get a google voice number when your in the usa if you need a free number for things. Also pretty sure its free to call the usa when abroad and you have internet.

As long as GV is set to “Prefer WiFi and mobile data”, I have never been charged for calls back to the US.

Same workaround for both: Google Voice, and set the app to prefer calling over wifi and mobile data. Use Fi as an occasional provider of mobile data only and use GV for your American calling/texting needs so it will continue to work when Fi is paused or if you cancel. We did this for years until dropping Fi in favor of the data eSIM du jour for travel; my primary U.S. number has been on GV for over a decade.

That certainly wasn't my experience in Spain earlier this year. Though a penny a minute seems pretty reasonable.

Calling to the U.S. and Canada is free with Google Voice. Calling local numbers while abroad is cheap. GV is a VoIP service so the rates are the same regardless of where you're sitting when you make the call. Service is blocked in some countries (or semi-blocked, e.g. GV can't call Indian numbers from within India) but they seem to make no effort to stop VPN use.

https://voice.google.com/rates

You were charged by GV to call the US from Spain?

You may want to check the app setting for prefer WiFi and mobile data. I have called the US using GV from Germany, France and the UK without any charges. No charges for receiving calls and text while in Europe.

Recently traveled from US through London to Lisbon. GoogleFi worked flawlessly and I received multiple messages even as the plane passed through countries like Scotland and Spain.

We just landed in Paris and spouse and I have working cellular data on our Unlimited plan; son does not but is on the same plan as we are. We’ve tried rebooting and toggling airplane off and on, confirmed roaming is on. Nothing seems to work.

Advice?

is roaming on in the cellular data settings as well, or in the cellular line settings down under ALLOW DATA ROAMING , on or off.

What device type are you using, ios or android?

it was “on” in the section “Cellular data options”. I didn’t see anywhere else for that. Chatted with Fi and could not get it to work. Found a website that said do airplane mode for 15 seconds and then reboot. After all the other things I did, this finally worked. I am frustrated bc another son traveling soon on his own and I don’t want him to have to deal with that. And I have no clue which thing I did made the difference! Where is the option ALLOW DATA ROAMING?

It would help to know what device type you are using? IOS or Android?

Ack. Sorry. iPhone 11.

Ack. Sorry. iPhone 11.

Settings -> Cellular -> SIMs -> Google Fi (or "T-Mobile" if using the default name) -> Data Roaming (toggle switch)

You might also try restarting the device or disabling automatic network selection and choosing a carrier manually. Sometimes (international) network switching can be a little funky where it chooses a suboptimal cell provider.

Thanks. When I go to Cellular there is no SIMs option. Only sim pin or add sim. I did turn off automatic. Seems to be working now but was absolutely maddening. And no clue which step or process achieved it. Tried the stuff on here, online elsewhere, and via chat with Fi. 😩