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Phone carrier questions Sprint and Straight Talk

Posted by on

My granddaughter and I both have iPhones and will be traveling to London and Amsterdam soon. My carrier is Sprint Unlimited Plus. I have been told by Sprint that I automatically have the (slower) international service already included in my phone plan. And that when I land in London I will get a welcome text/email from Sprint which will give me the option to upgrade to high speed data for a charge- a week at a time. I intend to do that. My question is, have any of you used Sprint and had this plan? Does it go smoothly and with no problems (as they assure me it will)?

My granddaughter has Straight Talk -pay as you go- and she has saved enough rewards points to purchase their international package plan for while we are gone. Do you folks have any advice on using the Straight Talk International plan? I'm not too concerned and I'm leaving her phone choices up to her. If she doesn't have good service with her plan she can always use my phone.

Thanks in advance for any advice or reassurance you can give me.

Posted by
5687 posts

I had Sprint for a year and did use it a little in Portugal last year. Texting is free and unlimited. I didn't use it for calls, but they would be 25 cents a minute, to call home or to call a European number. If your phone supports WiFi Calling, then you can use the phone for free on WiFi to make and receive US calls.

The free data included is 2G speed - and yes, it seemed a little slow. It was probably usable for most people, but I had my Dutch Vodafone SIM with me from a previous trip, and for only 10 euros, I was able to put 2GB of data on it that lasted me the rest of my trip. Sprint would have charged me $5/day or $25 for a week. You can try it with the slow data and see if you can get by. I probably would have just lived with it had I not had the Vodafone SIM.

I suggest installing WhatsApp on your phone - and your granddaughter, too. It is popular in Europe, so if you need to communicate with Europeans, they'll probably know what it is and have it already. (Disclaimer: i have not actually used it myself.) If you and your granddaughter connect using WhatsApp, neither of you will have to use minutes, so calls between you will be free.

I'm not too familiar with Straight Talk (certainly heard of it). So I know nothing about their ability to work outside the US at all. Their website shows info about making international calls from the US but not much I can find about using the phone overseas.

If she can get her phone unlocked, she can buy a SIM card for it over there, but she won't have her US phone number until she puts her Straight Talk SIM card back in. But if she has WhatsApp and you do too, at least the two of you can communicate if say you are separated or doing things separately once in a while.

Posted by
64 posts

I have been with Sprint for 22 Years and use it all the time.
When you arrive in England, you will get a confirmation text saying that your plan is now unlimited text and Data at 2G speeds.
Also your calls will be .20 cents a minute.
Make sure you go to your settings, and enable international roaming before you go, that way when you land all you have to do is turn on the phone and go.

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