draver

I'm pretty sure mobile to mobile is set up that way. I don't recall ever needing to make a call from country to country. However, the EU has implemented a EU wide roaming policy that is phasing in to make carriers roaming rates equal and reasonable. Still, as far as I know and have heard, the caller still pays for the call to a European phone. But then we do that here also for landlines, and there is no upcharge for incoming cellular international calls.

tentseller

For around SE Asia I have found a region wide data SIM card at the electronics vendors on Apliu St in Sham Shui Po, HK. (MTR exit C2).
The card was Thailand base and it gives you 10G over 30days at 4G/LTE/21Mps in almost all countries. Street price was $100HK. I activated it on a phone and then popped it into my Pocket wifi. I was given verbal instructions as everything was print in Thai.

I was in Europe vacationing for 3 weeks in Jan/Feb and used a Spanish Vodaphone Europe wide SIM for 40Euro 6G over 30 days at 4G/LTE.

My phone plan in Canada and Hong Kong has provision for wifi calling so when connected to wifi any call to my Canadian number or HK number would ring on my two handsets.

javabytes

I'm not disagreeing with your first statement - but I'm extremely familiar with AT&T's site, and there literally was nothing to add for international besides the paid roaming packages. I'm also a career IT professional, with a well-founded predisposition to blame the user. Telecom giants do screw up sometimes.

lamaila

When I'm travelling in Europe I'd rather buy a pocket WiFi, it's more reliable and much cheaper. You can choose from TEP, it's worldwide, Flink, Polish WiFi is working only in Poland. Roaming is too expensive for me...

WilcoRoger

Well, my own European carrier charges 12,49€/MB (!) if using outside Europe, so that would make roughly $13.000/GB in US currency... so you're getting a good deal. Sure, there are built in ceilings in the plan, but still robbery in broad daylight.

My solution is just to buy a local SIM card whenever I land. Actually last week in Honkers I loaded up with different Asian data SIMs for my upcoming travels: HK+mainland CN, SG+MY, JP, etc - mainly unlimited data for 7-10 days, usually 4G for a certain amount of data and 3G after that. About $20 each.

Boogie711

Just wrapped up a 3 week stretch of Berlin, London, Stockholm and the United States (I'm in Canada.)

Can't speak highly enough of my Flexiroam setup. I'm impressed. This thread is to a review I posted when I first got it:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...m-sticker.html

draver

I have also been testing the Flexiroam X service locally prior to a trip to Europe next month. I'm satisfied it will do what it claims, but one question I have is, did you notice a slight reduction on data balance even when your phone was not in use? I believe I left the sim in my phone overnight a few times and saw a drop in the data balance without use. I do realize my home service uses some data for housekeeping though. Did you have occasion to switch carriers or sims while roaming? Was the process seamless or challenging?


I've mentioned I put my Flexi sim on top of my KeepGo sim and expect to use it in a spare IPhone SE as a hotspot. Do you have an opinion as to the practicality of this setup? I actually prefer phones as hotspots for longer battery life and the ability to switch carriers with ease.


Any additional feedback would be welcome.

frobozzelectric

when did flexiroam start? this is new to me, already ordered my starter kit. seems like a good deal.

WilcoRoger

@frobozzelecrtic - love your handle!

TGarza

AT&T has always unlocked my phones (supposedly as a 1 time courtesy) but I have been a customer before the cell company was called AT&T. A friend was denied the request bu AT&T because he was a new customer under 1 year. I loaned him an unlocked One + for use in Dubai and India.

eeflyer

Flexiroam sounds like such an interesting option. It's too bad that I did not know about this before opening my project fi account. There's definitely a lower startup cost for this.

Snorkel 378 TH

Cruises I use Verizon's travel pass, flights for more then 4 days I use a local sim, usually very cheap. Unlocked iPhones, starting with a 4s years ago, now on a 7. I live in south texas, and use the free mexico roaming on my plan, 7gb single line plan, was replaced by the unlimited plan, but this is cheaper and takes my employer discount.

draver

I checked VZ's cruise ship rates and it's $2.99 a minute for calls and $.50 to send a text. That seems pretty pricy if you actually use your phone at all. Plus there isn't any data service available that I could see. I guess I'm just too dependent on being connected on cruises. However in my defense, having unlimited data on ships gives me WiFi calling back & forth from the US for free plus texting also. I also never even have to log in or out, just stay connected 24/7. We get pretty good rates and perks from Celebrity, so the internet upcharge with a 35% discount helps.

Snorkel 378 TH

Well if you end up using the wifi on cruises, wifi calling will work.

draver

And quite well I might add. I've made some 20-30 minute calls from the middle of the Atlantic and between Australia & Singapore with incredible clarity. I even made a test call out of boredom from a water taxi headed to the Barrier Reef over their on board WiFi and it worked great. I was actually pretty surprised on that one.