Simple Choice International Roaming

How T-Mobile Simple Choice Plan Performed IN Other Countries

As we planned our Trip Around the World, we knew the issue of communication would be a thorny one. Our idea was to keep an active journal of our adventures and experiences, so we'd need some sort of reliable plan for access to the Internet. Plus, our kids (and their parents) wanted to be able to keep in touch with friends and family members back home.

For as far back as we can remember, we've had AT&T. No, wait. That's not true. We got cell phones from L.A. Cellular way back in 1997, but they turned into Cingular, and that was gobbled up by SBC, which eventually turned back into AT&T. Or something like that. Anyway, we've actively never switched cell phone providers.

A Tale of Two Providers

However, AT&T is notorious for being expensive when roaming internationally. Just check Jeff Reifman's story about getting hit with $750 in roaming charges for one minute of using Google Maps to navigate while crossing the Canadian border. Yikes! We were probably going to be using our phones for navigation more than a few times, and there's no way we could afford those kinds of charges. And the AT&T international plans are way too expensive, and way too limiting, for what we are doing.

By contrast, T-Mobile promised free international mobile data up to your plan limit and free, unlimited international texting through their Simple Choice Plans. This was great news, so we switched from AT&T to T-Mobile. (We'd also been holding off on switching because of the false belief that we needed the grandfathered unlimited data plans.)

The Good Stuff!

First of all, the plan itself was cheaper than our plan though AT&T and we wouldn't incur international roaming charges. In fact, unless we make voice calls back to the U.S. (which we need to do every so often) our bill is always the same, no matter what country we happen to be in.

The Not As Good Stuff

The data for T-Mobile International Roaming is limited to 3G speeds, or, in remote areas, Edge (a/k/a 2.75G) or even, in the remotest areas, 2G speeds. With the exception of 2G, we usually enough connectivity to keep the navigation going, as well as texting and (sometimes) emailing, but forget about any sort of Facebooking, Instagramming, or web surfing (purely for information-gathering purposes, of course).

An Important Step: Turn on Data Roaming

Most importantly, don't forget to turn on roaming data (like we did the first day). Simple Choice International won't work without that.

The Simple Choice Experience, by Country

Here then, are our experiences, country by country, with Simple Choice. In each case, we list the T-Mobile roaming partner carriers that we connected with.

Carriers: Movistar

Fair 3G coverage in urban areas, but spotty Edge service in the smaller towns and rural communities.

Carriers: Movistar

Fair, but somewhat unreliable 3G connection in central Panama City. Spotty connections, and mostly Edge when we had it, in Casco Viejo. And, of course, nothing at all in the jungle.

Carriers: Movistar

We had no luck getting any sort of data connection in Santiago on either occasion we were there.

Carriers: Movistar

Moderate coverage, mostly Edge, but occasionally (and surprisingly) 3G on the whole island, with occasional outages.

Carriers: Vodafone NZ, Spark NZ, Telecom NZ

Good coverage on both islands, some limited connectivity in very remote areas, but overall, solidly 3G.

Carriers: Vodafone AU, Optus

Strong 3G coverage in Sydney and Melbourne metropolitan areas. Coverage was okay in the cities on Tasmania, but ranged from poor to mostly non-existent in small towns and the wilderness (as one would expect). Very inconsistent and poor coverage in the coastal towns along the Great Ocean Road, like Torquay. Good coverage in Perth and fair to spotty (sometimes none at all) in the Western Australia countryside between Goomalling and Dowerin.

CARRIERS: IND TELKOMSEL

Good 3G coverage in the area around Ubud.

CARRIERS: SGP-M1 (Mobile 1)

Solid 3G coverage in the entire area we were visiting (predominately the southern point of the city).

CARRIERS: smartone HK

Pretty good 3G coverage in all areas of Hong Kong we traveled in. But occasionally, the signal would get lost and required rebooting the device to get it back.

CARRIERS: NTT DOCOMO, JP DOCOMO, SOFTBANK

Intermittent 3G coverage in Tokyo. The signal was often lost, so it wasn't at all reliable—use it when you have it, because you never know when it's going to go away. Better luck in Osaka with 3G where it was usually pretty solid. 3G in Kytoto relatively strong. Good 3G coverage in Hiroshima, including the island area of Miyajima. On a return trip to Tokyo, 3G was much more reliable (in a different neighborhood).

CARRIERS: SK TELECOM

Strong, solid 3G all throughout Seoul.

CARRIERS: China Mobile, China Unicom

Edge Network throughout Beijing and Xi'an. Edge and sometimes a single, lonely G in Shanghai. The connection would often reset, and we'd frequently get a strange "Restricted Access Changed."

Carriers: VN Mobifone, VN Vinaphone, Viettel

Strong, solid 3G all throughout Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Spotty coverage alternating between 3G and Edge on or 32-hour ride on the Reunification Express. Although this all changed 1 January 2015 when speeds were throttled to 2G and then turned off entirely on 14 January (see our T-Mobile Vietnam update for more details).