switching to tmobile from OUTSIDE the US

[walterkurtz]

does anyone know if i can switch to tmobile while i am outside the US?

i came to europe for a few months, and left verizon for google fi. i hoped this would save me money as the last time i was here verizon charged me something like $600 for a month. google fi has been problematic since i arrived. the most major problem: i havent had a voicemail box for 3 weeks. in addition, caller ID works sporadically. and today i can't call numbers in portugal from portugal. considering the amount of time i have spent with google fi support i can state unequivocally that their customer service is ineffective at best. all that being said, data is fine. i am able to navigate etc without issue.

tmobile has an international plan called magenta plus that looks good for a frequent traveler. i spoke to a woman at t mobile customer support who said they are unable, however, to ship a SIM card to me in europe. she suggested i stop in a tmobile store next time i am in the US and pick one up. unfortunately i have no plans to return to the US in the near future. i am wondering....can they ship a SIM to my brother in the US and he sends it to me? or would i need to be in the US and/or in a tmobile store to activate service and/or port my number from google? sorry, these are probably luddite questions. but i really don't know how these things work. all i know is google fi doesn't.

thank you!!

 

[hallux]

i came to europe for a few months, and left verizon for google fi.

Not really related to your question but I wanted to comment on this. I point you to the TOS you agreed to when signing up for Fi - https://fi.google.com/about/tos/ . If your intended use was as you quoted, that does not fall within the TOS so you were/are likely to have service terminated soon anyway, with possible loss of your phone number. Someone else has posted here with that exact result - https://forums.androidcentral.com/g...ification-we-were-lied-company-employees.html

The Services are offered only to residents of the United States. The Services must be primarily used in the United States and are not intended for extended international use. Further, the Services are designed for use predominantly within our network. If your usage outside our network is excessive, abnormally high, or cause us to incur too much cost, we may, at our option and sole discretion, suspend your Google Fi account, terminate your service, or limit your use of roaming.

Maybe your best option, for now, is to port your number to Google Voice (or convert it to Google Voice), get a local SIM for the duration of your stay with that number registered as a forwarder for Google Voice, then port your number to T-Mobile when you return.

 

[Ry]

I'm with hallux.

Also, is there a specific reason you don't want to switch to a carrier in Europe?

 

[walterkurtz]

Not really related to your question but I wanted to comment on this. I point you to the TOS you agreed to when signing up for Fi - https://fi.google.com/about/tos/ . If your intended use was as you quoted, that does not fall within the TOS so you were/are likely to have service terminated soon anyway, with possible loss of your phone number. Someone else has posted here with that exact result - https://forums.androidcentral.com/g...ification-we-were-lied-company-employees.html



Maybe your best option, for now, is to port your number to Google Voice (or convert it to Google Voice), get a local SIM for the duration of your stay with that number registered as a forwarder for Google Voice, then port your number to T-Mobile when you return.

i agree. oddly my other google voice number (connected to a different gmail account) was able to successfully call the portuguese numbers today.

by the way are you saying i am not able to open a tmobile account or move my number from fi to tmobile from abroad?

 

[walterkurtz]

I'm with hallux.

Also, is there a specific reason you don't want to switch to a carrier in Europe?

i am not sure how long i will be here. so i was hoping to keep my american number and not pay hundreds of dollars a month with a US carrier if it ended up being months. i’m learning as i go. but i did read several blog posts from expat/digital nomad types stating that google voice was the way to go.

 

[hallux]

by the way are you saying i am not able to open a tmobile account or move my number from fi to tmobile from abroad?

If T-Mobile won't send a SIM card overseas I guess the answer would be no. You could have someone forward the card if you have it shipped to them.

If you are referring to the TOS I was referring to - that was related to your Fi account.

 

[walterkurtz]

If T-Mobile won't send a SIM card overseas I guess the answer would be no. You could have someone forward the card if you have it shipped to them.

If you are referring to the TOS I was referring to - that was related to your Fi account.

understood thank you. i’ve been reading since the last post and now i’m confused if i would be porting my number to google voice from fi. or if my number was ported to voice from verizon and fi is simply the carrier. you used the phrase “convert it to google voice” earlier. thanks for your help.

 

[hallux]

Fi is effectively Google Voice but with actual cellular service associated with it, which is why Google Voice can't forward to a Fi number.

AC actually has an article on this! It's 3 years old but I'm not sure much, if anything, has changed. https://www.androidcentral.com/moving-project-fi-back-google-voice

 

[IHateMyTreo]

Just a heads up. T-Mo terminated our daughter's line for excessive roaming. She is a US resident going to school in Canada. Got a warning letter and then was terminated. No amount of pleading/explanation helped. Had to get her her own account with Bell. I would quit T-Mo if there was a better plan/carrier for international, but there isn't.

 

[walterkurtz]

Just a heads up. T-Mo terminated our daughter's line for excessive roaming. She is a US resident going to school in Canada. Got a warning letter and then was terminated. No amount of pleading/explanation helped. Had to get her her own account with Bell. I would quit T-Mo if there was a better plan/carrier for international, but there isn't.

thank you. it appears my best and only option is to try and park the number with google voice if possible.

so i tried to cancel fi this morning and move my number to google voice but that option is greyed out. chat with google fi customer support (AI?), per usual, was ineffective.

 

[hallux]

If you click the learn more link next to Google Voice, what does it say?

 

[walterkurtz]

If you click the learn more link next to Google Voice, what does it say?

very little and the same link customer support gave me over chat...

it's a bit shocking. but then google voice is a free service so what incentive does google have really to help me move my number there? i will look into porting to tmobile then over to google voice from there.