If you fly into the US (use the phone will there) within a 3 mo period, you may not get suspended. It really depends how much you use in the US vs outside. If your primary usage is abroad, you will likely be suspended.

To keep my usage low abroad, I use Mobimatter eSIMs there primarily with very limited data usage via Fi.

It is, but surprisingly, I haven't been suspended yet. I've been traveling all over the world since I got Magenta. Even though primary usage is abroad, I've only got one warning via SMS. Overall usage is about 10GB/month. I use other carriers when I need more data. I'm currently in Sydney, Australia and I'm surprised that 256kbps is usable, but barely.

Well, you can explain all you want about your situation (e.g., a previous post mentioned about how they did not use much data at all during the international trip, but were cut off anyway), but their support folks will rattle out just the if-this-then-that script. They will merely paste the policy, without even bothering to note that the data usage was not unreasonable at all.

Among my many frustrations when I tested during their trial period, this was the worst. I was not able to make calls for a day. The support person searched for whatever he did and gave me this response -- Google Fi is meant for use stateside (not their phrase), not international. You service will be restored once you return to the US.

And the best part, I never left my home during the three days since I activated service.

My son’s international access was suspended a few months ago (appropriately as he just couldn’t get manage to get a new European SIM card in the alloted/warned time period). He paused the account after moving to a new provider while abroad for the year. I’m about to move him into our plan bc way cheaper on the group plan. I know I can keep him paused on my group plan. But will his suspension affect the rest of us?

Take a look at the Opera Mini web browser. It does an amazing job of working on low bandwidth connections.

PSA, Google FI now has 5G working on iPhones. All it takes is to be on the latest beta version and FI works great with 5G.

Just switched back to FI today and confirm the following work great:

• 5G (getting full speed priority data on T-Mobile)
• Wifi Calling (works great)
• Google VPN works fine, though I don’t really need it.

Speed Test on Google FI on iPhone at local shopping center. Note it says "5G" because the generic carrier bundle Apple released with 16.4 beta doesn't include the branded icons for C-band such as 5G-UC, but it is absolutely at 5G-UC speeds


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...1ae578132a.png

So once data is turned off due to being abroad for an extended time, will they turn it back on upon getting back to the US?

What's the current state of Google Fi customer service? If T-Mobile imposes a stealth rate increase (by discontinuing the auto-pay "discount" :rolleyes:) I may be in a position to switch.

Would mainly be on the Unlimited plan, and just jump to Unlimited Plus a month at a time when I have international travel planned. I had no concern with coverage before - but never could easily reach a human at Google Fi when I needed support. Most of my problems had to do with ordering, receiving, and setting up new phones, which always was a cluster when I was with Fi before.

Except in rare instances where I needed to do something special (like port in a number after initial setup to override my current number... or move my fi from one google account to another) I've not had to interact with FI customer service. The overwhelming majority of support issues I see on the Fi Subreddit have to do with ordering phones that show up in empty boxes, trade ins not being accepted or lost, or promo deals not applying.

Bottom line:

• If you treat FI like a dumb pipe... just a voice/data provider you'll likely be fine as you'll never deal with CS.
• Don't purchase your device, do trade-ins, or hope for promos via FI. That is a cluster from what I've read.

I always just buy my phones direct from manufacturer outright and never run into these issues.

This is a concern for me as well
 

My husband and I are going to be in Japan for about 6 weeks and then fly to France for a month and are trying to decide between Google-Fi and T-Mobile. When we've traveled in Europe we've only bought local SIMS but that meant we had to change our phone number and doing any banking was a problem. Japan is a totally different case since SIMS are expensive and we'll be traveling around a lot in very rural locations. We have iPhones, an original SE and a brand new SE. We don't use a lot of data, both at home and especially when abroad, as long as we have access to wi-fi. I've spoken to the Google-Fi rep who told me that as long as we're abroad for less than 90 days, we're OK and the T-Mobile rep who assured me that as long as our data use is low, we won't be terminated. But my experience is that reps will say what is on the script and not what actually happens. Any experiences with either of these carriers would be helpful especially for iphone users. Thanks!

My son’s international service was suspended at 90 days. He got a warning email at 60 days that he had 30 days left.

Thanks, that's good to know. At least he got a warning and was allowed the full 90 days. We'll be abroad for 86 days so should be OK.

Yes. He had gotten a local SIM card in Europe but had had so many issues with it that he was still occasionally using the Google Fi service. He paused the Fi account and then used in US for a couple of weeks during a visit. Fi says his international service is still suspended (although he isn’t trying to use it, paused right now as he is still living in Europe). Not really sure when they will lift the ban. I mention this for two reasons. First, don’t risk getting suspended bc may be a PITA to get it reinstated. And second, does anyone know the process for reinstatement? I assume he must use Fi in US for a while first. I am not sure if we can even see that it is still suspended on his account. I only know bc chatted with Fi.

Also, FWIW, I also looked into T Mobile for him before he left and they seem to have the same terms re using service primarily in US. Not sure what their cut off is though. I don’t think I’d trust the rep on “if low usage you’re fine”.

TMO is the same thing. I think the worse thing is that your service will be terminated. I would hate to lose my number.