Using Verizon in Europe
Oct 11th, 2016 | 12:51 PM
#41
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 52
Likes: 0
We have I-Phone 6S cell phones with Verizon and have also encountered several issues with texting outside WiFi on trips to France and Spain.
On a trip last month to Spain, my travel companions & I were having intermittent problems with texting on our I-Phones so Verizon Tech Support suggested we turn off IMessage when we were outside of WiFi which they said forces the text message to go through SMS even if you're texting another IPhone. That did seem to help. When we were back in WiFi we tried to remember to turn IMessage back on.
Since I had purchased the $5/day Verizon international plan (ordinarily it's $10/day but they had a sale) I also used WhatsApp to send all local texts (to my B&B, tour guides, local friends, etc) and had no problem. That's the app most of Europe uses for texting. WhatsApp does use a small amount of data when not in WiFi but since I was using the $5/day Verizon int'l plan, I did not have the usual data usage restrictions.
On a trip last month to Spain, my travel companions & I were having intermittent problems with texting on our I-Phones so Verizon Tech Support suggested we turn off IMessage when we were outside of WiFi which they said forces the text message to go through SMS even if you're texting another IPhone. That did seem to help. When we were back in WiFi we tried to remember to turn IMessage back on.
Since I had purchased the $5/day Verizon international plan (ordinarily it's $10/day but they had a sale) I also used WhatsApp to send all local texts (to my B&B, tour guides, local friends, etc) and had no problem. That's the app most of Europe uses for texting. WhatsApp does use a small amount of data when not in WiFi but since I was using the $5/day Verizon int'l plan, I did not have the usual data usage restrictions.
Oct 11th, 2016 | 01:21 PM
#42
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,728
Likes: 0
Just back from France and Italy.
For Sprint Android users, International Data and Roaming are both FREE service. We had unlimited free texting and unlimited (2G) data. Calls were 20 cents a minute.
We really loved this plan - we were able to use Google Maps everywhere. I thought the 2G speed would be too slow to check restaurant ratings etc but it worked on the fly.
No extra charges except for the few phone calls.
For Sprint Android users, International Data and Roaming are both FREE service. We had unlimited free texting and unlimited (2G) data. Calls were 20 cents a minute.
We really loved this plan - we were able to use Google Maps everywhere. I thought the 2G speed would be too slow to check restaurant ratings etc but it worked on the fly.
No extra charges except for the few phone calls.
Oct 11th, 2016 | 01:33 PM
#43
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 21,369
Likes: 0
Sprint's free international roaming (with 20 cents/minute calls) looks like a match of T-Mobile's plan - must be new, hadn't heard of it before. It appears to be a "limited time offer" according to this:
https://www.sprint.com/landings/inte...value-roaming/
but it's a good step. AT&T and Verizon have both been forced to lower the cost of international roaming. I suspect it will basically be free in a few years on all US wireless carriers.
I do have a Sprint phone too (activated on Ring+ on a free plan - basically a spare phone), and I believe it has GSM roaming capability but I suspect it would be slow "Edge" data only. Unfortunately, because Sprint still uses CDMA in the US, I doubt I could put a Sprint SIM into a different GSM phone while traveling to get better data speeds. I was able to do this with T-Mobile this year, and it worked because T-Mobile also uses GSM in the US.
https://www.sprint.com/landings/inte...value-roaming/
but it's a good step. AT&T and Verizon have both been forced to lower the cost of international roaming. I suspect it will basically be free in a few years on all US wireless carriers.
I do have a Sprint phone too (activated on Ring+ on a free plan - basically a spare phone), and I believe it has GSM roaming capability but I suspect it would be slow "Edge" data only. Unfortunately, because Sprint still uses CDMA in the US, I doubt I could put a Sprint SIM into a different GSM phone while traveling to get better data speeds. I was able to do this with T-Mobile this year, and it worked because T-Mobile also uses GSM in the US.
Oct 11th, 2016 | 01:36 PM
#44
Joined: Jun 2016
Posts: 5,564
Likes: 12
I did the ten dollar a day with Verizon. I only used it once. We messaged through Facebook using my kindle fire and used Viber. We had wifi in our apartments and hotel and on the train so was no biggie. It was nice not being tied to your phone.
