Using Google Fi as a roaming phone service

QF029

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Jul 6, 2010
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I mentioned this in another thread but it probably deserves its own.

When I lived in the US a few years back I used Google Fi for my mobile service. They use T mobile network among others.

At the time data was a lot more expensive and it was quite good value. It is $20 for unlimited calls and sms (within the US) plus $10 per GB. The pricing is still the same but your maximum data bill is now $60 (+$20) per month so 'free' data once you go over 6gb.

The killer feature of the service is that there are no additional roaming data costs in most countries AND you can suspend the service for 3 months at a time. After it resumes you can suspend it again for another 3 months straight away. You are billed pro-rata, see below for an example.

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This makes it amazing for using as your travel sim - just turn it on when you land.

It's available as a physical sim which you can purchase in the US and probably on ebay. They also have an eSim which I use. I suspect you could set that up from Australia if you're tech savvy. I pay my bill with a US credit card but quick googling shows you can get around it although you may have to set up a separate google account and set its location to the US.

It won't be for everyone but I'm sure there are some who will find it useful.
 
Thanks for going to the effort of providing a comprehensive overview of this option. It is really appreciated.

Just note that it is against Google Fi's terms and conditions to do this, so it could get shut down at any time:
Keeping Fi paused for extended periods of time is a violation of our Terms of Service.
 
I've been using them too and think that they're perfect for a single travel sim.

I didn't know about the pause and repause though. Thanks for that info, you can't beat $0.75 for a 3 month extension.

Do you pause immediately or wait a day or something?
 
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