10/10

Que temas usas para los colores azules en el explorer? sin el blur....

If you are gone for a month, I would just stay on cricket. If cricket has wifi calling you can still use it

I have heard that AT&T does not permit 2FA SMS over WiFi calling abroad. Unsure if this extends to Cricket. But honestly, I would recommend switching all your lines to Tello anyway. That way, when abroad, you can call internationally for free to many countries

Hi! I just took off from the US to live abroad. I previously had a T-Mobile plan and used Tello on the advice of this sub. It's been great so far! What I did is as follows, unsure if it will help your situation but maybe for someone else visiting this sub in the future:

1. Two days before leaving, I opened a "Pay as you go" account on Tello and added $20 to my account. I then called T-Mobile and switched/ported my number over to Tello, so I'm no longer a T-Mobile customer. It took less than a minute for my number to move over using the instructions on the Tello website. I then just had Tello on my phone under my phone number.

*Note that while text/call is cheap, data rates are expensive, so in those last couple of days I was mostly on airplane mode when not on Wifi to keep costs down.

2. Right before leaving, I added the Airalo app for easy e-sim/data access anywhere in the world. I paid for and added an e-sim for my destination, Hong Kong. I didn't activate it for cellular yet and kept cellular on Tello. Important to note - I have learned since leaving the US that it is best to turn International Roaming (on the Tello app) and Data Roaming (in iPhone settings) both on before taking off on the plane/going on airplane mode. This will enable you to have data when you land just until you at least get the e-sim working.

3. Upon landing in Hong Kong, I turned off airplane mode and was connected to the internet (at costly Tello rate, but only briefly). I activated my Airalo Hong Kong e-sim and changed the settings in my iPhone Cellular tab so that texts/calls were using my Tello phone number, and data was using my Airalo e-sim. I made sure to toggle off the option to automatically switch data so that my Tello would not be using data. I also made sure my Tello phone number settings were set to allow WiFi calling. From

*Note that if you're having issues getting the Airalo e-sim to work at first, follow instructions in the app to ensure you're connected to the right network. I had to turn off automatic network selection and manually select the network the app said to connect to.

All of these steps essentially allow you to keep your USA phone number on Tello and just pay for texts/calls on an as-needed basis using Wifi/data. It works not by connecting your Tello number to cellular, but by connecting your Tello number to Wifi/data. As long as your phone has a way of connecting to the internet (in my case by Wifi or my data-only e-sim), the texts and calls on your primary Tello phone number will work. It's basically your Tello e-sim piggybacking off your data/Airalo (or other) e-sim.

Hope this helps someone!

Following - I’m in USA and going to travel abroad soon 

I use Aldi-Talk, easy to set up and still have service even when hiking. Right now there's even a special for 25GB/ 10 Euros monthly or 50GB/ 15 Euros monthly and you still have access in Italy. Just pick a sim card up when you visit at any Aldi

Cheapest is probably an O2 reseller like Aldi Talk.
It works ok most times but reception outside of populated areas can be spotty and you'll have bad or no network in events with lots of people due to being deprioritized compared to basically everyone else.

Telekom is by far the best network in Germany but it's also super expensive. I personally use a reseller like Congstar which makes it more palatable.

Whatever you do just don't go to Vodafone. Not only is their price/performance not competitive, but the company is also super predatory and will keep trying to upsell and trick you into paying extra for everything they can legally get away with.

Telekom prepaid M, if you don’t need 50Gb per month(god knows why?) and 15Gb is enough for you. You get the best reachability for your money.

https://www.telekom.de/unterwegs/tarife-und-optionen/prepaid-tarife/magentamobil-prepaid-m/details

You can also check out Fraenk. They have a pretty simple and straight forward ordering system. Plus afaik they have switzerland included in the EU roaming which can be a massive benefit of you are from the bordering part of Italy.

I‘m with sim.de and quite happy.

Currently there’s a promo deal, 50 GB for 9€/month or 70 GB for 13€.

I think the obama phone program is over.

Word. There's plenty of them out there now Assurance, SafeLink,...etc. Those dudes sit outside, TAD offices. Alll you need is a food card or your govt. med card or whatever and an ID . They got phones at the booth. OR you can grab the plan online with a qualifying "I'm Poor' document. Whatever, I do it. Decent phone, no payment, they cap data after 25G/mo but don't turn it off, just throttle. Signals cool cause it's a bouncer so it's not tied to any network in particular. And they transferred my # no problem.

ooooohhh the govt. is monitoring me....yep....you just figured that out? get a free phone at least..

Thing to try (not sure if it will work) - buy a trackphone from Dollar General to get a number, and then sign up to google voice.

Zoom also has a VOIP option for like $15 a month. However, if you are getting to that point, Mint is pretty good, but you have to buy at least 3 months at a time.

