Has anyone taken a project fi phone on a trip outside the US?

Mikhel

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Apr 27, 2010
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I travel extensively and got invited to project fi just before I left on a trip, which means my project fi kit has arrived while I am in Europe. I have T-Mobile on my current phones, so I am very familiar with the behavior of T-Mobile's free international data roaming and did a speed test while in Qatar. The speed was about 0.11 Mb/s in both directions, which is roughly what T-Mo advertises a being the free data speed (128kb/s).
Project fi advertises 256kb/s, so I'd love to hear of anybody's experience!
 

Andrew Martonik

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Aug 12, 2011
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Would be interested to hear from anyone who has made a trip with Fi as well. I'm going to try and get up to Vancouver to test it out (and write it up on AC), since I have experience using T-Mobile's free 2G service there, and have used the paid "3G" service on T-Mo in Europe.

On the face of it I think I prefer Fi's model, giving you 256kbps and using your regular data bucket instead of free 2G with paid buckets of 3G. At least for longer trips (week+), it's going to be far more cost effective to use Fi internationally.
 

Mikhel

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In terms of effectiveness, I am not sure which model is better. T-Mo allows you to pay to get faster speed, up to LTE. I've done that in Japan and it was not that great. There were still many places where the speed wasn't great. I think that fi should offer full speed if we are paying per GB. Or maybe a slightly higher rate (say $15/GB when outside the US), but I'd love to have LTE everywhere at a good price.

On the other hand, yesterday, in Ireland, I was able to make a hangout voice call on TMo free service that was pretty good. Before that, my mom started a video call and I could see her and hear her perfectly, but she clearly could not hear me well. Still impressive on a 128kbps connection. I am curious to see how well it will work under fi.
 

Andrew Martonik

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Yeah I think the issue with getting 3G vs LTE on these plans is the roaming agreements. Until very recently you couldn't even hop between European countries with a Euro service provider and get LTE roaming of any reasonable amount. Same goes for third-party roaming SIMs and services — they're pretty much all capped to HSPA+ data service.

My thought is that T-Mobile and Google just can't get deals to offer LTE roaming or a high level of service right now. When I paid for T-Mobile's speed upgrade in Spain earlier this year I was getting pretty middling 3G-like speeds, even though there was clearly LTE available and on bands my phone could support. In this case I really prefer just paying $10 per GB for Fi rather than the much higher T-Mo prices.

And definitely agree on the hangouts voice call point. People don't always realize how extremely low bandwidth phone calls are. You can easily make a VOIP call on an EDGE connection — I made a ton of Hangouts VOIP calls while in Paris earlier this year on the free T-Mobile roaming. Worked great.
 

byitb

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Having traveled outside the states, I can say that it works as advertised. I've been able to get H speeds most of the time (it sometimes does drop to 3G but resolves itself on its own). The speeds are fast enough for me to browse the web, make hangout VOIP calls and check things like instagram and such without much frustration. Heavy youtubing and video calling are a different story.
There is one quirk when going international. The usage they charge is separate from the usage you use in the US. I'm on the 2gb/month plan. On top of the 2gb plan they charge you by the mb ON TOP of what you already pay for domestic. I used 0.057 gigs so my bill next month will have an additional $0.57 added to the 2gb they already charge. I contacted google about it and they say it's because sometimes it takes awhile for the foreign carrier to send the usage total and so they keep it separate so one doesn't interfere with the other. It makes sense to me.
 

mallocfailure

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Yup, I've taken 2 international trips so far.
A couple weeks ago I was in the Bahamas. Neither Project Fi nor T-Mobile works there. I was plesantly surprised how well everything worked just over wifi, however.
Last week I was in Paris, France. I had fantastic coverage everywhere. After an initial anxious couple of minutes when my data showed roaming, it all clicked over and I had H or even LTE everywhere I went. Speed was fine - definitely not as fast as stateside, but more than sufficient for maps & light web activity.
 

audibink

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I am heading to Amsterdam, Belgium, Paris, Switzerland, Italy in couple weeks. They are claiming I am good everywhere but Amsterdam. Excited yet nervous. Will be a big test!

I take that back... they told me it wont work in Amsterdam but Netherlands is on the list!
 
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Mack Manning

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I have used Fi without issue in Germany, France, Sweden, Argentina and Brazil. I also tethered my laptop in each country and used VPN. No problems. It seems to roam exactly the same as T-Mobile, except the speed is 256kb instead of 128kb.
 

hiupdown

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I am a pilot and travel internationally almost everyday. Works great to call/text/data back home. Only place it didn't seem to work for me was Bahamas and Belize. They aren't on the list of places it should work though. I've actually be able to use Fi in non supported countries and it would just list the usage as "Jamaica". Works for me!
 

Jerod Singley

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It works great in Canada and most of Europe but it's noticeably slow, like don't upload photos slow, usable but very slow. My Verizon phone with international plan works much faster but expensive.

It's just fine for general use, messages (voxer, viber messages, hangouts, fb messenger) but don't try to do Skype or Voxer voice. Regular phone calls work great though. It's perfect to remain connected but if you want to upload a bunch of photos from your vacation you are still going to want to do so from the WiFi in the hotel. Browsing and occasional Instagram Selfie is fine though, just takes a little longer than you are used to.
 

zqz

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Have a scheduled trip from US to Asia in a few months. Will I be able to call US numbers from Tokyo, Hong Kong, Manila just simply by dialing or do I have to watch out for roaming charges ? As I understand it, the Nexus 6p should just automatically locate a WiFi and use VoIP to make the call ?
 

fleeper

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I am in Italy are the moment and the data service just doesn't work. Absolutely worthless here for data.

Posted via the Android Central App
 

exwannabe

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It varies by country, but from my experience:

. Once your phone registers in a new country, FI will send a text with a brief description of rates (almost useless).
. Data will just come out of the standard data bucket with no extra charge.
. Voice will be comparable to what you would pay with a local pay-as-you-go phone. very reasonable, no roaming.
. Be careful to not have others in that country call your number. It will circle the globe. Have them text and call back.

I would not count on the wifi-auto switchover unless you manually log in to a WIFI. Yes, the concept does work. But FI is unlikely to know logins for many over there.
 

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