T-Mobile USA's free international data roaming and texting is awesome

[pm]

So I just got back from a trip to Europe and travelled in Poland, Germany, Switzerland, France and the UK and relied entirely on T-Mobile USA's free included international roaming and texting for the trip and it worked great on my wife's, my daughter's and my phones.

Iis more than a little slow - I usually pulled ~300kb/s - but it's free/included and it just works. I could use it for Google Maps everywhere and that saved our vacation a couple of times - particularly trying to avoid the Swiss motorways to avoid paying the $40 motorway "vignette" fee by trying to avoid Swiss motorways, and it worked for texting photos. We even were able to do Skype video calls, stream music and watch YouTube videos with it.

If you travel internationally, this T-Mobile free international data is a huge perk. Trying to do the same thing on Verizon would have been $420 ($10 * 14 days * 3 phones). And on AT&T it would have been $360 ($120 * 3 phones). And the price for calls within the country are still reasonable. T-Mobile has $0.20/min and AT&T (after $360 fee) is $0.35/min and Verizon (after $420 fee) is included.

Anyway, I was very pleased with T-Mobile's plan - even with the reduced speed - and it was completely usable the whole thime we were there as long as we were a bit patient.

 

[cronos]

That's cool to hear actual experience and that it really worked. I think you forgot to tell us how much you paid for T-Mobile, though.

 

[isekii]

Intl roaming is included for Data/Text ~ you only pay for calling/receiving internationally
If you call via Wifi then it's free if you're calling back to the US as it counts as a domestic call.

I did this when I went to Bahamas, Costa Rica, and Dominican Republic.

 

[pm]

That's cool to hear actual experience and that it really worked. I think you forgot to tell us how much you paid for T-Mobile, though.

We have 3 lines for $90 ($106-ish after taxes and fees) with 2GB high-speed and unlimited low-speed after that. It's their Simple Choice 2GB plan for 3 people (http://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans.html). But I think the international thing applies to all T-Mobile plans that aren't pay-as-you-go.

 

[dainthomas]

We have 3 lines for $90 ($106-ish after taxes and fees) with 2GB high-speed and unlimited low-speed after that. It's their Simple Choice 2GB plan for 3 people (http://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans.html). But I think the international thing applies to all T-Mobile plans that aren't pay-as-you-go.

Worked perfectly in Canada for me. Would be nice if all carriers did something like this.

 

[isekii]

We have 3 lines for $90 ($106-ish after taxes and fees) with 2GB high-speed and unlimited low-speed after that. It's their Simple Choice 2GB plan for 3 people (http://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans.html). But I think the international thing applies to all T-Mobile plans that aren't pay-as-you-go.

you're on the basic plan. which was 1gb but doubled to 2?

 

[jpeyton]

My mother was overseas for 2 months and used ~1GB of international roaming data on T-Mobile. A ton of texts as well. Additional bill was $0.00.

No wonder T-Mobile beat their yearly net-add subscriber target by a huge amount this year.

Wish list for 2016: T-Mobile buys Sprint and brings uncarrier to that dinosaur, while gaining the spectrum and subscribers to bring them serious clout.

 

[paperwastage]

Wish list for 2016: T-Mobile buys Sprint and brings uncarrier to that dinosaur, while gaining the spectrum and subscribers to bring them serious clout.

not going to happen (DoJ antitrust)

and there's close to zero overlap between sprint and t-mobile spectrum.

 

[openwheel]

Did the same driving Bavaria-Italian Lake District-Tuscany-France-Paris

Not a hiccup. It was definitely not 4G, but use-able. Can't beat free data especially on travel.

 

[ThisIsChrisKim]

Agreed. Looking forward to using the free roaming in Asia in a week!

 

[pm]

you're on the basic plan. which was 1gb but doubled to 2?

Hmmm... good question. Definitely we are on the basic plan, and definitely we have 2GB each... but whether this was doubled or not... no idea. My usage per month is ~1GB and my daughter only uses hers for Spotify (which doesn't count as data) and my wife checks email and that's about it (so, 30MB on a bad month). So 1GB or 2GB doesn't really matter to us. But I'll take the 2GB that we get even if I'm not sure how we get it.

