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Comment by jc_811 | Hacker News Reader

I would love to leave T-Mobile, but they are the only carrier in the US who offers such a core piece of functionality for me: International service included out-of-the-box.

I love to travel, and nothing beats being able to land in (pretty much) any country in the world, turn on your phone and have working service just like that. No SIM cards, no different numbers, no local pre-paid cards, and no crazy international fees.

As someone who enjoys work/travel for weeks to months at a time, every other major carrier is not feasible for this (think 10$/day, which becomes unreasonable when you're out of the country for 3+ weeks).

Unless somebody else could recommend another option it seems I'm stuck with T-Mobile for now.

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This is the only reason I switched to T-Mobile originally and the only reason I still have them. Their coverage is so poor that I get no LTE service sitting in my house in a core part of the major metro area. I'm only able to maintain them because they were an early and ardent adopter of WiFi Calling. On a recent trip in the US I had no service off major interstate highways. Internationally though, T-Mobile is amazing. I honestly wish my experience in the US was as good as my experience while traveling... there's not much point in having uncapped LTE when you get 1 or 0 bars of service, at least internationally I get great service even if it is speed capped at 256kbps.

FWIW, I found the coverage to get a lot better when I got a 5G phone.

Does your phone support band 71 (600 MHz)? This band is only a few years old, and T-Mobile has been deploying it as their primary long-range, building-penetrable band. It's unsupported on phones made before approximately 2018.

Band 12 fulfills the same role in some areas, and is supported on most phones, but T-Mobile doesn't have a nationwide license for it.

I now do Unlocked phone that supports eSim + Airalo app for intl data packs + Mint Mobile for the US, this works extremely well and is very cost effective.

With Wifi calling + texting, you can even use your US number internationally since it will work off the eSim data.

Google Fi does everything you ask for (and works with more phones that just those that Google manufactures).

As someone who used Google Fi for a while internationally, DO NOT get Google Fi! So many problems on an iPhone 7. Little to no connectivity in many places where they advertised having connectivity. This was ~2018-2020, so maybe it has improved, but I had such a bad experience with them.

I have a newfangled 5G phone that doesn't do 5G even though I'm in Los Angeles, so I was glad to switch from VZW to TMo, to make them buy my phone, then I switched back to VZW because TMo doesn't have 5G either, no matter the maps they show on TV.

I'd do Cincinnati Bell in a heartbeat, if I could.

If you're talking about UWD 5G, that shit is DTLA and a few other areas. Try it out! It's fast as shit when you can get it.

What if you never go international? That seems like a bad reason for -everyone- to drop them.

Oh god, their service was EVEN worse in the United States!! In major metropolitan cities, in San Francisco especially! I have never had a worse experience with a cell provider. And I use AT&T!

Google Fi is an MVNO of T-mobile/Sprint (last I checked anyways). so if T-mobile blocks the private relay for their network, it could affect them too.

Also, Google Fi kinda sucks. They used to be the cheapest, but nowadays you can get better prices from other services. For example, Google charges $10/gb/mo, whereas Mint Mobile (another T-mobile MVNO) charges 4gb for $15/mo, or $30 for unlimited.

Google Fi is only cheaper if you use less than 1.5gb of data per month, and the service quality is probably the same.

...and that's not even mentioning all the privacy concerns attached to Google.

The difference is that Google Fi runs at the top network priority. You can find loads of dirt-cheap MVNOs, but your data is at the back of the line if there's any congestion.

Getting top priority isn't worth that much of a premium.

It's exciting to watch how many years in a row they can stay at $10/GB, and not in a good way.

If that's a concern, you should just go with T-mobile directly then. They have a $60/mo plan with unlimited data, incl' 50gb of high priority data.

Fi caps out at $60/mo (so 6gb), after which you get unlimited data for "free". However, you only get 15gb of high priority.

I think Fi is trying to take advantage of the Google brand to sell MVNO service at a crazy markup.

But I use 1 gig of data a month. Why would I want to double my cell phone bill for exactly the same service?

That's still $30 a month when other MVNOs will give you 4GB for $15

The difference is that Google Fi runs at the top network priority. You can find loads of dirt-cheap MVNOs, but your data is at the back of the line if there's any congestion.

What are you going to do with 1gb of high priority data per month?

Get my vaccination card at the entrance to a stadium. Messaging, email, access my NAS at home through my VPN. Download a podcast or audiobook. I mean, the answer to that question is literally "anything except watch videos".

My car has an "unlimited" plan with AT&T, and holy crap, it's worthless. If I actually need to do something, like, now, usually I have to turn off my phone's wifi if the car's on.

And this isn't me modifying my behavior. If I had a habit of watching YouTube or Netflix from all over the place, I'd get a different phone plan. I'm not like penny pinching here. It's just that my current phone plan works, I like how easy it is to administer, and switching providers in a huge PITA for a family of 4, so something else better be damn good.

Google Fi has had alternative plans to the $10/GB one for a while now. Works out to be similar (slightly less) cost than going to T-Mobile, Verizon or another carrier direct. Still very happy with the service personally but they do also block iCloud Private Relay.

> ...and that's not even mentioning all the privacy concerns attached to Google.

Fi does not feed usage information or otherwise into the ad machine. See the privacy notice on https://fi.google.com/about/tos/

Google Fi has been blocking iCloud Private Relay for longer than T-Mobile. I’m a subscriber and it stopped working after the new iOS went to GA, but worked during the Developer Beta period.

Works for me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Have you considered Google Fi? I've used it for the better part of a decade now and its always been great, especially internationally. The plane touched down, I turn off airplane mode, and I get a notification from the Google Fi app, "Welcome to The Netherlands!"

Plus, it's primarily the T-Mobile network anyways with the addition of the US Cellular network and the old Sprint network.

I have AT&T and it's a toggle to turn it on but you're right about the $10/day. I've felt the sting many times.

When I travel anywhere for more than 5 days, I typically just buy a local sim card when I land. Usually saves a lot of money.

Sure, people can't call me on my usual number, but I see that as an additional benefit. I'm on vacation.

If you’re traveling for work, not being able to use your usual number is a problem.

That's why many phones come with two SIM slots, and eSIM is starting to get popular ( on top of one or two physical slots). That way you can keep both your usual number and your local card in use simultaneously.

Google fi? service probably isnt as good as t mobile though

Google Fi is T-mobile service in the US (and Sprint, which T-mobile acquired).

Google Fi uses T-Mobile in the background. Depending on what you mean by "service probably isnt [sic] as good", you may either be wrong or be making a niche point.

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