I switched to tello from skype.

I was really bummed out when skype announced that they were discontinuing service because I live overseas and its really difficult for me to get a US phone number. One of my coworkers told me about tello so I transferred my skype number to them and now am just sitting with the $5 per month plan.

So you’d rather not have a phone than deal with some paperwork? 

I've been with Mint for 2 years and love the coverage, plus great price.

Boost mobile grab their annual plan when on sale then you’re all set for the year. When it runs out move to another provider that’s on sale for a month then move back all while keeping the same number.

Boost yearly plan or Aldi mobile. Though I have heard Aldi will be going up in price.

And 10% off the mobile plan

Not my experience coming to them off Telstra

>We use parts of Telstra’s mobile network

https://www.belong.com.au/go/mobile/coverage-map

I recently switched after being with Telstra post-paid for 14 years. The switch over was quick and easy (I ordered a physical SIM). I need Telstra because I travel so much for work and end up in pretty remote places, but I was so sick of their monthly price hikes. Zero complaints with Boost so far… but as someone mentioned, they are now fully owned by Telstra so I guess they have a big company behind them.

Vodaphone sucks in my area unfortunately.

Boost, only provider to give full Telstra Prepaid Network coverage I believe… $365 for 365GB data valid for 12 months.

Oh interesting. I was going to say Coles Mobile 1 year for 170 but there's no discount. maybe I should switch when this expires - I didn't get the discount second year around so it's not as good as year 1.

Google Fi is expensive, but with the rise of two-factor authentication I’ve found it’s the only workable option. Services like Magic Jack and Google Voice don’t let you receive “short code” messages that come from businesses rather than people, and other U.S. carriers that do (like T-Mobile, as somebody else pointed out) will kick you off eventually for being overseas. I definitely made out okay using cheap local plans and changing my number every tour earlier in my career, but it’s gotten tougher and tougher with these layers of security (along with my willingness to pay for convenience going up, probably).

I had both in my current post for 6 months each. In the same locations, Google Fi’s automatic network selection would pick a worse provider (0-2 bars of 3G vs 1-2 bars of LTE). Doing manual network selection is a way to get around that - and we do - but it’s very inconvenient to manually change providers for different locations and have to trial-and-error which providers work best in which locations.

On top of that, we’re having issues since switching we’ve never had before. Longer time to connect to a new country’s network after arriving. Data completely dropping and requiring a phone restart to reconnect again. Happened on my device and my husband’s without obvious rhyme or reason, only after switching to Google Fi.

It has been a stark and noticeable drop in consistency and quality that requires us to be more attentive to counteract. I should have been more clear, but that’s what I meant by better coverage - not that they have access to different providers.

Fi is the only option. Idk why this is an ongoing topic. It works better than any available service and is significantly easier than going out of your way for a local sim. The cost is on par with every other service provider.

I'm a loyal Fi user of five years. No regrets, it usually works and is super easy. No more hunting for local sim providers, no issues with two factor identification. It's worth it for me.

Google Fi is the only answer!

I like the convenience of having a US phone number and a single SIM / payment that can work anywhere. Local plans are usually a cheap supplement, so if needed I just add one as a secondary SIM.

Google Fi is definitely the easier option to set up and maintain given their official roaming exception and app-based set-up. But T-Mobile has much much much better coverage globally, so long as they don’t kick you off the plan for extreme roaming.

We switched from T-Mobile to Google Fi and regret the loss of connection quality / consistency. But still more convenient and preferable to just a local SIM and having to figure out an alternative every time we’re back in the US.

Just use good fi for voice and text and data only esim for data. The fi 3 month limit is only for data.

I use holafly, unlimited data and some phone minutes that I have never used.

+1 for Mobimatter. However, if possible, I try to do local esims since they're generally cheaper

many use Tello with luck. T-Mobile limits to 3 months roaming

Mobimatter (data only) or eSIM. Net

Thank you both!

buy a local sim card for data and any local calls for that much time abroad, and use the Google voice app for US service with a google voice number.

Get a dual sim card phone. Local sim for data. I use T Mobile for my US number. It's still a bit high at 80usd a month, but sometimes you need a us actual number.

I always have a local sim for data and then I get a basic pay as you go US plan that includes wifi calling (mint mobile is one option.) I only use my US number over wifi, and then only when I'm abroad for taking care of things like calling the US or getting text codes for banking etc.

Google voice was my solution for a long time, but banks are starting to disallow some of the Google voice numbers for 2FA and I think you need to register your Google voice number to a real US number to make calls.

Use a local sim for data.

If you don't wanna do that, look at Airalo.

If you need a US number for 2FA try Mint or Google Fi though you'd need to be in the US to activate them.

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