Anyone Used T-Mobile's Simple Choice Plan When Traveling Overseas?

[RumoredNow]

I'll be traveling to Italy in October and I'm on T-Mo's Simple Choice plan. They state that you have free data and text when abroad in more than 120 countries (voice calls @ $0.20/minute) and free WiFi calling back to the US???

Has anyone taken advantage? Where? How did it work (well vs poorly)?

Did it require any set up with T-Mo before the trip? Or just go and use the phone with no surprises? Do you need a carrier unlock? Do you need a local SIM?

I'm asking for real life experiences here on a trusted forum. I'm still pursuing with T-Mo and will post details as I find them out, but theory and practice are often two separate things...

 

[worldspy99]

Used it in Ireland. Did not really find the data to be working that great but hotel and work both had good wi-fi. Calling/SMS was flawless.
Did not sign up or do anything prior to the trip. Plan to use it again in the next three weeks.

 

[respect306]

Works just like they said, but I think the data is slow. I think you can pay extra for high speed. Don't have to do anything special before the trip tho and coverage was good

 

[rdubmu]

My mother in law and sister and law went to Italy in April, flawless text and voice calls, data was soo slow it wasn't even useful, but there was a lot of wifi hotspots


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[RumoredNow]

Thanks for the replies.

Glad to know it works "automagically" as promised. I have come to expect EDGE speeds on data due to my research. I think I will take the wife's phone and mine through the unlock process via T-Mo just in case (and hey! a carrier unlock never hurts - always helps)... Or consider their data speed upgrade purchase option.

I'll also consider that my prep needs to be done via WiFi when possible. Downloads of audio tours / map updates / trip planning via interwebz / etc.

At least with my 925 I have unlimited license on Here + and will have updated Italy maps and off line nav for walking around. It might be hard not depending on Cortana due to data speed. She is really growing on me.

 

[peacefulberry]

Used it in Ireland. Did not really find the data to be working that great but hotel and work both had good wi-fi. Calling/SMS was flawless.
Did not sign up or do anything prior to the trip. Plan to use it again in the next three weeks.

Is this feature free or did you have to pay for it. I forgot what the details are.

 

[worldspy99]

Is this feature free or did you have to pay for it. I forgot what the details are.

It is free and included in the Simple Choice (basically any postpaid customer) Plan.

 

[Eric J F]

We are also traveling this fall and plan to use the Simple Plan perks. We're going to be in rural Australia, so WiFi will be even more limited than cell coverage.

Was the data speed sufficient for simple email and light internet browsing? How about OneDrive access? T-Mobile told me the speed was roughly equivalent to 2G- does that sound about right?

 

[pankaj981]

I was getting about 4-5 mbps in Mumbai, India early this year when I was roaming on Airtel. My guess is it really depends on which carrier are you roaming on, if the carrier has good coverage and better speeds in the area you're in then you might get better speeds else default is G or Edge at the lowest. Edge is alright for emails, browsing websites might be mehh

 

[Eric J F]

The T-Mobile ads say "approx. 128 Kbps" but since I've never used it I don't know how it is in real life. Was your Mumbai speed just the regular Simple Plan roaming, or did you buy the faster speed?

 

[pankaj981]

It was the regular plan

 

[worldspy99]

Will report back in first week in August about my speeds in the next couple of weeks.

 

[worldspy99]

Used the plan in UK (during layover in London Heathrow), used it in India extensively (absolutely no issues whatsoever) and in UAE (Abu Dhabi). Would recommend it to anyone traveling overseas.

 

[theomodsim]

Used free international data roaming in Canada (Montreal) for several days with no issues. I also used it earlier this month for about two weeks in Japan with no issues. However, my wife received two texts stating that she used $50 and $100 of international data while we were traveling in Japan (she didn't receive any warning messages like that when we were traveling in Canada). I called customer support and they said that the messages were sent in error and I didn't see anything show up on our most recent bill.

Data speeds were reasonable for checking e-mail and browsing mostly text-based web pages, but really gets bogged down when visiting sites designed for desktop web browsers with large images. It is possible to use Skype voice calling with decent quality, so you can avoid having to pay the $0.20/minute for voice roaming by instead using Skype.

 

[RumoredNow]

I'm Back... The trip was fantastic!!!!!

T-Mo free data and texting worked all over Italy. Made voice calls via Skype and that was really cost effective. I enjoyed H+ data for the vast majority of the time (I think I was only on EDGE once for like an hour) and piggybacked on 3, Wind and Vodaphone's networks.

A small glitch was when using WiFi and then dropping off that connection, data would disappear. A quick flip to airplane mode and back on would reconnect and get my cellular data back,

The International Travel benefit with T-MoUS is definitely a HUGE plus.

 

[pseudoware]

Great to learn about this. Just got my 1020 unlocked and got a T-Mo number (pay-as-you-go). I might switch to the $50 Simple Choice plan for a month for an upcoming Europe trip. I'll at least consider this versus using one or more local sim cards.

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

 

[Eric J F]

Just returned from our two months in Australia and the Simple Choice plan perks were excellent. We ended up using the data connections more than WiFi because the WiFi was often no faster and a hassle to access. The data connection speed was sufficient for simple tasks, and sometimes it seemed we were even getting 4G speeds.

I also noticed the occasional data connection drop as mentioned above.

Phoning within Australia and back to the States was easy, cheap, and clear.

As others have said, this was a real benefit for having T-Mobile.

 

[manicottiK]

I return from Australia tomorrow. Although slow, having access to data (without worrying about "running out") was great. Having cheap calls back to the U.S. and within Australia was good, too. My partner is still with AT&T and paid $120 for international voice and data for this 10-day trip. His data was faster, but still, I could have bought more high-speed data than him for $50.

 

[antiochian2010]

Just used in Canada and it's fantastic. First time since the change I was all over their customer service lines to make sure - because two years before I got nailed with $1,200 of data roaming, so since then I was really paranoid about making sure data roaming was OFF. Now, I have about (sorry Canadian should be "aboot") 4 trips since and it's worked perfectly (and free) every time!