And I contract with tmobile for the services they promise - if they don't deliver I buy a cheaper local service and then for roaming I just buy local sims that work. Anyway my main desire was to find out why I was suddenly having this new problem and now I know I'm not the only one that has been having problems in Thailand.
Shame on them if they are paying for a service that "they have no control over" - yes I know they don't control the roaming partner but if they aren't providing the service then partner with someone else!

duplicate

I am not sure how you can contract with T-Mobile for the service now. Beside, as T-Mobile has said:

For starter - are you 100% certain that your inability of roaming is due to network issue?

T-Mobile roaming partners change over time. IME, the new one are usually better.

In Thailand? Same partners I have always had when there (very common destination for me) - anyway clearly others have noticed a degradation of Thai services - so not just me. You make your choices and pay your money - what works for you may not work for me

Interesting read. I was in Thailand for 2.5 weeks last month, and the mobile roaming worked fine. When I first got T-Mobile, it was for the Intl roaming and I had some struggles as the OP describes. But it has been much better for quite a while now for me....

Hoping I didn't jinx it for my trip in early Jan.

Certainly seems like YMMV situation.

Google fi does work on iphone. I don't know why people think google fi is hard to get. You just need a google phone to activate it on.

Google fi doesn't work everywhere (like on Lombok).

But when I had tmobile prior, it isn't the slowness that limited usage (128kbps) but the intermittency of the connection.

ok, I have some data .. I'm seeing similar issues that estnet reported here in Bangkok at the SGS, inability to hold and lock onto a signal. They seem to be using TRUE here. Though I noticed my wife's nexus 5x had a signal at times when my iPhone did not.

It is t-mobiles call as to who the choose to partner with. I don't know why people are referring back to t&cs and crap like that. It either works reliably it doesn't which is kind of the point.

My local SIM is TRUE-H and it does not get a great signal either at the SGS, but fortunately the hotel has great wifi and you can just turn on wifi calling.

I hope it works better in Europe.

-David

Yes, it works on a single network (t-mo), does not do auto-switching between t-mo, sprint and us cellular and activating the SIM will be a problem for some (most) people. There's some other issues also listed in the article.

https://ios.gadgethacks.com/how-to/s...phone-0174991/

-David

And android phones with ATT sim cards autoswitch to CDMA?
I actually have a friend who uses google fi, and bought a prepaid sim specifically for use in the USA. The pricing is just too expensive for the US. You don't have google fi for the purpose of using it in the US, in my opinion. Much better options.

I've been in Thailand 5 times over the past year and the roaming has gone hill over that time. SMS largely does not work reliably, data connectivity drops out, a high-speed data pass doesn't always guarantee even usable speeds, etc. The standard speed flirts with being so slow that it exposes implementation issues in apps themselves -- such as timeouts that are too conservative etc.

A high-speed data pass has worked much much better in Europe over this same period.

I'm on an iPhone 8 Plus (also have used 7 Plus over this period).

In Thailand I think I paid DTAC 200-300 Baht for 1.5GB data for 30 days. Compare with $20 for 1GB/10 days with a TMO high-speed data pass. Also, DTAC has an app that works, and with which it is possible to top up when not in Thailand, thus extending the SIM lifetime. Not having my USA phone number can be a PITA, but I prefer reliability of a local SIM card in Thailand. Maybe this will change, but I'm not holding my breath.

Evidently it's not the answer people what to hear, but that doesn't make it wrong.
TMOB works much better in Europe because they have infrastructure there and it's their largest market.
They can't even compete in SE Asia so ...

In any case, all of the problems OP described I have encountered throughout the Caribbean, Mexico and Asia.
Also, TM does NOT offer international roaming forever. They actually do have a metric which is unclear to me even having talked to them a few times about it.

If I am in any one country for extended periods, I get a local SIM.

Deutsche Telekom is the majority shareholder of T-Mobile USA thus it should work much better in Europe (especially in Germany)!