Andrew

You almost certainly can use your Verizon phone with T-Mobile, especially if you used it in Europe. T-Mobile uses GSM technology and so do the mobile companies in Europe (which are Verizon's roaming partners). Newer smart phones can roam on GSM networks, even if they are designed for Verizon's (and Sprint's) CDMA networks. Older flip phones for Verizon (no SIM card) can't work on T-Mobile and can't work in Europe, but today's smart phones are different; Verizon's newer smart phones have SIM cards.

Verizon doesn't lock it's 4GLTE phones - they aren't allowed to, per agreement with the FCC. If your phone is paid off and 4GLTE, you can almost certainly switch if you want to. I used a Verizon 4GLTE phone for over a year on T-Mobile's network.

The bigger issue for you may be that T-Mobile might not have great coverage where you happen to live in the US. Some people complain about this - depends what coverage is like where you live and use your phone. I had great T-Mobile coverage for the many years that I used it but in some rural areas Verizon is probably a lot better.

Still, I wouldn't switch to T-Mobile unless it truly saves you a lot of money over the course of, say, a year. Saving a few bucks in Europe once a year may not be worth it.

Andrew

And if you seriously want to consider moving to T-Mobile with your existing phone: ask someone whether your phone has LTE bands 2, 4, and 12 - the primary bands (frequencies) T-Mobile uses for 4G service. No, I don't expect you to know that means :-; - but you can ask someone who does, and if your phone has those bands, it should work beautifully with T-Mobile.

rs899

Sue4

You can look up your phone on the website gsm arena and see specifically what bands and frequencies it covers.

For what it is worth, I am in Paris now roaming with a ThreeUK sim . I am getting good speeds and coverage here, as I did in Amsterdam. My wife is also using a phone that has a ThreeUK sim in it (Freedompop) and we are using Hangouts to communicate with each other when we get separated by crowds etc. It's handy.

Sue4

Thanks for the information. I probably won't change to T-Mobile, as with activation fees etc. it might not be worth it. I'm retired and don't use my cell phone all that much. I just get irritated paying Verizon $60/month. I know I'm a good candidate for those cheap services like Cellular One, but I don't want to give up my iPhone Plus! And my apps!

Andrew

If you bought your iPhone from Apple, you might consider switching to Tello. This is a prepaid service I switched to a few months ago. They run on the Sprint network (most likely not as good as Verizon's, but personally, I've had great coverage with Tell). You can buy credit to pay per minute, per text, or per MB of data use - or buy a monthly plan. Or a little of both. I'm currently paying about $12/month for my plan, though I don't use my phone that much, and I make free calls on WiFi.

An iPhone you bought from Verizon may or may not work with Tello - not sure. But there are lots of cheaper mobile companies than paying $60/month for Verizon, if you don't use the phone much. You can surely pay close to $30/month anyway.

In any event, your apps work the same whether you use Verizon, T-Mobile, Cellular One, or Tello. They just use WiFi or mobile data. Your apps won't stop working just because you switched from Verizon.

Laura5678

I rented from a company called iVideo Pocket WiFi this July and it worked pretty well. I was in UK, Spain and Italy and didn't have any problem connecting. The price was reasonable, we rented for 10 days for around $10 USD, they have sales quite often!

We thought about SIM cards before but because we were connecting with our phones and tablets too and SIM cards don't support that so we went for the pocket wifi in the end. Hope this helps!

StCirq

Stop advertising, Laura and your buddies. It's not allowed on Fodors.