International phone plan options for travel – Google FI Review

As we embarked on long-term nomadic travel and thought about giving notice to our apartment in San Francisco, we had to figure out a few things. One was what to do with the stuff we’ve accumulated over the years (Our answer: to embrace minimalism. Another was what to pack to sustain long term travel (Our answer: to travel carry-on only). Another was how to handle all the physical mail we used to received while being overseas (Our answer: to subscribe for an online snail mail service).

Today we keep going down our list and will be talking about wireless services as it become quite hard to imagine how someone could navigate the world without having a functioning mobile device in his/her pocket. In this post, we will be going over the reason why we believe it is critical to have connectivity while traveling long term, which services we’ve been using since we started our journey, what are the alternatives and which option we recommend whether you want to travel the world long term or simply stay in the US.

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Why wireless service is critical while exploring the world in the 21st century

Let’s imagine for a minute that the only ressources that you have to book your trip are paperback guide books, a landline and a dial-up Internet connection. How would this impact your travel journey?

Well, if a life without smartphone or wifi is something you have a hard time to wrap your head around, I highly recommend A Map for Saturday, a great documentation (from 2007) that provides a great perspective of what a year of travel would look like not so long ago.

I don’t think we would have decided to become full time nomadic with so little access to technology. We have been greatly reducing use of our smartphone for the things we consider are sucking our precious time from our lives (ie. social media, daily news, games, email, instant messaging…). However we find smartphones quite handy when it comes to adding a greater degree of flexibility to our lives in areas such as:

• schedule – We don’t have to worry about planning all the core elements of our itinerary before leaving. We can plan as we go
• transportation – With the popularity of car riding/sharing service like Uber it is very easy/safe to request a transportation from many countries when such services are available.
• accommodation – With the popularity of AirBnB, we can easily book accommodation in many places in the world that were before not so easily accessible.
• language barrier – With applications like Google Translate, we can have a pretty good conversation with someone speaking a language we never spoke before (especially since the app let you reply back using voice).
• and the list goes on…

Which service have we been using

October 2023 Update: A modification in the Google FI Terms & Services has restricted our ability to utilize the service during prolonged travels. To discover the current alternative we’ve adopted, refer to our article titled “How to save money with International Phone Plans Without Roaming – Airalo & RedteaGo Reviews“

Now that we’ve made a point that wireless service can be quite resourceful when exploring the world, let’s discuss the solution we’ve been using since we took on our nomadic journey: Google Fi.

Google Fi is a global SIM card that gives you LTE speed in over 200 different countries (and coverage is constantly increasing). Google FI works of course with Google branded phones (starting with the Pixel 1), Android phones and starting this year, they announced support for the iPhone. Phones designed for Google FI look for the best available network (in the US this is T-Mobile, Sprint, and U.S. Cellular + a network of Wi-Fi hotspots).

The benefits we love about Google FI are:

1. data consumption is unlimited with a billing cap at $60 / month – This means that after we use more than 6GB of data / month we won’t get charged for any additional usage.
2. roam for the same price as home – This is by far the killer feature for us since we are world nomads.
3. share your plan with any family member and save – We have a family plan with Mrs. Nomad Numbers so when I joined the plan, I only paid $15 to use the service and get unlimited calls & SMS.
4. pause/resume the service/data any time – You can pause your subscription at anytime for up to 90 days. You can also decide to pause your data consumption indefinitely.
5. manage your subscription on the go – Google FI comes with both an iPhone and Android app that lets you track your consumption very easily and manage your subscriptions.
6. voicemail to text feature – When someone left a voicemail on your GoogleFI number, Google with automatically send you a transcript of the message, so you can easily and quickly review it and the accuracy is pretty good.
7. bypass the Great Firewall of China – You read this right! We went to Beijing in the fall of 2016 and were surprised that we could access sites such as Facebook, Google Mail or Medium that are usually blocked in mainland China. (Apparently Google struck a deal with a Chinese provider to provide exemptions for FI customers so that Google don’t end up with a big branding issue on their hand when they claim that Google FI will “Work anywhere in the world”).

How much does Google FI cost us?

From a cost perspective, signing-up for the service is free. The billing cycle is monthly and the minimum subscription cost is $20 / user. This will give you access to unlimited SMS. You also have unlimited calls within the US. Calls from outside of the US to the US are $0.20 / min using cellular and free using Wifi. Data is charged separately at the rate of $10 per Gb (1Gb = 1024 Mb).

I’ve been running the numbers (shocking?) and our consumption over the past 9 months has been an average of $25 per person (on a family plan) with an average of 0.5 GB per person. Over a year, this represents about $300 for 6GB of data. Mrs. Nomad Numbers has a similar usage so we can safely double these numbers to estimate our cost as a couple. (Still a far cry from the $65-$80 a month I used to pay back in the US when I was with one of the three leading phone carriers – which doesn’t include the cost of the phone that I purchased separately).

Here is the breakdown of the cost & usage of my Google FI subscription since we started our nomadic journey in July 2018.

