Using phones in other countries getting cheaper, easier (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
It’s getting cheaper and cheaper to use our mobile phones in other countries. Today, AT&T said that starting Friday, its customers can opt for the AT&T International Day Pass.
Day Pass allows you to talk, text and access data all you want (within the bounds of your current plan) in more than 100 countries. You’ll pay a $10 flat fee per day instead of the previously confusing and onerous per minute, message or megabyte fees.
Here’s how AT&T describes Day Pass benefits:
- Add to each device one time and it’s available whenever you travel within the 100+ countries until you remove the feature.
- Use in our most popular destinations in Europe, Asia and the Caribbean – like the U.K., France, Italy, China, India, Jamaica and the Bahamas – as well as all of Central and South America.
- Access your plan data and get unlimited calls within International Day Pass countries and back to the U.S., as well as unlimited texts to the world at no additional charge.
- Simply add AT&T International Day Pass to your devices on myAT&T.
This comes on the heels of Verizon’s late 2015 introduction of the helpful, cheaper TravelPass plan. And it all started with T-Mobile’s Simple Choice plan, offering free data and texting and 20-cent calls in 140+ countries.
This is how Verizon lets me know that I’ll be charged again using TravelPass
Verizon:
Verizon TravelPass is priced at $2 a day per line in Mexico and Canada and $10 a day in 100+ other countries— the plan lets you “take your domestic talk, text and data allowances with you,” Verizon says. Once you sign up for TravelPass, the fee kicks in when you receive a call, connect to a data service, or send a text inside one of the countries where it works. Once that 24 hours is up, the daily fee won’t kick in again until you receive a call, connect to a data service, or send a text – at which point another TravelPass day will begin.
I’m a Verizon guy, and have been very pleased with TravelPass, which removes the uncertainty and fear of outrageous bills for using your phone in other countries.
To sign up go to MyVerizon.com and select “manage international services” or use the MyVerizon app on your phone to activate it before embarking on a trip. Once at your destination, you’ll receive a text message welcoming you to the country and reminding you of the service and the daily fee.
T-Mobile:
T-Mobile has the most economical plan for international travelers– unlimited calling, data and texting in the U.S., Mexico, & Canada is automatically included with its Simple Choice plans.
The Simple Choice Plan also offers unlimited data and texting in what it says are “95% of the places Americans travel most” That is currently 140+ countries and destinations. Details on using T-Mobile overseas.
Here’s a link to Sprint’s international roaming plan.
Which plan do you use for overseas calling? How do you save money on international call? VOIP? Something else? Please leave your comments and tips below.
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I was going to use Verizon’s plan when wife and I went to Australia for 2 weeks. Then I realized that for two us to use our phones in the land down-under would cost $300. Wow, Verizon! And we still would have to deal with our data plan limitations…So I opted for a $50/mo plan before we left, with some data….I think it’s about 250 Mb or so of data, and some minutes. After 2 Uber rides, we were almost out – used about 180 Mb the first day. Big mistake, $50 down the drain…
The solution, which was simple and inexpensive: VodaFone, Verizon’s former world-wide partner, sold us a SIM card with 6 GB of data, unlimited in-country calling and texting, and 90 mins of int’l calls. Valid for 30 days. The cost? AU$20, or US$15. Problem solved!
P.S. Though I have a Verizon service, my hand-me-down iPhone 5s took a VodaFone SIM card and worked right away. No worries, mate!
I think it has to do with the great GSM/CDMA divide… but not sure.
I just checked the list of countries and Indonesia/Bali and Japan! are not included!
Two of the biggest countries in Asia are not included. What is wrong with them?
Officially, it only works on the Nexus 6, Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, Pixel, and Pixel XL. Those phones allows the SIM card to swap across the different carriers’ towers with no hiccups. But you can stick it into any phone, and it will get service.
Brian: Does Google Fi only work on Android phones?
Thanks
I use Google Project Fi. I get LTE service around the globe. Texting is free internationally. For calls, I pay VOIP rates. They charge me $10/GB regardless of whether I’m in the states or not.
thanks! We updated Sprint link with this URL.
AT&T plan includes data
AT&T plan does include data
Actually, Sprint has Open World, which gives you free talk, text, and 3G in all of the Americas. For the rest of the world, their international roaming plan gives you free texts and 2G data, with a low cost for calls, and several inexpensive 3G packages.
Ten dollars a day from AT&T to talk and text, with no data (!!!) is not a good deal at all.
No data… worthless.
I would not say that T-Mobile’s free 2.5G-speed roaming is comparable to the usury of AT&T/Verizon’s plans. It’s unfair to even characterize them as being in the same ball park.
Protect Fi is the best deal, $10 per GB, lte speeds in Europe, fast enough for data voice calls over Skype, 1 hour call it’s usually about $0.45 of data use.
to be fair, you can pay for blocks of high speed data on T-mobile. And their newer plans have marginally faster roaming built in, but not by much. To their credit, texting, maps and basic google searches and articles load quick enough. Don’t expect to stream YouTube while waiting for a train in Paris or anything.
Not sure about that, but good news for Tmobile customers! When I’ve written about this previously, I rec’d many complaints about “getting what you pay for” with Tmobiles slow data roaming in other countries.
I use T-Mobile, and last summer they had all you can eat LTE speed roaming in Europe and I must say it spoiled me. Will Veriozn or ATT offer full speed while abroad within your data plan?