incoming calls or screen calls to forward your phone to "Forward all calls" to voicemail; this then does the forward on T-Mobile's US side which means the roaming carrier never gets the interaction to bill for the forward to voicemail on rejected calls. Suggest maybe changing voicemail message to "I'm out of the country; if you need to get hold of me Text/Email me and I will call you back"

Regarding agent response on Maldives: On the turn off phone.. I call BS; turn off data roaming - LTE won't work for roaming anyway now so it will fallback to 2G or 3G. You can then use Hotel WiFi. Agent isn't well informed.

In situations like Maldives, HIGHLY suggest having phone SIM unlocked before going and use a prepay; it's isn't expensive and it's 10USD or do for 1GB of data. http://prepaid-wireless-internet-acc...ves+-+Dhiraagu Some of his links in that post arw dead; try this for data packages on top of prepaid: http://www.dhiraagu.com.mv/mobile_in...r_prepaid.aspx

HINT if you want messaging to people in the US on the cheap when using another SIM: use Whatsapp BEFORE you remove your T-Mobile SIM and setup that program, you can swap SIM's and Whatsapp still uses the existing app settings (e.g. your US number). The others who want to get hold of you need to use Whatsapp also (if they don't already) but it's data based messaging handy if on a network where you are on a prepaid sim