LordHamster

Thanks. Keep in mind my experience in India was on T-Mobile with an iPhone... but it may help you if you get stuck. Be sure your International roaming is enabled in FI (manage your plan) and also on the device itself (Settings->More->Cellular)

LordHamster

Just had my first International experience since joining Fi. I traveled from the United States to the Republic of Texas.. ... after which I flew to London.

Upon turning off airplane mode in London, I was instantly greeted with full blast LTE signal and was able to use whatsapp etc right away. Later on the signal switched to H... which I speed tested at over 9mbps download and 7up. WWAAAAY better than my non-unleashed experiences on T-Mo. Even better, my iPad also works flawlessly here with the Data sim. In fact, the data on Fi is way faster than the crappy hotel wifi.

Both the Phone and the iPad allow me to manually select from a number of networks here...I've not played around too much but the networks provide either H or LTE connectivity and are very responsive.

Next week I travel to India, which has always been a major challenge on T-Mo. I'm hoping that turns out as well. Super happy with my switch to FI so far.

wco81

So f you used 5gb of roaming international data, how much would it be on your Google Fi Bill?

der_saeufer

$50, same as 5gb of data Stateside.

wco81

Hmm, so $10 a GB?

A lot of prepaid SIMs end up about that or better if you get a lot of data.

T Mobile promo in July and August for unlimited high-speed data would be ideal.

SRQ Guy

Fi is not the cheapest solution for data. The attraction to Fi is the simplicity and the automatic rebate for unused data that you may have paid for. If you have a 2GB plan and only use 1 GB (actually billed as $0.01 per 10 MB, IIRC), you get a $10 credit towards your next bill. You can get unlimited talk and text with 1 GB data for $30 per month, and the data is usable almost universally worldwide. That's not a bad deal.

The only thing holding me back at this point is the fact that all three of their US network partners (Sprint, T-Mobile, and US Cellular) have atrocious coverage in the part of Florida where I live.

numericmischief

TLDR: Fi is great for travelling to European Russia (Moscow/St. Peterstburg).

I just completed a 9 day trip to russia from the united states. I signed up with Fi specifically for this trip, as I have ring plus (Spring MVNO) which costs nearly $0 per month for my usage case. I had great speeds in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and the surrounding areas of Moscow (Sergei Possad, Suzdahl, Vladamir) on a tour. My travelling companionon the tour had a local sim and got significantly lower speeds and less connectivity than I had, but it could have been LTE band Differences as he had a Samsung S7 edge. Only a couple times did I get to a situation where the sim would fail to register on one of the networks and I needed to reboot the Nexus 6p to get back to normal. Had the 6p reboot on me in the Hermitage and booted back to a no sim card error but a manual reboot fixed it. Was very handy having ~10 mbs down and 6mbs up in Russia which made my life much easier.

I did setup forwarding from my current google voice number through a VOIP provider so that others could reach me on my normal # while in Russia. To do this I purchased a DID (dial in number) and registered that number with my google voice account. I then set that dial in number to auto forward to my Fi number.

I look forward to getting an LTE equipped chromebook (hopefully which also charges via USB-C to save on power adapters and cabling ) to use with the data sim card. The ability to have no extra monthly cost data sim cards is a killer feature while on the road to have redundant/backup devices w/o additional cost. Full speed international roaming is a killer feature which Google does not promote enough!

wco81

I'm already on T-Mobile so as long as Google Fi supports Wifi calling, it would be fine for me.

But while high-speed roaming overseas sounds great, it doesn't sound like it would be much cheaper if you wanted a good amount of data over an extended stay than getting a local SIM.

If I'm traveling to several countries on a trip and staying only a couple of days, I usually make do with the T-Mobile roaming. But if it's a week or more, buying a local SIM is often worth it because hotel wifi is poor now, either slow to begin with or once everyone else starts using it, it is unusable, usually in the mornings and evenings.

LordHamster

5GB would cost $50. The cost is the same $10/Gig no matter where I am... domestic or international. What makes this better than T-Mo IMO is that it is unthrottled. So I'm getting Very fast very usable internet for that price.


. That said, I've always been a big fan of using wifi whenever possible... it is very rare for me to go over 1.3GB of Mobile data use in a given month. Just to be safe, I can set a cap in my phone for 10GB so I don't end up with a massive bill by accident due to some rogue app.

LordHamster

True... but I can't be bothered looking for local sims wherever I go. If T-mo made their "summer unleashed" promo global and permanent, I'd switch back.. till then I think FI is my best bet.

Yoshi212

I leave in two weeks for Qatar, South Africa, UK & Barbados over the next 10 weeks and got a Project fi sim & Nexus 5X for my trip. My US phone is with ATT & their international data packages just suck and the T-mobile plans are becoming more of a pain. I've been testing the service here in the US and the only glitch is some GPS lag which I manually correct for Uber/Lyft. (sidenote: getting those Uber & Lyft promos again has been great) Spending $30-50/month instead of having to buy 3-4 local sims is very convenient and looking forward to.

Having one number makes it a lot easier for work, family & friends.

LordHamster

Pro-Tip... if you install Hangouts on your other devices (PC, iPad, Other phones) you'll be able to make and answer calls from those devices as well (via hangouts dialer) as well as send texts call from your FI #. Super convenient IMO.

Second Pro-Tip. you can get one of their free data sims and put it in a secondary device as well. Works brilliantly when roaming.

thesun

I've been using Google Fi internationally for about 3 months continuously now. While I generally can get cheaper Internet either via a local SIM or a local MiFi type device, there's something to be said for the convenience of not having to bother with that stuff. One thing I also really love is the integration with Google Hangouts - I can get phone calls and text messages on any device (including laptop). That also means I can use the number when I have another SIM in my phone.

I use it with my Samsung phone, I got a Nexus 5X with Fi so I could activate the service with (if I recall correctly) a nice $150 discount on the phone. I know at the time the "internet" was not sure if you could activate a 2nd SIM using a phone that was already used to activate another account.

The only issue I've had is the same issue I had previously with T-Mobile's international roaming - sometimes the phone jumps onto a network where it refuses to get data service. It tends to stick to that network. When that happens, the only way to get data again is to go out of coverage (which might not happen anytime soon if the new network is strong where you are) so the phone picks up a new network or you manually pick a service provider. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if its Android or if its a Samsung thing but often it takes forever to even just enumerate the networks and then to actually have the phone register on one can take forever and multiple tries. Its extremely annoying if it happens right when you're about to look up directions for some place you're trying to get to quickly.

The billing of Internet data and phone charges is also detailed so it also makes expense reporting easier if you're in a situation where that matters.

wco81

Fortunately I usually travel with other unlocked devices besides my T-Mobile phone.

I'm going to Australia in November and Telstra, the number one carrier, gives you 3 GB for 30 AUD, which is about $22-23.

But on top of that, many supermarkets often have sales so you can get that 30 AUD bundle for half price.

Don't think you'd have found deals like that just a few years ago. Could be a sign that mobile data is becoming commoditized.

eleventy

I've got an iPhone 6 and I'm going to Hamburg and London next month. Do I have to switch networks manually (at least between T-Mobile and 3)? Or will it "just work?"

I compared the LTE band support for my iPhone (A1549) with a list of LTE bands in use by various European carriers and it matches up for T-mobile and 3.