As long as the 2G is fast enough to support iMessage, I think I'll be happy :)

(Upcoming destinations: France, Egypt, Thailand)

Now, wondering if I should pay to unlock early...if something goes awry with data/T-Mobile in Bordeaux, I'm going to want to grab a local SIM ASAP.

I've used this in a dozen or so countries and it has been great. In fact it was a big reason why I canceled Sprint and moved my phone lines over to T-Mobile (previously just had a $20/mo T-Mobile hotspot for international travel). Speeds are plenty fast enough to do just about anything except for streaming audio/video (anyone who can't build a Web site that works OK over 128kbps data is doing it wrong), but responsiveness can sometimes be a problem.

Haven't tried/needed to purchase a data pack yet.

Hopefully they continue to expand the list of countries covered. I've already been to some without it.

T Mobile Global data coverage
 

I had been on Tmobile for years and years before (almost a decade) but I finally switched out to att eventually because Tmobile did not have the iPhone. Tmobile network is good where I am so there's no issue there. I eventually switched out to sprint because we got a really good corporate rate family plan.

But I travel quite a bit and while I have previously bought local SIM cards and have 2 international SIM cards, I did not want to keep changing sims. Tmobile international plan plus that it is a GSM phone really tide me over. Earlier in the month I decided to just buy my iPhone outright while keeping the rest of my family on sprint (unlimited data)

I traveled to a couple of countries this month and it has been the best thing ever! (speed is good for basic data). In fact I am typing this from abroad. My statement recently closed and it is to nice to see charges of $.20 per minute instead of worrying over crazy bills. obviously I am not the biggest fan of buying the phone outright but a lot of carriers can't really beat tmobile right now.

I have gotten 3g access in Asia. I have not seen 4g access anywhere for international roaming.

But that's exactly what subsidized phones end up being -- they are not free. And if you don't replace your device when the contract runs out you're really paying m:eek:re because your bill doesn't then go down.

I used T-Mo Netherlands 10/16-10/19 in Amsterdam. Google maps was a little slow but worked fine once loaded up. I got the occasional hiccup on websites two or three time and had to reload. Overall I was quite pleased.

I did an Ookla Speedtest out at Schipol. Ping: 178 Download: 0.12 Mbps Upload: 0.12 Mbps. I spaced out on doing any speedtests in Central AMS.

T Mobile worked great this month in Portugal, Austria, Hungary and Poland but they don't have service in Switzerland.

Those space cakes will do that to you. Gotta be careful. :D

Seriously though, it was so good to come back from Europe and just see a couple .20 phone calls.

That's not true, they do have service in Switzerland. It's on the list and I've used it in Geneva.

lol!

Good to hear the positive feedback (almost) across the board.

I'm fine with 2G/3G as long as I can - more or less - keep up with family back home via iMessage and social media.

I have no scientific data to back it up, but I seemed to get faster then 2G when I was on a foreign T-Mobile network then with a non T-Mobile company. I'm not sure if this is true but it seemed like it.

Just add to the list from my experience this summer. Seoul, Korea and Jakarta, Indonesia both worked. Macau, though showed connected but did not work. It didn't prompt me to anything either.

I see on TMobile's coverage page it is supposed to work but I couldn't get a signal on the train from Zurich to Innsbruck while in Switzerland.

This is purely inteconnect may burst to 144Kbps quicker; I noticed this to on T-Mobile Germany; didn't exceed 144Kbps on longer testing but short bursts where going to 500Kbps+ - but rarely lasted more than a 1-2 secs

Which carrier; you may need to manually choose a carrier if Automatic is trying to authenticate or failing to authenticate a carrier it first attempts

Did you try choosing a carrier manually?

No, I didn't think to try that. it wasn't that big a deal and it wasn't necessary anyplace else.