Now that the iPhone 5 has been announced with all the expected features, including a taller screen, LTE wireless capabilities, and a faster processor, a lot of people are now looking to answer the question of which carrier to get their shiny new iPhone 5 with. For most, it comes down to picking a carrier that has the best service where you live and work or maybe sorting out a pre-paid deal if that works better for you. But, for those of us that travel internationally, it’s a bit more complicated.
The complication for global travelers is that data roaming access is pretty expensive. It’s gotten dramatically better over the last year and the rates for using data on your iPhone overseas for a few days are no longer catastrophic, but they aren’t yet reasonable. On the other hand, the economics of using a local prepaid data plan can’t be beat. For example, I bought a prepaid SIM in the UK last year for ₤10 that gave me 1GB of data access to use over the course of a month. This summer in Greece, I picked up a SIM for €10 that netted me 2GB of data. All you need to take advantage of these deals is an unlocked iPhone. That can be easier said than done unless you plan ahead.
In my experience, what you need is a carrier with enough international data roaming capability to let you get through short stays in a country—such as a weekend or even a transit through a connecting country—and an iPhone that will let you drop in a local SIM for longer stays in a single country so that you can truly have the world at your fingertips while you are away. Here’s how I see the options:
AT&T
AT&T is my current carrier and I have to say that they’re definitely on the wrong end of the stick when it comes to their relatively mediocre service where I live in downtown Portland. They used to be great, but service quality has slide for some reason. They’re also on the wrong end when it comes to SIM unlocking. As I write this, they will only grant you an unlock on a subsidized iPhone when it’s out of its original two-year commitment. If you want to use your iPhone overseas with a third-party SIM, you’ll need to buy an unlocked iPhone 5 at the unsubsidized price.
As far as roaming on your AT&T SIM goes, there are three data plans: 120MB for $30/mo; 300MB for $60/mo; and 800MB for $120/mo. If you go over your data allotment, you’ll get hit up for $30 for every extra 120MB you use. I do have to give credit and point out that these rates are much better than they used to be even a few months ago and the change to a bucket model for overage instead of a ludicrous per-KB charge is quite welcome.
There’s one more catch that you should be aware of. The AT&T iPhone 5 (model A1428, somewhat different from the A1429 GSM model for European providers) won’t work on the LTE bands that are being deployed outside of Canada and the United States. Therefore, all of your data roaming in other countries will be at 3G network speeds or slower. I don’t consider this to be a real show stopper since LTE build-outs are just getting started and just being online at decent speeds is my primary goal when travelling, but it maybe something to consider for you.
Verizon
Verizon gets a lot of kudos for its service in many places where AT&T is awful. Several of my friends here in Portland are using them and are quite pleased. Verizon is also scores well compared to AT&T when it comes to unlocking the SIM slot for international use and will do it for any customer whose account has been in good standing for 60 days.
If you use Verizon’s SIM internationally, they provide a very straightforward rate structure: $25 for every 100MB block of data. You don’t get any break for buying 800MB of data for a month like you do with AT&T, but it’s a manageable enough pricing plan to use while in transit through a country or until you can pick up a local SIM to drop into your phone.
On the LTE front, their iPhone 5 (model A1429—same as the wordwide GSM iPhone) doesn’t work with the LTE bands used in Canada, but does work with the LTE bands being deployed in Asia and Europe. On the other hand, Canada’s LTE build out is just getting started, so it probably doesn’t really matter much anyway right now.
One other oddity that remains from earlier Verizon models is that you still can’t access the data network while making a voice call, even with an LTE connection. Weird but true and further evidence that LTE isn’t really a single standard, but is instead a grab bag of specifications that various carriers chose from to implement in their services.
Sprint
Sprint is smaller than Verizon or AT&T and has a smaller network footprint. I hear good things from people here that use them and their unlimited data plan is certainly a draw, but when I was on Sprint years ago, I would often find myself in a dead zone while on road trips. They make you wait 90 days to unlock your iPhone, slightly longer than Verizon.
Sprint’s international data plans are much more expensive than either AT&T or Verizon. For Canada and Mexico, the plans are 55MB for $30/mo, 175MB for $75, and 325MB for $125/mo. Overages are a ridiculous $4/MB. The list of other countries where you can roam is much shorter than either AT&T or Verizon and the rates are even higher: 40MB for $40/mo or 85MB for $80/mo with an insane overage of $10/MB.
T-Mobile and the Domestic US Prepaid Carriers
T-Mobile isn’t really even a player in this space. While they are reportedly about to launch a campaign to officially welcome unlocked iPhones, their network frequencies aren’t setup to provide 3G access. In addition, their international data roaming prices are an insane $10/MB in Canada and $15/MB everywhere else.
The prepaid vendors in the United States—Virgin Mobile USA and Cricket to name a few—have some deals that work out nicely in the long term for domestic use if you’re willing to pay more for your iPhone in the first place, but if you’re going out the country at all, they aren’t even in the running. I don’t know of any that will unlock the SIM slots and international roaming options seem to be limited or nonexistent from what I can find on their various websites.
Boiling it All Down
So, what does all of this reduce down to? As I see it:
- All other things being equal, Verizon generally looks to be the best option for the global traveller. You can buy your phone at the subsidized price, have a straightforward and somewhat reasonable option for getting a little bit of data for a few days in a foreign country, and you can get your SIM card slot unlocked and use local prepaid SIMs for longer stays.
- If keeping your domestic number active while you are abroad is more important than cost—which means you’re limiting yourself to only using data roaming instead of a local SIM—then AT&T comes out ahead with their 300MB and 800MB data blocks compared to Verizon’s charge for each 100MB block.
- If you are married to AT&T for some other reason—such as a family plan or it’s the only provider that works for you at your home—and you want to use local prepaid data SIMs, then you need to pony up for an unsubsidized iPhone. The major downside to this is that you don’t get a break on your service rates even though you’re paying more for the phone.
- Sprint’s roaming plans are restrictive and expensive enough that I’d only consider them if you were only going to use international prepaid SIMs in your iPhone and avoid any use of data roaming.
One alternative option for using prepaid data SIMs overseas if you’re on AT&T and don’t want to pay the unsubsidized price for a new iPhone 5 is to keep your old iPhone 4 or 4S and get AT&T to unlock it when your commitment for it is done. Then use that phone when you’re overseas. This path would be a bit of a hassle since you’d need to keep two iPhones up to date with all your data, but it is a reasonable option if you only go overseas once in a while.
As for me, it looks like I’ll be making a switch from AT&T to Verizon soon. But, I think that I will keep my unlocked iPhone 4 as a backup travel option for a while as well.
Notes, References, and Comments
- Glenn Fleishman has written an excellent companion piece for TidBITS: Which iPhone 5 Lets You Roam Where You Want? Highly recommended reading and good additional food for thought.
- Information about iPhone LTE data roaming and lack of simultaneous data and voice calls on CDMA networks comes from Ars Technica’s articles titled: Want global LTE roaming on iPhone 5? Don’t buy it from AT&T and Still no simultaneous voice and data on the Verizon or Sprint iPhone 5.
- Yes, you can always jailbreak and unlock a phone outside of the normal carrier processes. I don’t do that with my devices because I have trust issues. Also, jailbreaks for each iOS release and iPhone model tend to lag a bit and I’d really rather stay fully up-to-date with all of my software. For others, this isn’t so much a concern and jailbreaking is an option they are comfortable with.
- Hubert Figuière points out via twitter that Canada’s LTE build out isn’t far along at all and HSPA+ works just fine. I agree. It’s probably way too early to get too concerned about where LTE works or not.