FlyerTalk Forums - Exploring Xfinity Mobile Features

FlyerTalk Forums (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/index.php)

- Travel Technology (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-technology-169/)

- - Exploring Xfinity Mobile Features (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-technology/1974571-exploring-xfinity-mobile-features.html)

Exploring Xfinity Mobile Features

Anyone who has a dual sim phone, I recommend you investigate the Xfinity Mobile service. You'll also need to have a Comcast account though. Anyway, for about $1.XX per month (Taxes & Fees in Oregon) you will have a second line & number on Verizon towers with included unlimited calling and texts while in the US. This is the total cost unless you use over the included 100Mb of data on the line per month. The fees are $12 per Gb if you exceed the included data.
They claim over 200 roaming countries, and while roaming, calls are cheaper than my included T-Mobile rates by a decent amount. A few examples: Calling from the USA TO France/Germany/UK/Italy are $.05 a min. FROM those countries = $.10 a min. Some other countries cost more than the T-Mobile $.25 rate though, so you have to check each one. They have a page where you simply type the country name into a box and get the rates, just like T-Mobile. BTW, you do not want to call these countries from the US using a T-Mobile line, as they can cost $3.00 a minute! The Xfinity service also has WiFi calling available, and while roaming, calls to and from the US are free, just like on T-Mobile.

I'm testing this service on my iPhone Xr with esim now here in the US. I have my regular voice line set as my data line and Xfinity is set as my voice line. I have data sharing switched off, so as not to incur any data charges with Xfinity. I haven't really found any negatives so far except that iMessage doesn't seem to work reliably, but my texts still appear normally since both lines are active.

I generally get great local coverage with T-Mobile, but on the rare occasions when it's weak, I suspect this will be a great fallback insurance for just pennies per day, and perhaps slightly less expensive while roaming overseas besides.

It's fun to experiment, and I'd like to hear from others who may have used this internationally.

I almost went with them recently, but decided against it due to the roaming data costs. Whilst the calls when roaming are quiet cheap as you've said, the roaming data rates start at about 10 cents/meg, which is $100/gig.

I ended up going with Google Fi. Domestically it's more expensive ($20 + $10/gigs compared to Comcast at $0 + $12/gig - although Comcast charge in whole gig increments, whilst Google do partial), but with enough international it'll work out cheaper for me. Plus T-mobile coverage is a little better where I live than Verizon.

That all makes sense.

I have the luxury of the dual sim nature of the iPhone Xr and have T-Mobile as my esim, and can swap in whatever might work best for my data service. I currenly have both a Flexiroam account, and also an old KeepGo sim with some data left on it. I spend around 50-60 days a year travelling, and so I keep looking for the latest & greatest setup and flexibility. This Xfinity Mobile voice option hopefully will fill in nicely behind the T-Mobile free 256k data I get overseas currently. The iPhone esim setup menu is really user friendly for just turning on the features for each carrier service you want.

I think the biggest reason to consider Xfinity Mobile is the monthly cost if you don't need their roaming services at the moment. I'm getting a Verizon voice line as a backup that is on constantly for about $1.50 +/- a month, and also the full time option for the international calling rates.

Too bad you also have to pay for it another way, your Comcast account! They allow you to bring qualified phones from other sources now though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by draver (Post 31218919)

I think the biggest reason to consider Xfinity Mobile is the monthly cost if you don't need their roaming services at the moment. I'm getting a Verizon voice line as a backup that is on constantly for about $1.50 +/- a month, and also the full time option for the international calling rates.

It would also be useful for websites which only do 2FA via SMS. Looks to be about $0.10 to receive SMS internationally. ~~Just enable the eSIM when you need to and avoid the robocalls.~~ Misread that Xfinity Mobile supported esim. That'd be more useful though you could just disable the physical sim if your other carrier supported esim (and local sims, not roaming sim, which isn't as common)

We have Xfinity Mobile as our primary carrier. Overall, it has been inexpensive and great! The wifi calling and texting is nice. But, the international data roaming can be ridiculously expensive. We have unlocked phones and simply purchased local SIMs in Vietnam during our trip there this spring. We have an Xfinity voice line and the app worked over our Viettel SIM (and local wifi), which was nice as it was our backup number for friends and family to call us.

Does Comcast support eSIM yet or do you have to use AT&T/T-Mo as your eSIM?

Quote:

Originally Posted by javabytes (Post 31221298)

Does Comcast support eSIM yet or do you have to use AT&T/T-Mo as your eSIM?

I have T-Mobile as my esim and I am currently using the Xfinity-Verizon service in the physical sim slot. With an iPhone Xr, you can assign either line to be primary voice or data, so I have T-Mobile as my data line, and Xfi-VZ as my voice line. This prevents the Xfi line from racking up data charges. Both are active for voice and text at the same time though, and imessage works as well. The overall advantage is that I'm getting Verizon voice and text coverage domestically for the monthly taxes & 911 fee (About $1.50 in Oregon) with no per call or text charges while home. Overseas I'll have $.10 a minute calls (Xfi-VZ) all over Europe on one line, and free 256kbps data roaming (TM) on the other line. Free texting on both lines while roaming or home. Another appealing aspect of this setup is, there is no activation fee, contract period, sim charge and even free mailing for the sim card. The Xfi-VZ line falls back to their included Xfinity WiFi network which is quite large locally. It just seems like a sweet deal, but time will tell.

Edited to correct roaming text cost quoted above: I read the details and texting on the Xfi-VZ number is billed per text. This seems to be a fixed $.10 per text incoming and sent. I'll be researching a way to avoid this while roaming if conveniently possible.