Increasing competition is bringing international calling and data rates down (Photo: Bjorn Bechstein / Flickr)
Today AT&T rolled out a new plan for international calling today that should help frequent travelers avoid frustrating phone bill surprises when returning from overseas trips. It could also push other carriers to improve their offerings for international travelers.
What’s unique about AT&T’s new Passport plan is that it is offering three different one-time packages (for $30, $60 and $120) that you can choose instead of its recurring Global Packages– a nice alternative for the occasional international traveler.
The least expensive Passport bundle goes for $30 and with it you get 30 days of unlimited messaging (text, image or video), 120MB of data, and $1 per minute calling in 150 countries. That’s plenty for a most users, but if you are busy uploading photos or sending or watching videos, there are fatter plans: For $60 you get 300MB of data and calls at .50 per minute. And for $120, you get 800MB of data and .35 per minute calls.
You’ll pay for these packages in addition to your monthly AT&T bill and the deal expires after the 30 days are up… it’s not a recurring charge. Just be sure and sign up for a plan BEFORE you take your trip. (Details about Passport plans here)
AT&T’s new Passport bundles (Chart courtesy AT&T)
AT&T likely rolled out this plan to retain customers tempted by T-Mobile’s very popular, inexpensive and aggressively marketed Simple Choice plan, which offers unlimited data and texting and .20/minute calling in 120 countries (vs AT&T’s 150 countries) for $80 a month. What’s nice about the T-Mobile plan is that you don’t have to “sign up” before each trip… the deal is included in your monthly rate whether or not you are traveling overseas. (Regrettably, T-Mobile’s coverage lags in many parts of the US and much of my home town of San Francisco, which is why I moved away from it two years ago after an 11 year run! But I’m going to give ’em another try via its new, free “test drive” promo. Stay tuned for results…)
Currently, Verizon offers a $25 global data plan that provides 100MB of data overseas, but doesn’t offer free messaging or discounts on voice calls. Plus you have to sign up for it before each trip. Maybe AT&T’s new offer will push Verizon to offer a more streamlined and lucrative deal to retain its frequent traveling customers. Stay tuned….
What mobile carrier do you use? How would you rate its international coverage– and its pricing for international calls and data?
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Ack! I kinda wish I’d head all this before re-upping my iphonr contract! Though I’m grandfathered into the unlimited data which is nice, but the TMobile plan sounds great too. I am in SF like Travelskills so if tmobile coverage sucks in the city that would be a good reason not to have it. Now I just need to get my iPhone 5 unlocked…
Thanks for all these excellent, helpful comments everyone! It proves to me that there’s not a single “best” option for international calls for everyone… but likely one that works for YOU. — chris
I’m with the majority of people here. Nothing beats simply buying a local SIM at your destination – one of the greatest benefits of GSM IMHO. I haven’t been to a country that didn’t have pay-as-you-go SIMs – yet.
On a side not: why the hell are all these carriers still predicating their pricing on Voice? I mean, seriously, who still uses Voice calling? And any data “offer” <1GB is just ridiculous. The last time we had to deal with megabytes in tech was when floppies were still out.
AT&T has announced that WiFi calling is coming soon — I’ve heard by December.
The only way that you don’t get your phone for $199 (or whatever you pay) is if you don’t take the 2 year contract, because then you get put on AT&T “Next” that allows you to upgrade more frequently, but you’re paying for the phone.
I just bought my wife the iPhone 6 for $299, and our phone bill didn’t go up one single cent as a result… That being said, we’re also still on unlimited iPhone data, and have been since the iPhone 3G… Part of the problem may be that you bought the phones from Best Buy and not from AT&T directly — the folks at Best Buy are _not_ AT&T employees… the ones here lied to me several times when I spoke to them a couple of years ago about possibly buying new phones from them… including a $50 “Best Buy Upgrade Fee” for doing the upgrade there…
The free data is actually over whatever available foreign network but limited to 128kbps, unless you buy a high speed plan (which starts at only $10 so is cheap). I switched to T-mobile after going on a trip with my boyfriend(who had T-mobile) to Europe — it was plenty for maps and whatsapp and was super convenient.