 

[Red Storm]

Hmmm... good question. Definitely we are on the basic plan, and definitely we have 2GB each... but whether this was doubled or not... no idea. My usage per month is ~1GB and my daughter only uses hers for Spotify (which doesn't count as data) and my wife checks email and that's about it (so, 30MB on a bad month). So 1GB or 2GB doesn't really matter to us. But I'll take the 2GB that we get even if I'm not sure how we get it.

They doubled the data amounts. What used to be the free 1GB high speed is now 2GB high speed.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Going to Japan next week. Will report!

 

[tvdang7]

same . i just got back paris and london and I do not know how ANYONE could travel internationally with out google maps and a data plan to feed it! So many buses and subways to catch and no way to know which one to take.Also required an uber a few times too.

 

[paperwastage]

Going to Japan next week. Will report!

flyertalk and howardforums each has a huge thread discussing tmobile global roaming experiences

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-technology/1510278-t-mobile-global-data-coverage.html
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1814289-Unlimited-International-Data-Speedtest!

Japan: DOCOMO, Softbank

http://www.howardforums.com/showthr...test!?p=15975703&highlight=japan#post15975703

Quote Originally Posted by RCtennis3811 View Post
I'm in Japan right now. While I appreciate that my iPad Air 2 gets unlimited data here on both NTT Docomo and SoftBank LTE, it's been useless for streaming iTunes Radio or Pandora. Google Maps takes too long to load, and don't even bother using Twitter for iPad. The only thing it seems good for is push notifications and email headers.
I haven't had too many issues with audio streaming at 128 kb/sec on either NTT DoCoMo or Softbank, other than the buffering, however I do agree that Google Maps takes awhile to load up. The other issue is that even Google searches takes awhile to load up. All this on a 5S.

 

[ElectricD]

Had the opposite experience down in Australia. I wasn't able to get data working at all with T-Mobile roaming. Fortunately, my iPhone is unlocked so I was able to purchase a cheap sim for 4G data

 

[kaerflog]

I was on a cruise this past week. At our stop in Mexico, I turned on my phone and it connected to TelAv?? I made a call and a few texts back to the US with no problem. I was afraid to do anything else afraid that I I might get a surcharge even though I knew it's FREE.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

I was on a cruise this past week. At our stop in Mexico, I turned on my phone and it connected to TelAv?? I made a call and a few texts back to the US with no problem. I was afraid to do anything else afraid that I I might get a surcharge even though I knew it's FREE.

I did the same when I landed in Mexico on my cruise. Using Google maps to figure out where to go was nice.

 

[mikegg]

Had a terrible experience in China with TMobile roaming. It just didn't work. I would get lots of signal but data didn't move. I even paid the premium service for 7 days but samething. TMobile wouldn't refund me for the premium service even though it didn't work.

 

[Seven]

I am gonna be travelling soon as well. So making/receiving calls back to the US is $0.20/minute, correct?

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Forgot to update this. It worked well enough in Tokyo. Speeds were slow but connection was always stable and good enough for Google Map routes, Instagram, SnapChat, Facebook, texting etc.

 

[paperwastage]

I am gonna be travelling soon as well. So making/receiving calls back to the US is $0.20/minute, correct?

only in the countries specified, and you have their postpaid plan with credit check, then yes

(free to call/receive calls to US on wifi, but you should turn on airplane mode.. if wifi drops and phone goes on cellular, you'll be charged)

in other countries/cruises, you could be charged $5/minute... check their website

 

[Seven]

only in the countries specified, and you have their postpaid plan with credit check, then yes

(free to call/receive calls to US on wifi, but you should turn on airplane mode.. if wifi drops and phone goes on cellular, you'll be charged)

in other countries/cruises, you could be charged $5/minute... check their website

Thanks for the info. So the device must also be capable to make calls/receive over wifi, right? Seems like my Moto can't do any calls over the wifi.

 

[paperwastage]

Thanks for the info. So the device must also be capable to make calls/receive over wifi, right? Seems like my Moto can't do any calls over the wifi.

yup, your moto most likely can't do calls over wifi

as a backup plan, go get a cheap device that can do wifi calling....

 

[pm]

Thanks for the info. So the device must also be capable to make calls/receive over wifi, right? Seems like my Moto can't do any calls over the wifi.

Well, you can use Skype - or some other Skype-like VOIP alternative.

We used Skype - we actually used Skype for video calls on Christmas Eve - and it worked fine on the the free data service. And you can do calls to mobile and landline phones if you are willing to pay a bit for it.