T-Mobile Users

I’ve had no issues overseas, but I don’t make calls. The texting worked well as did the free slow speed data (when using Google maps online). The problem isn’t probably a T-Mobile one but more likely with whichever network your phone connects to. The phone will change providers depending on where you are. My phone has connected to O2, Orange, and Vodafone most frequently. If you’re lucky you may even connect to T-Mobile owned company. For example, in Germany mine connects to Deutsche Telekom.

Yesterday when we crossed over into France for a few hours, I got the text message saying I was connected to whichever company and didn’t need to reboot the phone.

Sorry no tips TMobile has worked flawlessly with my Iphone in Italy, France and Spain.

Where, specifically, did you have problems? We have used T-Mobile on two overseas trips now and it has been perfect for text, calls, and data. We buy the $50/month plan, a far better deal than AT&Ts $10/day. The only time with any issues has been in parts of the Cotswolds where coverage was sketchy, much as it is in some rural areas of Oregon. We have found coverage perfect even in the mountains in Switzerland.

I'm in Scotland right now and have been using the free (for me) T-Mobile international plan and it's been outstanding so far. No issues with data and I've made 2 calls that went through with no problems. I have the Magenta Max plan.

When was your last trip? And exactly what problems did you have?

We are leaving England today after two weeks of nothing but trouble with our T mobile Magenta Max plan. After 5+ hours on the phone with 3 techs and a couple of supervisors, we were never able to make local calls and no one could explain why or fix it. I had to buy a local SIM. Now Vodafone can’t send texts to US numbers. We have had this experience in Italy too.

I've been using T- Mobile for years. Recently, T-Mobile started offering up to 5G speeds in numerous countries with good reception. I've had it so far in Hungary, Austria, and parts of the UK.. (If you are in a dead zone coverage won't be that good.) You have to go to thee T-Mobile website to see it your plan qualifies.

When changing countries, make sure your data roaming is turned on and you haven't limited roaming if you did. With some phones, when trying to use mobile data, wifi needs to be turned off even if you are not connected to wifi.

Occassionaly, to get onto the local carrier, mostly when entering a new country, I've had to restart my phone. Then I get the welcome text for that country.

Ticked all those boxes on my own and with customer service. Still nothing. Maybe I’ve got too many negative ions.

Wife-mate used T-Mobile 18 days late March and April (France/UK). She has an international plan of some sort. Worked flawlessly and only $10 extra on bill.

We’ve had T-Mobile for years and have used it throughout Europe without any problems. Our plan has international coverage that allows free texts, data and $.25 per minute calls at no additional charge. I typically don’t make calls, but last year I did make a couple in Ireland and France.

I agree with Frank II's suggestions. I have one additional one, if you cannot automatically connect to any local carriers, you may want to try a manual connection to one of the carriers listed as a possibility. I had to do this once when my phone wouldn't connect automatically but my wife's phone had no problem. I could return it to automatic a short time after making a manual connection.

I forgot to mention that 2 of the techs asked if I have an iPhone or an android. I don’t know why that would be relevant, but I have an android and that was a dead end.

I have a Samsung phone and have never had a problem. However, when I had a cheap phone (Blu) I always had problems.

My phone is an iPhone and as I said above, no problems at all.

Remember that T-Mobile doesn't actually have service outside the US. (Yes, they are owned by a German company...but it's a separate company.) When you use T-Mobile in other countries, you are connected to the local roaming partner(s). The kind of service you get depends on your phone's ability to connect well with the roaming partner.

European mobile companies use different frequencies than used in the US. E.g. in the US, T-Mobile uses (for 4G) LTE 2, 4, 12, 66, and 71. If you never left the US, a phone that works with only those bands would work perfectly. In the UK, for example, Vodafone uses LTE 1, 3, 7, and 20. So if your phone doesn't support any or all of those bands, you likely won't get good reception with Vodafone in the UK, if that's the roaming partner T-Mobile happens to use there. You might get only very slow EDGE (2G) service.

Most new phones will support all of these bands. I'd guess every iPhone would. Some cheap Android phones might not. Depends on the make and model.

