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Using your phone when traveling can be a financial black hole. Upon your return home you can end up with an unpleasant surprise in the shape of a hefty bill of overages if you're not careful — thankfully mobile phone providers realize they need to make things more reasonable for their customers. The latest is AT&T which is now catching up with its main competitors T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon and has made several changes to its roaming services, with the aim of making things simpler.
International Day Pass
The new service AT&T are rolling out is the International Day Pass. The new service allows you to pay a flat daily rate of $10. For your money, you get to use the minutes, texts, and data included in your allowance at no extra cost. The plan is available for use in more than 100 countries for which AT&T has agreements. The plan also covers free calls back to the US. Using the International Day Pass service is very easy and can be added and removed from the myAT&T app on your phone. The new service goes live on Friday, January 27, 2017.
Other Options
While the new plan is a great addition, it still can work out to be pretty expensive if you are heading overseas for any length of time; even a 1-week vacation will run to $70. There are several other options available. The most complex is buying a local SIM card, although it is often the cheapest. Alternatively, you can opt for T-Mobile’s international data roaming, which lets your roam in over 120 countries without any additional data charges. Finally, you can opt for Google’s Project Fi service. There are a bunch of options for international roaming, and if you're regularly traveling overseas, you should consider what makes the most sense for you.
Conclusion
Any move by a telecom provider to provide simpler and cheaper options for roaming is a good thing. Hopefully, the competitiveness of the market will in the long run force providers to give their customers all-inclusive data roaming, as is common in most European markets.
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I have been using T-mobile int’l roaming for a few years now, works in the most unexpected places – Cambodia anyone – and is pretty much free for data.
Planning some international travel for this spring and this article is a good place to start. Most advice I’ve been given so far regards SIM cards.
Seems all the carriers are working on this.
Nice to know, but if I’m on vacation overseas one of the last things I want to be looking at is my phone :). I vacate to get away from such things.
Finally a different option, though not really cost-effective for long trips, it’s at least a step in the right direction.
Definitely nice for convenience but way more expensive than other options
The best option is usually to get a local sim card with data, and use VoIp services to make calls, and send texts.
About time they got in the game!
Agree with the folks who commented about what’s app, but this is a great option for locations with limited wifi!
Good move by AT&T.. What about Sprint??
Is there a website or blog that posts a comparison of all the international roaming capability and charges of the various cellphone carriers?
My favorite: http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Prepaid_SIM_with_data
T-Mobile is much better for this.
If there is wifi you can make video calls directly through Facebook… this being said $10 a day is a great way to be sure you’ll have phone and internet access in a foreign place…
I try to use google voice when I’m overseas, and make calls only when I have internet data. Not the safest plan, but definitely cheapest.
Already use this on Verizon and love it! Good job ATT!
While a nice change for existing AT&T customers, this is not nearly as good as the approach to int’l roaming charges T-Mobile offers. If we’re being honest, this “day pass” concept doesn’t even make AT&T competitive with T-Mobile in this arena, IMHO.
Anyone used Virgin Mobile in Cancun? I’m curious if mine will work or if I will need International Long Distance.
The AT&T day plan seems to make the most sense if you’re only going to use it 1 or 2 days. Otherwise, spending 5-minutes to pick up a local SIM at your destination airport is the way to go. Another benefit to going local is that AT&T’s roaming partner in your destination country aren’t always the ones with the best coverage network.
I just traveled to Italy. i never told t-mobile i was going and and yet everything went smoothly. Not only did I get great phone service, but the texting, data, hotspot, and talk were included.
I’ve been using WhatsApp with available free wifi to make my international calls when overseas. I may look into the AT&T plan, though as I often find myself in areas where wifi is challenging to find.
I use What’s App too, but this is helpful for areas without easy access to wifi. I don’t think there is a charge on days you don’t use it either, so it’s a great secondary option.
tmobile for international roaming is much easier.
Great option for a lot of people.
It’s about time they catch up!
Finally the wireless companies are getting competitive on overseas usage. It should get cheaper as other companies competing with global travelers
Verizon’s international option is pretty decent although T-Mobile and Project Fi are still far superior. Simply because of the fact that Project Fi doesn’t work with basic phones, I can’t bring my father over to Project Fi which makes leaving Verizon that much harder. T-Mobile may end up being the winner of my family plan business.
Not bad. Communications have become easier with the advent of WhatsApp, etc, but sometimes you just need a phone. That’s definitely still one of the next frontiers for a global world.
Using Skype seems to still make the most sense and then you don’t have hidden surprises in the phone bill.
I use Facetime when overseas, it saves me a lot of money.
I already use this on Verizon! It works great and there aren’t any surprises when you get your phone bill. Glad to see ATT following along!
t mobile is still much cheaper if used for any length of time
Take a look at Google’s Project Fi. Its phones also work overseas in about 135 countries, without doing anything special. I called South America from Italy for 20 cents a minute.
I’m glad most major carriers have started to make international use cheaper
Is this really the cheapest option in the age of skye, viber , facebook and other means of communications?
This is certainly a great new option, but IMHO T-mobile’s roaming plan is still much better.