Verizon Travelpass - $5/day or $10/day -use existing data/voice/plan in 140 countries
 

http://www.verizonwireless.com/landi...tional-travel/

http://arstechnica.com/business/2015...ing-data-plan/

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...300177458.html

Guess it's better than T-mobile for short trips (full speed), but not for longer trips. competition is good for us consumers...

$5/day for Mexico/canada (t-mobile offers full highspeed data/voice/text in Mexico/Canada on their latest plans)

$10/day for other 140 countries (T-mobile offers free 2G data in some overlapping countries, paid high-speed passes at rates below)
Single-day pass: $15 for 100MB
7 day-pass: $25 for 200MB
14-day pass: $50 for 500MB

Competition is indeed good for us average Gfunks! :)

Why the differential btw Canada/Mexico and the other 65 countries? :td::td:

Vz's offer isn't very appealing, POV.

It's a heck of alot better than their old packages, that's for sure. I agree that for some trips it is a fair value, others not so much.

I haven't been able to find any info on their site or any of the announcements - it says your domestic minutes follow you - so does that mean foreign calling back to US is included, but foreign calling locally in the country you pay LD charges? I need to see some more details before I decide if I am going to use this or a local SIM in the future.

For us ATTers, hopefully they will follow suit.....or one up VZ

does it work on monthly prepaid plans, with no overages, paying in cash?

according to a rep, it covers calls back to USA and calls within the foreign country you are in. Doesn't cover calls to other foreign countries

I guess we'll get more details

I like the look of this plan. $10/day addresses my need for data on short business trips. I would definitely reconsider the hassle of buying a (roughly $30) SIM for, say, a 4-5 day international trip. If I was overseas for a week or more, I'd probably still skip this and get a SIM card.

And for Canada and Mexico, it's really nice; the SIM break even point would something like two weeks!

Thanks. I've been meaning to call in. I also need to figure out if my 19% employee discount applies to this. If it does, that's $8.10 a day.
If it covers both calls back to the USA, texts to/from the USA, and local calls & texts in the country I am in, then that's great.

I spent 5 days in Aruba recently and used their $25/100mb package since I didn't plan to stay on the phone much. I didn't want to deal with a local SIM for a short trip with little usage. This would have been $$40.50 assuming I get my discount, with nearly unlimited usage. That's not bad.

Now, on my upcoming trip to Ireland, I'll be there 12 days. Since Three swallowed up o2, I decided this was a good time to swap over to Meteor anyway. Their unlimited plan is EUR30 (currently about $32). The Verizon deal (assuming again I get my discount) would be $97.20. I have a 5 hour layover in LHR, and that would have required either not using my phone there, or buying the $25 VzW plan in addition to the Meteor SIM, so now I'm at about $55.

I think I'll stick with local SIMs on longer trips, but this would be a great option for shorter trips, trips with multiple countries where buying SIMs isnt practical, or those that need to keep their same number and don't want to deal with Google Voice/etc.

Ok, so I just called. First, employer discounts do NOT apply to this, so the price is $10 no matter what.

Second, the rep confirmed that calls and texts are included if they are FROM an approved country to the USA, or from that country within that country. If you are in 1 country and call another, you pay as you would from the USA (LD charges).

Therefore, the only risk for "overage" is if you exceed your data plan, or you call/text from USA to Foreign, or Foreign 1 to Foreign 2.

You need to enable it on your account, but it can be done at any time - you aren't billed unless you use it. No need to add and remove it as with the old plans.

In my case above, this will fill the gap nicely while I'm in LHR and until I get to the Meteor store to get the new SIM. Then I'll switch over for the rest of the trip.. so $32 + $10 isnt that bad for 2 weeks of virtually unlimited usage.

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Wonder how this overlays w grandfathered global data plans? I can't give up global data for the obscure countries it works in but would love this for Canada...

I'd hold onto that forever. Worst thing I ever did was let that go, since I primarily use data, and minimal voice and text.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover after a recent trip to Canada that the cost is pro-rated. I turned the Canada/Mexico plan on only for the days I was in Canada and that was all I was billed for.

They pro-rated me the first time I used it, but then the second time I called about the monthly plan, they said they no longer pro-rate it and I would be charged the full month no matter how long I used it. 100MB of data is ridiculous anyway - I had to install app data limiters and make sure to monitor my phone all the time to not exceed the data.

From the discussion so far, this is still the best deal in these scenarios:

1. Travel internationally for a few days. How many days depends on your preference. There is cost to finding, buying, activating a local SIM card. If the cost of a local SIM and the value of your time is greater than the cost of this $2/day or $10/day over your trip, then this is the best deal.

2. Travel to multiple countries in a trip. The more countries you need to visit, the better this becomes.

3. Keeping your current # and plan active all the time during travel. This is important for those of us who need to still receive business calls, or any other must-answer calls. It can matter for those using sites or apps that require 2-factor authentication to your non-GV cell phone #. BTW - Google Voice #s won't ring your phone when you are on a foreign SIM, so you're not going to receive calls. Making calls would be OK with GVoice.

This seems to always be the best deal if #1 is the only issue. However, depending on how much #2 and #3 matter to you, this can be the best deal for more cases.

