Nowadays, the main US carriers are offering “free roaming” or the opportunity to use the local paid data abroad for an extra fee. Yeah, it seems easy. However, beyond this isn’t a cheap option to have data abroad, there are hidden roaming policies. It’s challenging to know exactly where you’re covered, and for what. Some carriers offer full-speed roaming in certain countries, slow roaming in others, and per-megabyte charges in some countries.
Then, trying to understand the roaming coverage is difficult and the big thing missing is the differences in the type of roaming coverage you get because different speeds apply depending on the carrier and the country. T-Mobile offers 2G data in 140 countries; it is a pokey 128Kbps everywhere which is not usable data. You can upgrade this by paying an extra fee, but after you have reached 10 Gb they reduce your speed and when you are not connected to their hotspots the speed is only 256 kbps.
Sprint has a similar offer, but if you want full-speed data you will have to pay for depending on where you go and how much you use. The most analogous alternative is Verizon's TravelPass. When they announced their new international phone and data plan, it was pretty big news. But, the reality is that you only get 512 Mb of high-speed data a day before they start throttling speeds.
On the other hand, AT&T doesn’t offer free data roaming, you need to pay in order to get 4G roaming under unlimited Wi-Fi and a data pack. But, the hotspot isn’t available in many countries, and the data pack is small, so even caring a lot the data usage, you will spend it in 1-2 days.
All these offers are per line, so it could get very expensive to connect your whole family or friends. Then, having many data roaming offers without a high-speed guarantee and enough data for the family/friends is frustrating because the least you want in your trip is to end up running out of data or with a slow speed that doesn’t allow using the data. There are many repeated bad experiences from these carriers’ users when they went abroad and used the service, some are:
- The speed was slow all time, and it was hard to use Google maps. When it worked, it took us around 40 seconds to fully load the directions.
- The calls through Facebook messenger dropped.
- My phone was on 2G when it was supposed to be on 4G. The pictures on Facebook didn’t charge.
- Speed slow, loading my Instagram timeline took like one minute and the same with Snapchat. Texts sent easily via text app, but to send pictures I had to retry.
- I wasn’t able to load a video on YouTube that I wanted to watch.
- So yes, speed was slower than in the US, I just used to stay up to date on email and messaging.
- In China, for example, they have really slow 2G speeds and it is quite annoying.
These fake offers are so exhausting! The good thing is that there is a solution to stop being disappointed. While traveling, a Pocket Wi-Fi is the best option to stay connected. It gives you access to a high-speed internet in a cheap, convenient, safe, and stable basis. A Pocket Wi-Fi is a light and portable device that works as a wireless hotspot to connect your phone to a 4G LTE network, so you can hop on from one country to another and keep connected. It is easy to carry on anywhere. Moreover, it allows you connecting up to 10 devices (smartphones, tablet, laptop, etc). And there is no need to worry about the contract, either. You pay only for the days you are using the Pocket Wi-Fi!
Read here for more details and options for renting a Pocket Wi-Fi for Europe.
