It's notoriously expensive to use a U.S. cell phone abroad. So I was thrilled to hear when Verizon Wireless recently announced a new, eminently reasonable roaming data plan which lets you buy 100MB chunks of data in 120 countries for $25 each.
Since I was going to Canada for a few days, I grabbed our LG Lucid and called Verizon to set up the deal. To use Verizon's roaming data, you need a phone that will work in your destination country. All Verizon phones will work in about 35 nations, including Canada, Mexico, Israel, and the Philippines. But only Verizon's "global phones," such as the iPhone 4S, will work in western Europe.
For existing Verizon customers, the carrier's solution is a lot easier to use than roaming SIMs like our Editors' Choice Telestial Passport SIM: all you do is call Verizon to turn it on for a month, and call them again to disable it. Verizon's data rates, at $25 for 100MB, are half of Telestial's lowest rates on the Passport SIM.
Verizon gets you on the voice-calling fees, though. For Canada, Verizon's call rates are 69 cents per minute and texting is charged to your domestic bucket. For much of western Europe, Verizon charges at least 99 cents per minute, plus 50 cents per text message sent.
Telestial and roaming SIM providers can check in with lower calling rates. Telestial charges 49 cents per minute to call the U.S. from Canada or western Europe, with incoming calls free - that last bit can be a big savings. It charges 69 cents to send a text message.
This can lead you into a vortex of spreadsheets while you figure out which option will pay off for you. Here's the rule of thumb: if you're a Verizon customer and keep voice calls to a minimum (preferring email and texting), you'll save money over competitors by using this plan.
Other major wireless carriers all charge more for international roaming. Your $25 only gets you 50MB on AT&T, which is on par with Telestial's rates, and Telestial charges less than AT&T does for calls. T-Mobile charges $10-15 per MB, which means you should never, ever turn on T-Mobile data on a phone when you're out of the country. Sprint charges $2 per MB in Canada and more elsewhere, also a non-starter.
I recommend using unlocked phones and Telestial or Maxroam cards for users of all of those carriers, or just keeping your cellular data off and using Wi-Fi.
Is Verizon's Data Enough?
So then the real question becomes: how much is 100MB?
It's enough if you limit your data usage. On a 10-day trip to the U.K. and Spain in February, I turned off background data on my Android phone, preventing it from syncing apps without my knowledge. I tried to hold off on checking my email until I was in a Wi-Fi network. But I surfed the Web and used Maps when I needed to. I ended up using about 80MB, well under Verizon's $25 limit.
But on a two-day trip to Canada this week, I tried to act like a completely data-ignorant user. I left everything running in the background and consumed 62MB in two days, mostly in email updates (10MB), Pulse News updates (22MB), and automatic updates of Google Play apps (another 20MB). All my Web and maps usage totalled only 8MB. The lesson: turn off background data on your Android phone and stay away from data-hungry apps like RSS readers. If you have an iPhone or a BlackBerry, this is less of an issue, but just be aware of what you're doing.
In any case, you should use a data-usage widget like Onavo Count, or the one offered directly by Verizon, to keep an eye on your data so you don't have any surprises. Using a data-optimization app like Onavo for iPhone or Onavo Extend for Android, and a data-sipping browser like Opera Mini, will help your $25 go even farther.
Verizon's new data plan is a huge step forward for international travelers, and it should sway some frequent international travelers over to Verizon. Hopefully other carriers will follow suit.
