International basics
 

I travel internationally and am seeking advise/thoughts.

Have basic questions about data usage, texting and calling

What options make sense to get all 3? I don't stream movies
but use a fair bit of data otherwise.


I have an unlocked iphone 6 and a hotspot.


Do the multi country SIM cards cover this?


Is there a sticky that I should read?


Thx!

Some basics from you would help for making suggestions.


How often do you travel, for how long and where to typically?


For instance, if you just go to Mexico or Canada for a few days, your current carrier is probably your best bet. If you are going to China for a month, you probably want to get a phone that uses their bands for best service.

Thanks for getting back to me.


My questions are more along the lines of...

if wifi is available will everything (texting, Google Voice, internet, calling, etc)
work?

any different if I am on a cellular (mobile) signal instead?


I have rented mifi boxes and bought SIM cards in the past.


I am US based, travel to Europe, Mexico, South America a few times per year.

If you have a decent WiFi connection then texting and internet should work normally.
Calling will be dependent on your cellular carriers settings for your account. A cellular signal will work normally if your current carrier has roaming at your location, or if you have added a local sim service to your phone. Your phone needs to have the bands that match the local sim. For instance, the iPhone 6 you mentioned will not work on all the common bands in China. It will be able to make calls & text, but only do slow speed internet.
You didn't mention how long your typical trip lasts. If it's just a few days, use your home service roaming. If a week or longer, consider buying sim service at your destionation.

Who is your current wireless carrier? this matters as well.


ATT has WiFi Calling. This means if you have wifi you can use your phone as if you are in the US. I have ATT and my phone works with calling/texting like I'm in the US.

Tmobile offers free international roaming with most of their plans.

I'm not 100% on the other carriers but I think Sprint also has Wifi calling.

This means you can buy/rent a mobile wifi puck and use your phone if so.

If you have wifi, you can call US numbers for free over skype, other number for a pittance. Whatsup, Facetime, etc are also options

Same with Verizon.

same with sprint and t-mobile.

Att, Verizon, Tmobile, Sprint... so there is almost no need to use skype or other application now days to call back to the US. as long as you have WiFi coverage.

With MiFi devices being so cheap its totally worth having one so you can use your phone like normal when out of country!

we are living in the future

I have t-mobile and still like it a lot and have gone to Europe and China with it and my wife has gone to Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and I think Australia. The limited-speed roaming was fast enough and was super convenient, and last year Europe had LTE roaming for the entire second half of the year. It's great if you're on a promotion or other pricing plan that lets you do the things you want to do. I have t-mobile ONE, 2 phones for $100 per month, and t-mobile One Plus promotion for no extra charge, but without the unlimited GoGo.

Prices have gone up and options have been restricted wit t-mobile, but the first thing to do is look at what kind of roaming you can get with your current carrier.

I agree with the mifi thing, but if your own phone will hotspot or if you have an extra phone to use as a hotspot, I would look into a SIM for that over renting a mifi. I got a SIM in Lisbon and then again in Amsterdam, and the Amsterdam one was good for in-Europe roaming.

But buying a mifi, so that you don't have to worry about sending it back, is different. There's another thread here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...fi-device.html

This thing is great if it gives coverage and speed where the user is going to be. A 5 GB data load costs $15 and doesn't expire for 2 years. I wish the device was cheaper, but it's a better value than a mifi daily rental. Also, there's a review on the other thread, and the reviewer got it at HKIA for half the price listed for online purchases. I used tep twice in 2013, and it was the opening of a whole new world. But those two uses including shipping fees cost more than the pokefi thing with 5 GB of data included would cost today. I've been recommending it to all my friends, while making sure to tell them that they should read reviews about speed and coverage. I haven't found a cheaper solution for full-speed roaming, provided that the performance matches the claims.

Oh, one more thing about t-mobile is that they introduced something called DIGITS. It allows you to do calling and SMS over the web on a computer, or on any device that will support the DIGITS app. (Android 5.0 or higher, and whatever level of iphone operating system is required). So a t-mobile user doesn't have to have a phone that is specifically configured for wifi calling; they don't even have to have any phone at all.

I currently carry a GlocalMe puck which I like a lot it usually costs me $20 for 3GB so its not TOO far off but the $15 for 5GB and longer expiration seems like a good idea. I'm going to def look into this MiFi as well.

The major US carriers are changing their plans around international travel and it's for the better.

AT&T customers in the US using one of their unlimited data plans domestically can get an international day pass for $10 a day with completely unlimited international data, unlimited voice, and unlimited text to over 100 countries.

Where it used to cost me $60 for 300mb (that's right, mb) of data, I can now spend $30 and use 300 gigs if I wanted to. No need to worry about SIM swaps and free wi-fi cafe's any more. Just call your carrier and ask for their unlimited international day passes.

cant US carriers still bill even on unlimited plans?

there is no US prepaid option for traveling internationally right?

would be convenient if there were places to buy foreign sims in US.

Pokefi also offers a $15US for 5 days unlimited subjected to the usual fair usage policy.
Between the $15 for 5Gb and $15 for 5 days, I pre-plan my usage. The 5-day option is good if there will be heavy usage days.

Is this not already a solved problem? Either buy a prepaid SIM in Europe for 10 euro or get Google Fi before you leave and pay $10/GB.

I don't understand US cell phone plan prices. They always seem an order of magnitude higher than I would expect.