I'm getting ready to go to Scotland for 3 weeks and was planning to just use my T-Mobile Magenta Max plan as we'll mainly need coverage for Google Maps for GPS and will use WhatsApp to call home on wifi if we need to. However, I'm wondering if purchasing a data only eSIM for my Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra phone might not be a bad idea as a back up? It would give us the option for coverage if there was a problem and probably have higher data speeds?

Any thoughts?

I've had T-mobile Magenta for years. Taken multiple trips to London with it. Last trip was about 6 months ago.

What problems have you encountered? I'm surprised at the mention of trouble Wanderlust writes about - I don't doubt the story, just surprised.

Could the phone be the problem? I am not a techie - that may be a stupid thought! With Android, I guess you aren't using an iPhone?I have an iPhone 12. Prior to that I used an older iPhone, 6 I think, in the UK.

So it sounds like plenty of people have no trouble with T-Mobile coverage. How? No clue. I doubt even T-Mobile knows how their service manages to work for anyone internationally. After our experience when we took our trip two weeks ago (and the year before), this is what I'll say: If you get coverage, breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy. If you don't, T-Mobile cannot help you. Their service department is too disjointed and unequipped to be able to help you, though you will spend hours of precious vacation time every day on the phone with them (when you can get wifi) while they assure you that they know exactly what to do and that your phone service will now work...tomorrow...or the next day--and assuring you that you will not be charged for the services they couldn't get to work for you.

So back it up, by all means. Do everything possible to make sure you're taken care of in the event that nothing works.

We are now Verizon customers. I want to take another trip right now just to test out the service.

The problem with comparing T-Mobile anecdotes is that people all have different phones and different plans. I last used T-Mobile proper way back in 2016, and roaming could not have been easier then. Turn on the phone, wait a few minutes, let it pick up and register on a network. Did not have to do anything special. Although that was years ago now, lots of people report the same kind of experience even now..

We've heard issues with Verizon customers roaming overseas too. But usually, it seems to work easily for them also.

I am in Scotland right now. I spend a lot of time here. I have T- Mobile. Lately, I've been getting 5G reception in some areas, LTE in others. No problems.

I used Whats App tonight on my hotel wifi and it worked fine

T-Mobile data used to be very slow but they've changed and you now get limited 5G service at no extra cost. If you go over the monthly limit you do pay but the free amount should be enough.

I am another longtime t-Mobile customer who has used their service overseas multiple times on several different Android phones with no issues. I may have experienced the occasional dead zone, but that happens sometimes at home too - there's a short stretch of street a few houses down from mine where my phone always tells me I'm offline.
When I'm overseas, I don't make calls - I use data, GPS, WhatsApp and texting. My son is an iPhone user and he has no issues overseas either. There may be some network settings that have to be tinkered with on your phone. On my phone all I have to do is enable data roaming and it works great.

The customer service tech asked if you had an iPhone or Android because the way to enable international roaming would be different for each operating system.

One other thing I have found occasionally--if you are entering a new country and the phone has trouble connecting, restart the phone. That always seemed to fix the problem.

The other issue some phones have is the band selected. The phone you're using may not have the band needed. This is now rare but could be a possibility. T-Mobile doesn't have its own service outside the US. It uses others (I''m now connected to EE.) Your phone may not be equipped to handle the bands of that service.

For those having problems, what make/model of phone do you have?

I'm going to the Baltics (Lituania, Latvia, Estonia) in September, and I am thinking of switching to T-mobile so I can have phone service there. Does anyone have experience with T-mobile in these countries?
Thanks.

Steve, I actually did use T-Mobile roaming in those countries though it was a few years back, in 2016. It worked fine. T-Mobile has a roaming partner (maybe more than one) in each country, so when you move to the next country, it finds the partner mobile network and connects. I think in one of the countries I was bouncing back and forth (as I traveled around the country) between different mobile networks to try to get one that worked better. But, that was a long time ago.

You could get a SIM card when you get there, too. One reason I got T-Mobile for that trip was that I was also traveling to Russia and wanted mobile service there too. So a European SIM wouldn't work there. If I were going back just to Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia today, I'd use a European SIM e.g. my Dutch Vodafone SIM.