Using Google Hangouts with US google voice number in EU
 

Hello travel experts,

I am going on a 10-day business trip to Germany, France, Spain, Ireland and UK. I read some good reviews about UK EE prepaid plans, so I am probably going to get the one with 5Gb for £15. I won't have to call many European numbers on my trip, so I am thinking to use mainly Google Hangouts with my US Google Voice number to call family back home and receive calls from them at no charge. Here is the main question -- does Google Hangouts with a US GV number work in Europe to make/receive calls to/from the USA? I know that in theory it should work from anywhere in the world as long as I have internet, but maybe Google intentionally limits this service to users who are physically present in the US? If this is indeed the case, then using VPN should be able to circumvent this restriction, correct?

Another question -- I assume with the free EU roaming (since 2017) I should be able to use my UK EE number that will come with the sim to call other EU numbers and receive EU incoming calls for free. Is this correct?

Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Google will work anywhere with an internet connection. It doesn't matter where you are.

I do this literally every day. It works fine, wifi or cell data. No VPN required in Europe. Google only blocks GV service where they're required to do so by local law, which is nowhere in Europe--but if you find yourself in one of those countries on another trip, VPNing back to the US does work.

And yes, your 5gb for £15 will work the same anywhere in the EU.

Cool! Thanks for your replies.

Don't be alarmed if you receive a scary text listing high roaming costs when you enter a new country. I don't know whether other companies have failed to turn off the system that sends these, but I received them from Orange (France) in both Finland and Estonia.

Thanks!
 

Thanks for the heads up. It's quite a useful observation especially for inexperienced travelers such as myself.

I just wanted to share my experience so far -- both Google Hangouts with my US GV number and the pre-paid UK sim from EE work flawlessly in Europe. Furthermore, the mobile data I get from EE is much faster than the crappy free WiFi Internet that I get from not-so-cheap hotels in Germany and France. So, I would highly recommend this combination to any occasional US traveler to Europe.

A few points that some people could find helpful:

1. Even though EE customer service reps claim that their sim cards could only be activated on the actual EE network in the UK, it's not correct. My EE sim card was activated in the USA a few minutes after I popped it into my phone. Of course, I couldn't get data or voice there, but I could receive text messages just fine.
2. Google Voice number with Hangouts work fine no matter where you are, but when you are using a foreign SIM card and want to call a 10-digit US number from Hangouts dialer, you have to prepend it with +1 (e.g., +1 234-567-8910).

As you do when dialing any foreign number from any phone, otherwise it won't know which country you are trying to call. That's why it's always sensible to ensure you have the country code in all your contacts.

You are absolutely right, but it may not be so obvious to infrequent American travellers whose contact numbers are almost always stored in 10- or 11-digit format without a leading +. I just wish that Hangouts app could spew a bit more useful message than their generic "invalid format" one.