I’m starting a new job soon that will often have me traveling internationally to many countries. Occasionally with little advance notice.
My cel phone plan is through Veriz0n, and when I spoke to them I was told, “Sure! Just call us 3-4 days before you go and we’ll set it up…” That’s not going to work.
People at my company have varying solutions. A few have recommended Spr1nt and TMob1le. Some actually have two phones - one for at home and one for travel. I’m mostly concerned with being able to receive voice and text. Data is secondary because I’ll be in WiFi a lot of the time, they tell me.
Any suggestions? I’m finding this research exhausting.
I have Verizon and travel internationally frequently.
Best option was called TravelPass. Recognizes I am in new country, and for 10 bucks per day while in that country, my regular plan is extended to an international plan with all my home perks/benefits/data/etc.
I used to call Verizon prior to each trip, enable something else, and it was a pain and not a real value.
Ask about TravelPass. Land in a country and it kicks in, and welcomes you via text and acknowledges that hey, welcome to Italy (or 100 other countries), you’re on TravelPass, etc. Easy to identify the cost for reimbursement, too.
Why don’t you spell out Verizon, T-Mobile or Sprint? Is there a reason you are using a form of leetspeak for them?
For my upcoming trip to Spain, I am planning to get a T-Mobile sim card right before I leave, I have Verizon Grandfathered unlimited and that is way too expensive to consider using there, and no they don’t do travelpass with the Grandfathered plan. Since I will be gone almost a month the $10/day on the travelpass is a no-starter, it may be good enough to use for a day or so till I can get a local sim, but again I can’t under my plan.
T-Mobile has unlimited data in Europe for no additional fees, so that’s my plan, pick up a T- plan just before and cancel it as I return (T’s US coverage is horrible here, I could not consider it, but mayhbe it has improved and I will see when I get it)
I just used Verizon’s travel pass. It worked perfectly for the $10 per day and it was worth it to have access to my regular number and data. I know wifi is everyhwere, but at some places I don’t want to have to give them my life story just to get online for a few minutes while stopping for a drink.
The person with who told you about calling a few days in advance to get it set up is living in 2012.
I’ve used T-Mobile’s free international data plan, and it was great. But it does not include voice (not sure about texts). You would have to pay extra for that, or stick to Wi-Fi calling.
Just got back from a couple weeks in Spain where I used the TravelPass option. I recommend it, especially if this is a business situation where the cost can be expensed/passed along. So much better than my old method of having a secondary phone number for each country I traveled in.
I have T-mobile. It provides free texts and data in most countries (albeit at only 2G speed) and fairly inexpensive voice calls. And the best part is, there’s nothing special to sign up for or SIM to install. You just step off the plane in a foreign country and you can use your phone.
ETA: voice calls in Canada and Mexico are free, and there you get 4G data, like in the States.
Because I’m sick of seeing ads for every company I mention in an email or posting. Wouldn’t be surprised if you see some of that activity after your post.
Thank you everyone for the suggestions. Starting to lean toward TravelPass since it wouldn’t involve getting a new service, number or phone.
I used Verizon TravelPass for my recent trip to Australia and China. It worked very well. I’m on a family account of a Verizon employee so it was $5 a day, but $10 a day would be worth it as well. It just worked, no calling ahead of time outside of registering for the service in the first place.
One thing that surprised me in China is that it seemed to bypass the Great Firewall. I could access everything I typically access in the US, something I couldn’t do over hotel WiFi (for example). I’m not sure how that works.
ANother vote for Travel Pass. I was just in Lisbon and Barcelona last month and there was nothing to it. When you arrive you get a text notifying you about the Travel Pass option. If you respond YES then you’re turned on. If you don’t want to use it for whatever reason you need to turn off the mobile network, otherwise you will be charged outrageous roaming rates for data, voice and text.
Also, depending on your calling needs, get a Google Voice number. It’s free and you can place and receive VOIP calls anytime you are in WiFi range without having mobile data or voice. There are some limitations on the countries where you can use it, which I think are based on regulations in those countries rather than Google policy.
The one I had was $0.20/min using the Simple Global Plan. The amazing thing is, it was cheaper than the older, non-international plan I had (!?) The free texts and free data (even though it was 2G speed) was enough for me. You can buy data passes if you need faster speeds. I loved it. It could be that everybody is doing this now, but the last time I traveled internationally, I just brought a cheap, unlocked GSM phone and bought a SIM at my destination because international and especially data rates were crazy expensive.
This is what we did when my son went to Europe last fall. A new SIM card per country wasn’t the best choice as he was bouncing around from place to place (England, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania and back). The $10/day plan covered him even when he was in 2 countries in a day (just one daily fee).
Once you’ve got that set up on your account, it’s in place for future trips.
If you’re going to spend more than a couple days in a country, it may be worth looking into the SIM card option or some other country-specific plan.
Ooooh - the downside of the TravelPass thing is that to call someone in your local country, you have to prefix it with the country code and whatnot. I’m also not sure how it works for incoming calls from that country: presumably someone calling you would have to plug in the US country code, but would they get nailed for the cost of an international call?
I don’t think my son made any inbound or outbound calls during his trip, but I’ll have to ask him.