Recently traveled to UK. Buy a SIM card at the airport or train station. You can also order a free sim card and have it sent to your hotel. I bought a 10 pound card from 3. It gave me 1G and worked in the UK and Ireland. Maps/GPS does use data. on ATT, incoming texts are free. You pay for the outgoing.
They have also eliminated the standalone international text plans. I used to be able to purchase 50 messages for $10. My clients and family/friends know that if they need me while I am traveling, texting is best. It has also saved me when someone doesn’t know I am away and starts a huge group text. I am not willing to spend an additional $30 per month for some text messages, a tiny amount of data, and very expensive calling. I will be doing the T-Mobile Test Drive.
I am today switching from AT&T to Sprint.
I was part of the bait and switch family plan in which we had this great plan but when we bought new phones from Best Buy over the summer, they never said that my rate would go up $25 a month for each new phone.
Seems that AT&T lies when they say you can buy a phone for $199, yes you can and that price is the downpayment, not your end of the price with the rest subsidize from AT&T. Just found out that phones are no longer subsidize, all carriers got rid of this practice at the start of the year.
What really got me was the attitude from AT&T that it’s my responsibility that I dig into finding out the cost of a plan. As I said to them, nobody warned me of a $25 a month increase and they say I needed to look at the fine print of the 30 page contract.
So AT&T after 20 years of being with them are the scum of the world and it’s time to move off them.
I would highly recommend a change, Sprint has some unbelievable deals. I know they aren’t the same in coverage and the data will be slower, I just and hope you folks understand have to give AT&T a screwing since they have been screwing with us.
The T-Mobile plan actually costs 80$ for TWO lines, SimpleChoice for one line is only 50$ per month, with international roaming included.
I’m heading abroad this weekend. I have an unlocked iPhone so my usual method is to buy a local sim when I land and plug it in. However, my last trip to Italy I found that that didn’t work so great. It took about 6 hours for me to get the phone working but I really needed it the second I landed. So this trip I have 3 countries coming up, and the thought of buying 3 SIM cards was overwhelming so I went with Keepgo. They offer 1 GB for 30 days for $80, which is really all that I need. It’s good in 38 european countries. I figured I would give it a try. I did try the t-mobile test drive but the coverage at my house and work was awful so I couldn’t switch from ATT..
FDW
Lame! Now that T-Mobile iPhone has WiFi Calling, our family is leaving. Been with AT&T nearly 20 years. Bye!
I was wondering if (perhaps someone here would know) – there was a European legislation a few years back that capped the roaming charges for intra-European phone companies, so that you don’t get robbed when you roam between European countries. So your local SIM card from France could be used in Italy (for example) and voice calls won’t cost a buck a minute. I don’t recall what the cap was – or whether it would apply to data as well. Is anyone familiar with this agreement?
On a related note – I found that TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile) charges peanuts for data plan – something as ridiculous as $5 for 200MB or something like it. It supplements the T-Mobile Int’l plan since you’re allowed to tether your laptop to TIM (but not T-Mobile).
Hi Trixie, I tried the T-Mobile plan in 5 countries so far: Japan, SIngapore, Indonesia, France and Italy, and most of the time I was connected to 3G. Yes, in remote part of the country I was stuck on EDGE, but what I learned is that if you put your phone onto Airplane mode temporarily and then switch it back off (to force it to re-acquire signal), you would regain 3G.
In any case, your mileage may vary, just sharing my experience. It was sufficient for data-texting (such as Whatsapp, iMessage) and supports photo transfer just fine. As well as my work email (don’t tell my wife I’m checking them while on vacation!)
I live in a house in a valley in San Francisco and my T-Mobile iPhone gets 3 of 5 bars and excellent coverage. I love taking it abroad. The default data service is slow, but you can buy faster data at really reasonable rates, far better than the AT&T plan you described above. The GPS saved me many times… one day my subway train in Paris shut down and I was abruptly ejected onto the street in a totally unfamiliar neighborhood. If it weren’t for my T-Mobile data service and Apple’s Maps app, I think I’d still be lost somewhere in the Paris 4th. Good luck with your test drive.
