Google Fi or alternative

[akopac]

Hi Folks
I’m currently in Mazatlan for the hurricane season but will be leaving West for a circumnavigation next year. I have 2 iPhone 8’s unlocked and use one with ATT that works great in MX.
I bought a google Fi SIM card for use as I go west, but I called support and they said they have limited support in foreign countries.
What’s your experience and practices with cellular phone and data in foreign ports?

[ejs]

It worked in every country all the way to New Zealand. Data rates, of course, depend on where you are.

[Cheyne]

I have used Google Fi succesfully in the UK and Mexico. Works like crud in the US where we live and same for the Bahamas when we were there last season. It really didn't like my iPhone so I swapped to a Samsung S22 Pro which seems to be happier. Google did anounce that there will be more support for the iPhone, but not 5G. The big one was wifi calling for us.

[wholybee]

Don't use Google Fi. Google Fi is primarily for use in the united states, and if you use it outside the US for 90 days they will turn it off. It's happened to a lot of cruisers.

SIMs are cheap in other countries anyway, cheaper than GoogleFi.

Under "International Usage and Service Loss" toward the bottom:
https://support.google.com/fi/answer...i-service-loss

[ItDepends]

As wholybee says... although for me it was 180 days... but they actually do NOT turn off the account, just your data access. You keep phone and SMS service as long as you keep paying. When they say "Primarily in the USA" that is EXACTLY what they mean. An occasional visit does NOT reset the clock.

But there is another catch... you can not activate it outside of the USA. So unless you plan to be back inside the USA to activate the card before you sail off, it is worthless to you since you can not activate it in Mexico.

[akopac]

Originally Posted by ItDepends

As wholybee says... although for me it was 180 days... but they actually do NOT turn off the account, just your data access. You keep phone and SMS service as long as you keep paying. When they say "Primarily in the USA" that is EXACTLY what they mean. An occasional visit does NOT reset the clock.

But there is another catch... you can not activate it outside of the USA. So unless you plan to be back inside the USA to activate the card before you sail off, it is worthless to you since you can not activate it in Mexico.

After you activate o you have to pay their $17 a month or whatever it is?

[ItDepends]

Yes, once you activate, your charges start. I believe they vary from 20 to 65 a month, depending on the plan you pick.

At least that's my recollection. The google website would be more authoritative on these things than anything I might or might not remember...

[Jammer]

I get it about using local SIMs.


That said, it is useful to have a more or less "permanent" phone number and plan. Are there better alternatives to Google Fi for that, for US-based cruisers?

[SailFastTri]

Originally Posted by Jammer

I get it about using local SIMs.


That said, it is useful to have a more or less "permanent" phone number and plan. Are there better alternatives to Google Fi for that, for US-based cruisers?

Transfer (“port”) your current phone number to Google Voice or another IP phone provider, and then you can receive calls outside the country using data on a VOIP “soft-phone” app, and have voicemail transcription to text. I suggest you use a paid service, not the free service. They can stop free services without notice.
FreedomVoice is another VOIP provider that can provide similar. You can also use the app to call from that US number while you’re outside the country, with caller ID showing your US number. I’ve been using it for years. The app is a little less polished than I’d like but the phone service is solid.

[wingssail]

Phone usage and Data usage overseas:

Since early 2000's We have had a single phone number in the USA which we can use everywhere in the world. It is a Skype number, which appears as a local number with a Seattle area code. We pay $6.99 a month for this number. It's meant to be used on a computer but we use it on our cell phones everywhere. Here's how:

We buy a local sim card, say in Thailand (or Mexico or...), get a new number, put it in the phone, then on the computer we log into our Skype account and change the incoming calls to be "forwarded to" to that new number.

All incoming calls to our Skype number are then forwarded to whatever cell number we happen to have in any foreign land we might be in. People calling us don't even know where we are, they call our Seattle number and our phone rings, anywhere. If we happen to be on the computer it comes in as a free Skype call.

Anytime we call out (from the computer) the caller ID given is the Seattle number. However, if we make any calls (incoming or outgoing) from the local sim card it has nothing to do with our Skype number and they are really cheap too.

There are other providers besides Skype which can give the same service.

Now, DATA. Always, always, the local sim cards we buy for our phone can be used for data cheaper than Google Fi, or any other major US system pitched for travelers. You just need to find out how to buy a data package for the sim card you have. For example, in Mexico we have a local sim card and we spend about $5.00 US per month for phone service. But if we want data, we add more money to the phone and then spend some of it buying a data package. For about $30 I can get 8GB of data (just don't start using data on your phone without the data package, that's a really quick way to use up all your time).

There are other things we do to make data and phone calls seamless and cheap. You will have fun figuring them out too.

[HeywoodJ]

There are lots of ways to accomplish the same thing. We used Fi in about 30 countries over a five-year period, never once returning to the US. A violation of the terms of service. We were very light users, so that may have had something to do with our success. We also got local SIMs in most places, and used those for most things.

Having data and phone service from several miles offshore before you even arrive proved valuable in a number of cases. And, for those places where we weren’t staying long having a phone for a few days without having to search out a SIM was nice. With the exception of South Africa local data was always cheaper (generally greatly so) than Fi data.

For us the $20/month was worth the convenience, all the other options require finding data in some form or another, something we generally did and liked to have, but not having it as a requirement meant we could take a more leisurely approach to finding the right local deal.

[morgan3d]

Same experience as others have had: Google Fi used to be the perfect international solution for me, but as of about a year ago, they disable it if I'm not connected to a US cell tower every three months. In the short term, I've been depending on WiFi and occasionally just paying roaming charges for a non-Fi phone until I find a new solution.

Maybe the new "eSIM" solution on iPhones that is software defined instead of based on a physical SIM card will at least make it easier to juggle multiple local SIMs.

Or, it seems like a dim hope, but just maybe satellite connectivity is about to get a lot more affordable based on Starlink and Apple announcements.

[PaulCrawhorn]

Use WiFi and local SIMs for decently priced data.

ATT Global if you are flush. Or Starlink.

For using your USA phone# T&T only, TMO MVNO "Ultra Mobile" will let you use any internet data connection via "WiFi calling"

$3/mo

Get a friend to activate (and port your number if desired) stateside, send you the SIM DHL

[akopac]

Ok, so I now have Starlink. It’s a game changer. Thinking going with VoIP and using starlink ink and local cards. Any favorite simple ways you like doing it. I. Have an iPhone and we do like FaceTime occasionally.