Data Plans + International travel + the iPhone

If you are like me, you want mobile data when you travel internationally and don’t want to have to pay the incredible roaming prices your wireless provider charges. Personally I like to and need to stay in touch with family at home as well as tweet, facebook and instagram my way around the world. Since March 2011 I have tried 3 companies that specialize in providing data for international travel. In my case, travel was to the United States, the UK and Europe as I am in Toronto, Canada. I am going to discuss my experiences with each of the companies and the service they provide. Since pricing is fluid, I won’t discuss that, but will say that it is much cheaper than what your home wireless providers charge.

I generally go for the data only option as there are a number of apps that I use for video calling, phone calling and texting so I personally don’t need the phone or texting options. I won’t discuss the travel apps I use in this post but will do so in coming days. Stay tuned.

The first company I used for travel to London, UK was Tep Wireless, previously known as Fonmigo. In March 2011, I travelled to London and was there for 2 days. I had a locked iPhone 4 at the time so I could not use another sim card. I had 2 choices, I could either rent a smartphone or rent a pocket wifi device. I went with the pocket wifi since I wanted to be able to use my own iPhone that was already loaded with my preferred apps.

With Tep wireless you could either pick up the device or have it delivered to your home or destination. I went with the pick up option as there is a pick up location at Heathrow. Upon pick up I found that the battery for the unit was completely drained and there wasn’t a ‘storefront’ so I couldn’t get another device or battery. Once that was resolved, the unit worked very well all over London. I was also able to get data in Bath, Stonehenge and Windsor. With a portable wifi unit you can connect up to 5 devices so my friend that travelled with me also had data. Once you are finished with the device you put it in the mail with the pre paid envelope they provide in London. I did voice my concerns about the drained unit after I returned home and they were quick to respond and remedy the situation. Great customer service on their part.

In March 2012, I travelled to 8 cities (Salzburg, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Munich, Innsbruck, Paris and London) in 6 countries in Europe. This time I went with iPhoneTrip. I now own an unlocked
iPhone 4s so I could use any sim card. IPhoneTrip provides sim card rental for all over the world. If you don’t have an unlocked device you could rent a portable wifi unit or iPhone from them. With iPhoneTrip they mail you a sim card as well as a back up sim card. Rental is for a minimum of 7 days. Since I was going all over Europe I went with the Europe option to have a seamless connection. Upon arrival in the UK I found that they had some technical problems which meant a significant delay in service. Fortunately once that was resolved the connection was fantastic and was indeed seamless from country to country. I did call iPhoneTrip while in London and their customer service was great as well.

In May 2012, I travelled to New York City and used iPhoneTrip for that visit as well. This time service was without a hitch and the data connection was great.

In July 2012, I travelled to Washington state and Oregon. I was only going to be in the United States for 3 days so I didn’t want to use iPhoneTrip as their minimum service is 7 days. I went with a Canadian based company called Roam Mobility. They provide a few different options but since I have an unlocked phone I went with the sim card option. With Roam Mobility you can purchase a sim card for $19.95 CAD in a number of locations around Canada. I was in British Columbia at the time so picked up a sim card at a store in Abbotsford where I was staying with friends.  Their service is a ‘pay-as-you-go’ type service with 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30 day options for talk, text and data, talk and text or data only. I went with the talk, text and data option for 3 days. The talk and text was unlimited and you get a US phone number. I had no issues signing up and activating online. I did have a minor problem connecting to data but was able to call customer service to get it resolved easily. Unfortunately if you have an iPhone you are currently limited to 2G or Edge service while in the United States as their data partner is T Mobile. As a result it was slower than the 3G service I’m used to but was still okay and workable for light surfing, email,  facebook and twitter. I tweeted to them while in Washington and learned that T Mobile will be making changes and should have 3G and 4G by the end of the year. Again, great customer service with Roam Mobility both on the phone and on twitter.

Until next time,

Andrea… and my wandering iPhone