I was actually pretty happy with the international coverage. I thought I was going to be displeased with the Edge coverage but while it was slightly slower than what I got at home, it really worked. I wasn’t trying to stream video, but I was able to load webpages quickly and get maps no problem.
Underwhelmed here. They already had $30 one-time options for 120 MB. The only difference here is unlimited texting. 120 MB of data is very limited and I always had to be careful when I was traveling on one of those plans. I have an unlocked phone and would often buy local SIMs but sometimes it wasn’t an option in certain countries.
Just switched to TMo due to their international offerings. My plan out the door is cheaper than what I was paying at ATT *and* I’m getting unlimited international data plus unlimited texts. Coverage is a lot better locally from when I had it a couple years ago. Also just traveled to five countries and having my phone connect to a network and get data within 5 minutes of landing was just magic!
I was interested in T-mobile til I found out that the free international data was over Edge network… I like that ATT has global coverage ( really, I’ve texted from Angkor wat to the high arctic) and it’s not always cost or time effective to find a new sim in every country. So this seems like a good deal for the person on a one or two week trip abroad. For calls I route everything incoming via google voice so I don’t get charged for those incoming calls. Works Iike a charm.
I am sorry, this is rip off city.
Everyone has that extra iPhone that is collecting dust in some drawer. If it was a former AT&T phone, have AT&T jailbreak it which they will do for free.
Then when your in Europe, hunt up the nearest 3 network store, they have great prices on coverage. Example, I was in England last month and for 15 pounds (about $22) they gave me 300 calling minutes, free incoming calls and unlimited, (yes that’s right, unlimited) data and text for 30 days
3 network will put in a new sim card and you will get great rates. If you want to call internationally, put an extra 5 pounds on the sim and use dial-a-Code, an English company that will charge you 3 pence (about a nickel) a minute for international calls. Remember, all incoming calls are free. This 3 network sim you get in England will work in other countries like Ireland, France and Italy, to name the countries I have used it in.
What AT&T and others are doing is making it easy. Using a AT&T phone in Europe is one of the most expensive things you will ever do other than flying a private plane someplace. If your company is paying for this, it’s great, but if it’s coming out of your pocket you can do it cheaply.
This is nothing but a press release, I wish sites like TravelSkills would tell you point blank this is a rip-off and tell you cheaper ways, like this 3 network
I’ve been with T-Mobile for years, and find it’s a great value. Like you, Chris, I don’t have a cell signal at my home– but my phone connects to my home wi-fi network and works perfectly. And there’s no additional fee for wi-fi calling. If you try it, I’ll bet you go back to T-Mobile.
Verizon is already providing a service for people like me. I have an unlocked phone, and I can buy a Sim card every time I travel internationally for €20. That covers the month of phone calls and data.
I’m usually a big fan of AT&T but I agree this plan is not great. You can pay $30 for the privilege of making phone calls at $1/min!! 0_0
We were going to get the AT&T plan last year for a month in Paris – $1.00 per minute – then we found out that another dollar per minute would be added if someone called us… we would pay $2.00 a minute…. ridiculous. We each got local SIM cards instead, texting, data included for a fraction of that.
Of course that works best if you are only going to be in one country.
Thanks, Len! I’m going to give T-Mobile another try and see if reception has improved in my neighborhood. They have a free “test drive” promo going now… get a free TMO phone for a week. http://explore.t-mobile.com/test-drive-free-trial — chris
This is still a horrible deal from AT&T. 800MB is nowhere near enough for anyone who regularly uses email on their phone and at $120 vs T-Mobile’s $80 for way, way more… it’s not even comparable.
This looks very much like what Verizon has been offering for a while. The nice thing about VZN’s package that you purchase packages in increments. With Verizon they automatically add an addl package (e.g. $30) when you’ve used your data. That’s better than switching to the crazy high default rates. And if you want to upgrade the plan you purchased before you left because you spend more than you thought you would, their customer service is pretty good at that. In my experience, Verizon has been best for business travel overseas, but it looks like ATT Is catching up.
I have had Tmobile now for a long time their coverage seems to have improved in the last few years.
We got it due in a large part to the international options.