Foreign country internet

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Hey all - I am taking a trip to Holland later this year. I've never been able to have internet service on my phone when I have been to Canada, Belize or Costa Rica. It drives me crazy. I can't be the only person who dealt with this problem.

My carrier is Verizon, they are worthless in this.

What do you guys do when you travel out of the country? I've heard of something called Google Fi which I am going to research. Is there an app or a card or a something that will give my phone internet access while out of the US?

[Flack]

I went through this with AT&T, and it appears Verizon has a similar deal. AT&T has (or had) four plans -- lower 48, all 50 states, all 50 states plus Mexico and Canada, and international. When we went to Niagara Falls, we spent some time in Canada and had to modify our cell plan. There were two options -- a daily charge, or a monthly charge.

It looks like Verizon has a similar plan:

https://www.verizonwireless.com/solutio ... al-travel/

So, you're looking at $10/day charge, or you could do the monthly one, or there's a package where you can buy x amount of minutes and x amount of data. I don't think it would cover heavy internet usage but should cover texting and light email usage.

[Casual Observer]

When we went to Niagara Falls, we spent some time in Canada and had to modify our cell plan.

I miss Canada. Used to go all the time until 911 took away my right to go there without a passport (or upgraded id). Can't you get a duel sim phone for this issue these days? Also, in sure your modern phone will try to connect to every single wifi you move past, even in Europe. Even if you turn off wifi, it will still turn back on and ask to connect. Just walk near a Holland McDonald's and you'll have all the wifi you want.

[RetroRomper]

For various reasons, I know way too much about international phone plans, so let me try and impart my (largely useless) knowledge:

1. The major issue will be if your phone is compatible with the wireless bands / channels used in Europe & the Netherlands. To see if it is, check the compatibility wizard (which covers far more devices than Verizon's tool) at:

https://www.frequencycheck.com/country- ... ds/devices

Major US carriers have been making their phones more widely compatible with RF frequencies world wide, but it can still be hit or miss (especially with Verizon & Sprint as they use their own strange standards, especially with locked phones.)

2. Now that you've figured out if your phone will even work in your country of choice, you need to decide how much you care: do you want to pay inflated rates to Verizon or are you willing to dick around with sim cards to save a few dollars?

3. If you've decided to "dick around," what are your needs? Do you primarily use data and have a VOIP number or do you actually need a "text and talk" plan? Will you be roaming around Europe? You can find (and purchase) a pre-paid SIM card (if your phone supports swapping them out) at

http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Netherlands

Or wait to get there and then deal with it locally, but you'll at least know your options going in.

[RetroRomper]

Oh! If you decide to go with the pre-paid SIM card route, you may also need to call Verizon to get your phone unlocked for International travel or whatever. Their policy is at https://www.verizon.com/about/consumer- ... ng-policy/ and adds another hugely convoluted step to why you may just want to pay out the yin yang for their international plan.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I went through this with AT&T, and it appears Verizon has a similar deal. AT&T has (or had) four plans -- lower 48, all 50 states, all 50 states plus Mexico and Canada, and international. When we went to Niagara Falls, we spent some time in Canada and had to modify our cell plan. There were two options -- a daily charge, or a monthly charge.

It looks like Verizon has a similar plan:

https://www.verizonwireless.com/solutio ... al-travel/

This is why Verizon is such a joke. God, I fucking hate them so much. The webshits that put their stuff together are so fucking terrible. I'm going to set aside the fact that LastPass updated my password with my challenge question, causing me to reset my password and in the process of doing so, Verizon sent an MFA code ****after*** I set a password (fucking morons) and talk about their little Interntional Plan link.

You have to tell them the countries you are going to. OK.
You then have to pick your phone from some awful form. It doesn't look to see what devices you have. It MAKES YOU FIND IT YOURSELF. And they don't have my phone there. The Moto G4 Play, one of the most popular phones in the world is not there.

So I picked something similar and it said, Whoa pal, this is not attached to your account. So whatever you do here will have no effect. Because I know how shitty programmers code, I elected to go forward anyway with the closest Moto G device. It said those don't work in the Netherlands.

Ha ha ha haha.

I'm going to have to fucking call them. I hate Verizon so goddamn much.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Verizon *will not let me use my data plan* because I did not buy my phone through them, but through Amazon.

And this ends me using Verizon. Holy shit, what a bunch of absolute fucking assholes. Punishing a person because they didn't want to spend $1500 on a goddamn phone that they pay off for the next 5 years via their website.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Also, Verizon demanded that I enter my "PIN" (which I never set) in order to call them over the phone. Since I didn't have it, they wanted to send an MFA code. They couldn't send the MFA code fast enough so it didn't work. I eventually timed it out and talked to a person who still asked that I give them a MFA code. USING THE PHONE I WAS TALKING ABOUT.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Annnd it appears that what people do is get a SIM card when they land and use that. Which sounds better.

is what I would use if I started doing this before the trip. NNNGH. At least I know what to do now. I hope airports will have SIM cards.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Oh, that Amazon link didn't work at all.

[Jizaboz]

Sounds like a good excuse to tell everyone "Sorry losers. No internet!" while you are gone and just use public wifi when you HAVE to get on the Internet for something like directions.

[The Happiness Engine]

Most US phones are 'locked' to a carrier because Fuck America but if you rant at them they have to remove it and you can use your sim as your phone account which means just buying a Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) sim in Europe and you can be civilized with a burner number but YOUR fancy phone!

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Hahah. As it turns out, the prepaid SIM worked beautifully, I have all of you to thank at this wonderful forum and I appreciate it.

Also a bear threw our Dumpster down the hill 10 hours after we left.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

The Dumpster is back on the hill, so as far as I am concerned, it all worked out. Still a bit weird that bears are running around at night.