What are the alternatives

There are two major alternatives worth talking about:

• Option 2: Getting a local SIM card in your destination country – This is by far the cheapest option but it requires that you get your SIM upon your arrival which can be a pain, especially if you arrive late or if there is nothing close to your location upon your arrival. We use a great Prepaid Data Sim Card wiki that provides very useful information about where to find a sim card, what plans are available, where to find them and even how much they cost. As an example: a prepaid SIM card with 1GB of data per month in Mexico will cost you $10 USD / month. (Keep in mind that for such SIM cards to work you need to make sure you have a GSM-enabled device, your device is unlocked and works on the frequencies in your destination country).
  This options come with a few yet important drawbacks. One being that you need to change your phone numbers with every sims. This can become pretty painful if you use Two Factor Authentication (or 2FA) to access sensitive service like your bank accounts.
• Option 3: Paying for roaming (or international coverage) with your current phone provider – This is probably the most convenient option but also the one that is likely to become the most expensive since carriers love charging roaming fees.

What do we ultimately recommend

Let’s do a side by side comparison to easily compare each option we have been talked about:

.	Option 1: Google FI	Option 2: Local Sim-Card	Option 3: Existing US carrier with roaming
Monthly cost (per user)	– Base subscription: $20 / user – Data: $10 / Gb of data with a max spending of $60 – Text: Included – Call: FREE on Wifi (restrictions applies), 0.20/min otherwise	Start from a couple dollars.	Pretty expensive
Country availability	200+ countries and counting	Limited to the country of purchase	USA + a set of countries (varies per carrier)
Device support	– iPhone (running iOS >=11) – Android (running Android >=7) (Check your phone compatibility) – Phone needs to be unlocked	– GPS enabled device – Phone needs to be unlocked – Frequencies varies based on the destination country	Pretty much any devices which is GPS enabled
Phone number portability	Yes	No (Note: This can become a serious handicap when you need a phone number to enable 2FA to access service like your bank accounts)	Yes

Now let’s look at the pros & cons of each option:

.	Option 1: Google FI	Option 2: Local Sim-Card	Option 3: US Carrier with roaming
Pros	Convenience – Don’t have to worry about acquiring a local SIM, especially if landing at odd hours or in odd places Seamless migration – Migrating from an existing US carrier to Google FI is seamless and easy. Unlimited data (for $60/month) – This is pretty cheap (for the US average) and also can prevent you from buying a separate Internet package if you need to. Bypass the great firewall of China	Price – Usually the cheapest option	Convenience – Don’t have to switch carriers
Cons	Price – Pretty attractive, but not as cheap as the Local SIM Card option.	Convenience – Need to make sure the store is open and nearby, might need to provide a lot of personal informations to get a SIM. Can’t port your phone number – This is a biggie for us as we need our phone number to access some online services using 2FA (Two Factor Authentication)	Price – Probably the most expensive option

Based on this information, we do recommend Google FI if you are extensively traveling outside of the us BUT also if we are living in the US as their pricing is extremely competitive with other US phone carriers.

For us, Google FI helped reduce my phone bill by 60-70% while still providing great coverage while traveling in all the destinations we’ve been to. Thanks to a seamless migration process, setting up my phone was easy and I was able to keep my phone number without any issue. Not having to get different phone number has become very handy to stay in touch with our friends/family when they want to text/call us anywhere in the world. It is also great to have an option to get unlimited data for no more than $60 / month. Google FI has over deliver for us in so many ways that it is hard to believe how much we spent on phone before.

If you are interested to sign-up, you can use our Google FI referral link to get a $20 referral credit (we might get a $20 credit too if you sign-up and keep using the service for at least 30 days).

Our bottom line

Google FI is a superior cell phone service for international travelers. The transparent cost structure, ability to roam in 170+ countries, and fast overseas data rates make it a great option for those on the go.

And whether or not you are traveling, if you are trying to reduce your expenses, Google FI is a wonderful solution. The services definitely pay for itself as soon as you start roaming the world and being backed by Google you can expect that it is there to last and soon become available across the entire world.

What about you? What is your current phone consumption? Do you think it might be worth it for you to switch? Tell us what you think about Google FI. If you’ve been using this subscription, is there anything else that you would add to our review?

FAQ

Q: I have an iPhone and I’ve heard that Google FI isn’t fully compatible with this device. How can I check if my device is compatible?
A: Google has a phone compatibility page that let you check whether or not your device is compatible and what features might not be available to you.

Q: Can I port my number to Google FI?
A: Yes. It is actually part of the sign-up process and quite seamless. For us, Google took care of the port and my new phone was activated within minutes from completing the sign-up process. Once this was done, our former carrier automatically closed our account and sent us our last billing statement. To be safe, we suggest that you give your former carrier a call to make sure they closed the account and they have a way to send you any outstanding balance you by have.

Q: What do you do when the country you travel to isn’t covered by Google FI?
A: With 200+ countries already covered by Google FI it’s pretty hard to pick a country that isn’t covered. But if it’s the case, you can always rely on Wifi to make phone calls or access your favorite apps, so your smartphone will never be totally useless.

Q: Why don’t you only use one plan instead of two and save the additional $15 subscription?
A: Good question. We thought about this and the major blocker for us are the sites that require 2FA (Two Factor Authentication) that sends us a text message on our phone. If I stop service on my phone, then we would need to update our phone numbers everywhere which isn’t worth the cost of switching for us. Plus with two phones, we can also reach each other in case we are separated.

Q: How does Google FI works with the Great Firewall of China?
A: As of 2016 (and this still hold true in 2018), Google FI let you bypass the Great Firewall of China.

Q: Where can I learn more about the “international” offering from each carrier?
A: Here’s where you can dive deeper into each of the carrier’s offerings

• AT&T international roaming information
• T-Mobile international roaming information
• Sprint international roaming information
• Verizon international roaming information
• Google Fi international roaming information