If you're already a T-Mobile subscriber, then their free 2g (and maybe 3g?) service may be sufficient for you. If you're not a TMo subscriber, it's not worth switching carriers for an occasional international trip.

btw - I also noticed that some countries (someone said Colombia) don't allow foreigners to buy local SIM cards on a local carrier. Their laws/regulations require you to be a resident and show local income. That would eliminate the local SIM option.

The only issue with it prorating is that it does so for the data as well. To get the full 100mb it had to be active for the entire billing cycle.

We got the 100 MB plan for my wife's phone for $5 (it was on special) and the 1 GB plan for mine. We were in Canada for two weeks. I turned off synching on both devices, set appropriate warnings, and asked Mrs. ajGoes to use her phone prudently but not to worry about the limit.

In the event, Mrs. ajGoes just nudged over her first 100 MB. The extra 100 MB cost $10. My cost was $12, hers was $17. This was for 8/28 through 9/11, so if they really quit pro-rating these plans, they did it quite recently.

Has anyone used travelpass that can report back on their experience? I've been using local SIMs and a Google Fi line for all my travel this year, but will considering using my work (Verizon) line for a short trip to Norway next month if the data coverage and speed is equivalent to a local SIM network...

I used it for 24 hours last month until I could get to a local store to get a SIM. Started at LHR that morning and then used it in Ireland for the remainder of the day. Absolutely no issues, and worked exactly as expected, even had LTE service.

I'll continue using this on shorter trips, but will probably continue on local SIMs for trips over 7 days unless there are special circumstances that make the VzW deal better.

My dad used it for a week in Trinidad / Tobago with no problems. As the account owner (I'm in the U.S.), I got this daily text:

Interestingly, these texts arrived at different intervals (minutes not shown):

12/9 @ 6pm
12/11 @ 2am
12/12 @ 2am
12/13 @ 2am
same time for the next few days.

There's zero chance he was restarting his usage at precisely the same time each day, but the phone may have been auto-checking stuff (updates, email, etc.).

I haven't seen the associated bill yet, but I'm assuming that there's no $10 charge for the non-use day (12/10).

Do you need to toggle it on and off or can you leave it on all the time and control through control of your roaming on/off switch on your device? I live ten miles from the Canadian border and am a frequent crosser. It seems like a royal pain to toggle this on/off when I run across for a meeting.

My understanding from Verizon is that you can leave it on.

Their website says that it's only active on days you use it.

travelpass is opt-in... so you have to explicitly enable it

once it's enabled..... if your cellphone latches to the foreign tower, you'll get charged for that day (don't think Verizon does any confirmation via text once you opt-in to travelpass)


so if you live near the border, don't enable it until you actually want it. shouldn't be hard, it's a setting on the webpage/app

Or, if you live near the border just turn off roaming on your phone. That way you can leave the feature on your account and control your use of it directly via your phone.

you can disable data roaming on almost all phones

not all phones allow you to disable voice/text roaming

REally? I find that shocking.

I got a welcome text in the UK and Ireland last month when I was there.

I enabled travelpass the day it came out, and have only been billed for the times I actually used it.

I meant when you reach the foreign network, Verizon will block your connection and send you a text: "Do you want to enable TravelPass? Reply YES for yes" etc

yeah... most phone manuals just tell you to go on airplane mode

I wonder how it will work with a tablet. Most tablets can not accompany text messaging.

So let's say I travel from USA to the UK and take my Verizon iPhone with the TravelPass enabled.

If I make a call it will be counted as part of my unlimited talk time on my plan back home with Verizon USA. How when someone in the UK places a call to my phone? They will presumably dial my USA mobile number.

Wouldn't they have to pay as though they were making an international long distance call?

For me I think that's going to be a reason to stick with my the EE sim card that I normally put in my phone when I'm in the UK. I like being able to give my number to everyone I know in the UK and let them call me if/when they like without having to pay for an expensive toll call.

P.S. I will say that I'll enable TravelPass before leaving home anyway. Sure would be nice to have an affordable backup plan if for some reason my UK SIM doesn't work.

Does anyone know how well Canada/Mexico work in more rural areas? Specifically around the Yucatan.

since Verizon is CDMA , how does it work since most countries are GSM ?

The newer iPhone models have both GSM and CDMA radios in them. My iPhone works on Verizon via CDMA normally in the U.S. But can work on any GSM network overseas, given the appropriate SIM.

Verizon has roaming agreements with various (GSM based) networks in other countries. There is no "Verizon UK" for instance.

Just about all of Verizon's 4G LTE phones are world phones devices that work on both CDMA and GSM networks.

How does Verizon define use? Does it have to be outgoing or would incoming count? For example, if I received a txt while overseas, will I be charged the $10? Or if I receive a call, but do not pick up, is this a trigger to be charged?

From the TravelPass FAQs:

OK , so older "dumb" flip phones will not work , it needs to have GSM along with Verizons CDMA bands

I hope AT&T will follow. This is so much better than the Passport package offered by AT&T.

Much to my surprise, Verizon now offers two "basic" phones with GSM capability, the Kyocera DuraXV Plus and the LG Terra™. Both operate on the following frequencies: GSM: B5/B8/B3/B2 (850/900/1800/1900MHz); CDMA: (800/1900MHz).

However, based upon my reading of the plan description, I'm not sure whether users of these phones are eligible to sign up for TravelPass - "*4G LTE World Device req'd. Must be on qualifying plan." However, that language may predate the release of the GSM capable flip phones. I recommend that you call Verizon Global Support (908-559-4899) and ask.