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Comment by beseku | Hacker News Reader

I've just come back from Europe (Spain) for the the first time with my operator and their new free roaming plan - it was amazing.

I pay Three £15 p/m for unlimited data, lots of intra-Three calls and some messages/calls to other networks (in the country I'm in at the time) and can now do that not just in the UK but in Spain, the US, Australia and more (http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phones/Feel_At_Home). That's cheaper than most local operators and a much better example than whats offered here.

I'd wager it won't be long before Three sims are being picked up by tourists and used as their main operator back at home.

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Yes, the Feel At Home from Three UK feels like the future! The experience is very, very good - invisible.

Assuming you are visiting one of the 16 destinations they cover, you don't need to do anything. No signups, no opt-ins, nothing. You just go and use your phone like you would in the UK.

I also never felt that they were throttling the connection in any way, but I never really tested this.

Plus you don't even need to be on a monthly plan, any PAYG has all the same benefits.

Edit: Added reference to PAYG.

Same here, I was just in Europe for two weeks across four countries with absolutely no hassle using this Israeli provider: https://www.golantelecom.co.il/web/plan109InfoB.php

Its £16 (€23) per month - you get 6GB of data good in most European countries and for some reason South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. Afterwards it just slows down, no insane roaming charges.

You can also reserve local numbers in most of those countries for a small fee to go fully native but I just used Google Hangouts/Voice for the odd phone call/text.

Your plan and mine seem eerily similar so here's hoping more providers start white-labeling this deal.

I'm using Three too with the same plan, but when I'm in a Feel At Home destination, I still pay if I send a texts to a local number. It is not included in my general texts allowance. Am I doing something wrong?

The data itself is free though, which is the most important for me. It is definitely better than having to go to a phone store and get a cheap sim.

Yes, this is annoying. However the fees are way less than calling from UK->country.

EG: when in the UK calling the US costs 56.2p minute, which is a complete ripoff as it should be cheaper than calling a UK mobile (virtually nil cost to do these calls). However, when actually in the US it's 15.6p. Same price differential for SMS.

Feel At Home basically means that your mobile will act the same as if you were in the UK.

Sending a text from the UK to a (for example) Spanish number incurs a cost outside of your allowance. So that same text would also incur a cost when you are in Spain.

I've set up Google Voice -> US SIP -> UK SIP -> 3 Mobile. This gives me a US number to give out to Americans (who don't want to dial my UK number) that they can text/call. I can then make calls when on Wifi or using a Phonecard app which automatically dials my UK SIP and forwards the call via the US SIP provider. I don't have to switch SIMs or give up my UK number.

This works well for me (since I travel between the US/UK often)

Can't you just use Google Voice on Three's 4g connection/Wifi to make/receive calls/texts on your Google Voice number using Hangouts?

What's the purpose of the two SIPs?

Three doesn't have any 4G when roaming, and the 4G isn't that great even in London (compared to say: Vodafone).

Texting with Google Voice is fine though.

The two sips are registered to the same installation of asterisk: The UK provider gives me a UK number and rates equivalent to a UK landline.

The US provider gives me a US number (which is registered with google voice) and rates equivalent to a US landline.

As I understood what I was told by their support, if you have a text or call allowance, that is used against local numbers too.

When in the US, I found I have to disable "automatic" and force AT&T -- using T-Mobile blocks data for some reason. I don't know how to configure my iPhone to just block the provider (so I obviously have to disable it when returning to the UK or Europe).

I've had the same experience, AT&T works very well though.

I just got back from the US to a message that said:

Great news! You’ve saved £1,489.55 over the last month while using your phone abroad...

Why they wouldn't improve the UX for such an amazing feature isn't hard to figure out...

I found the opposite, AT&T sucked but tmobile was ok.

In my experience (as a domestic user) both AT&T and T-Mobile can be acceptable or can suck, depending on exactly where you are in the country, and sometimes even within a city or suburban area (for example, in the city where I used to live T-Mobile sucked at home, but was great at work, while AT&T was exactly the opposite). Those nice homogeneous-looking maps of "coverage areas" are lies, to a very large degree. :-)

If you're traveling for work, maybe ask the people you're working with which carrier is best at their site.

>I'd wager it won't be long before Three sims are being picked up by tourists and used as their main operator back at home.

There is a maximum of 3 months you can use it abroad a year

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