International Usage?

[mikedhatz]

Hey all, new member here. I have an AT&T S6 Active. Love the phone, it's remarkably rugged for a ham fisted troglodyte such as myself.

Anyway, I am taking the family to London and Southern England over the Christmas holiday, and I had neglected to look into international phone usage until this morning. Seems that AT&T wants gazillions of dollars for the privilege of paying them gazillions more to use my phone overseas. I don't want to do much, other than be able to receive emergency phone calls and maybe send texts/make calls to wish my immediate and extended family a merry Christmas. Websites aren't super helpful, as they all seem Hell-bent on selling me something without getting too deep into the details of whether or not this is even going to meet my wants and needs.

Basically, is my phone factory unlocked, or do I have to somehow unlock it? Is my best option the AT&T international roaming plan, or can I unlock it and use a UK SIM card?

 

[gozirra]

A cheap UK SIM would probably be your best bet if you're not looking at an extended (months) stay. Vodaphone or Orange would probably be your best bet. There's a website that shows whether a particular model phone works on a particular carrier, and what features work/don't.

WillMyPhoneWork.net - Check if your phone works on a network

As for unlocking, as long as your bill is paid up AT&T will probably send you an unlock code/instructions free. Call them to find out.

 

[Phil Nickinson]

So the good news is that AT&T's better than it used to be. tl;dr is $30 for 120GB of data, $60 for 300MB of data, or $120 for 800MB. (We keep up with all that here: International data overseas: How the U.S. carriers stack up | Android Central) So if you want to just hop off the plane and have things work, there you go. I usually at least spring for the

But call AT&T first and see if they'll give you the unlock code. If your account's in good standing you might get lucky (GS6A is still pretty new, though, and they get wonky about that stuff.)

And if you're flying into LHR, you can get a SIM at a vending machine before you leave for pretty cheap.

 

[rong21]

I bought the $60 plan for my trip last summer and all worked out great. I probably could have gotten by with the smaller plan but felt it was better to buy what I did rather than chance not having enough and really get gouged.

 

[mikedhatz]

Thanks for the input, fellas. I really appreciate it.

Now, as for the UK SIM cards, will those enable me to call to the US if needed without exorbitant fees? It sounds like most of them allow for incoming calls without killing my budget.