Interesting. I too dropped Fi when I stopped traveling internationally due to covid. Figured I'd pick it back up as soon as travel starts up again.

Seems Fi's pricing is no longer competitive. I now have AT&T prepaid for $30 p/mo. Unlimited everything, 5GB of high speed data. That'd be $50 p/mo with Fi. For $50, you can get unlimited high speed with auto pay on AT&T Prepaid. Fi is going to have to step up competitiveness on domestic rates.

That's not really new, though... various T-Mobile MVNOs (particularly Mint) have been significantly cheaper for years, and even Verizon's prepaid has been cheaper for a while unless you're a really light data user. 5GB of data with Fi would cost $70/mo--don't forget the $20/mo base charge.

As cheap as Mint et al have gotten, even really light data users get a bad deal on Fi, leaving the international roaming and data SIMs as the only selling points. But for people that travel to the typical business and tourist spots, cheap eSIMs mean that Fi is a crap deal even in those places and only slightly more convenient.

In 2014 there was something to be said for the convenience of not having to go SIM shopping in a country where you might not speak the language. In 2021, you can just buy your eSIM online.

Red Pocket offers better deals with the ability to pick from AT&T, Verizon or T Mobile. Their EBay store has specials not offered on their website. Lots of good options for MVNO service.

The Verizon QCI for Visible is not the best for congested markets where I live.

hmm, if you have a dual SIM iPhone it’s now better to leave your main number as a physical SIM and buy a data eSIM or a regular eSIM (phone number and data) when you land abroad? Previously, i was told it’s better to free up the physical SIM slot by moving your main number to eSIM, that way you can purchase a physical SIM abroad or purchase eSIMs abroad as the iPhone can handle multiple eSIMs although i don’t know the limit.

This is the part I am trying to understand - what is the current value proposition of the Fi service? I know multiple people that dropped it as being way out of touch with pricing, now they can order an e-sim online and be up and running in another country before they even step off their arriving flight.

You can pause Fi service 3 months at a time, so the only outlay for me was buying a Pixel phone for Fi service. I heard too many stories of time wasted and frustration in getting a recently bought SIM to work. But sounds like those issues are now in the past.

Good call on Red Pocket, but sad that Visible is deprioritized despite being owned by Verizon. When I was last using Verizon prepaid, wherever my phone was slow, so was my work phone on a postpaid Verizon account. That was not the case when I was using an MVNO on Verizon's network, though.

AFAIK the limit is 10 eSIMs installed, but whatever the limit is, you can only have one eSIM active at a time, so it depends on whether you think you're more likely to use an eSIM or a real SIM when travelling. But do you really need access to your home SIM at all when travelling somewhere it doesn't roam (or only roams at ridiculous rates)?

Other than the ability to use data SIMs for 'free' (only paying for data used) and roaming coverage in out-of-the-way places for which you can't easily buy eSIMs, I don't think there's any reason to use Fi at all. Those use cases are real, but I suspect they're a tiny, tiny minority of potential Fi users. If they cut the base prices in half (i.e. to $10/mo + $5/gb), my answer would change.

I'm a long term FI user but have also left the service this year since I've not been traveling. To me the biggest value-prop was the fact that I was always either working from home or traveling overseas. So domestic I used very little data, and overseas I needed no-hassle data from the moment I arrived. FI remained the best option for me till this year with the whole covid situation.


Visible (which I've been playing with domestically) is the same priority as other verizon pre-paid... aka they ALL suck. Visible is a little suckier in that they have higher latency due to the way their proxies are configured.

As for the eSim thing. For iPhone users and Android users it makes perfect sense. Although it takes a bit of tech savvy to install the esim with the QR code, then set it to handle "Data", enable data roaming, and make sure everything is configured correctly. I don't mind, but I would not inflict that on my parents or wife when they are traveling alone. Furthermore, US-based Samsung phones don't even have the eSim enabled, which REALLY sucks for those users.

Honestly for me, I'll be playing with eSim as an alternative to FI if I ever get to travel again, but for the wife and parents, I've got them on T-Mobile Magenta Plus and I'll just add the 15GB pass before they go overseas. Less headaches and it requires them Zero knowledge of any settings.


Back to FI. When travel resumes, I'll definitely consider putting FI on eSim then pausing it when I'm not traveling. I still see FI as a good value/convenience factor for frequent travelers. While it is $10/GB, their country coverage and the convenience of not having to worry about sims expiring and data top-ups is worth it to me. Dual-sim and e-Sim has definitely been a game-changer for me though. I love having both T-Mobile and Verizon or AT&T on one device when domestic.

Whats so expensive about google fi, was just looking at their pricing and its $50 each for unlimited data for 3 anywhere in the world. Thats what i practically pay for verizon right now without being able to use it internationally.

Well if you take a 1 month trip overseas and have an Android phone, I guess that's okay.

But for a 2 week trip, maybe not so good.

Do they include 5G?

I had fi but have traded it for T-Mobile. With all the free line promos they had, my bill has gone down over 50 bucks. While T-Mobile has unlimited free slow data, you can pay 50 bucks for a month’s worth of high speed data. the rest of the months of the year, I save money. I used an iPhone and Fi had no WI-FI calling. I am VERY happy with T-Mobile, but I have not traveled to see if it “just works” like fi did, but many here have reported that it is the case and in theory, works more places then fi does anyways. I am also told, often it is not that slow( the free data)

That's because Verizon is the most expansive carrier in the US. Fi is cheaper than Verizon but it is still above just about any other US carriers if you use more than 1 GB of data per month. Now if you use less than 1GB per month and you only have a single line, it is probably one of the cheapest.

Who can use less than 1 gb per month lol

I just checked all the prices for 4 lines each

Google fi is $45 per line for unlimited data domestic and abroad. No limit on speed till after 22gb from what i can tell.

Tmobile is $43 per line for 2g data internationally at 256 kbps

Verizon is $45 per line. No international data. You can buy internatiomal data for $10 per day or $130 per month for 2gb. Daily one gives .5 gb

Att is $40 per line. No international data. They have a daily and monthly pass. $70 for 2 gb and $140 for 6gb


Honestly google fi sounds like a steal if you are consistently abroad.

Abroad yes. But domestic, absolutely uncompetitive. I have AT&T Prepaid (for domestic) at $30 per month for 5 GB. That'd be $70 per month for Google Fi (domestic). Absolutely makes no sense to use FI for anything other than a backup phone when traveling abroad. Since they only allow 3 month pauses... you're really paying for them for months you don't use them. And they won't allow you to use them as a backup phone so... as you can see that isn't an option... Google Fi doesn't allow you to stay "consistently abroad". I understand they will terminate you if you aren't consistently using your service in the USA. Users have reported this: "“In 30 days, we’ll need to suspend your international roaming data capabilities unless you start using Fi in the US again. Fi’s terms of service require you to use our service primarily from a US address, but it looks like you’ve been using Fi abroad for over X months.”

So you must use Google Fi as primary at $70 p/mo. That's $840 per year.
AT&T Prepaid for the same 5GB is $360 p year. That means you could travel half the year (6 mos) using AT&Ts 2GB $70 p/mo passport service and still be $50 less than Google Fi. Of course this assumes one uses 5 GB.

I use ~2-2.5 GB monthly. So that'd be ~$45 p/mo with Google Fi ($540 p/yr). That'd only leave 2.5 months of AT&Ts passport for the wash. So Fi could make sense, but really it all depends on how much you travel abroad times the amount of GBs you use monthly.

You are looking at their normal plan. For example, with T-Mobile, I paid $200 for 7 lines on their Plus plan. They have promotions often to switch and join. Also with T-Mobile, $200 is $200, no tax/fee and get free Netflix. I switched my Fi line to my join my already existed T-Mobile family plan because they just offered "free line on us". So in my case, I turned my $30 Fi line (yes I used under 1GB per month) to $0 per month.