Google Fi issues in Spain?

I've been researching Google Fi and am considering making the switch. In my research, however, I found that it has to be used in the US for 90 days before it will work internationally. Could that be the problem?

From the website: Important: Fi's Terms of Service require you to activate and use Fi service primarily in the United States. You must have active Fi service in the U.S. (not including territories) before you go abroad. If you try to activate Fi abroad or a majority of your usage occurs outside of the United States over a consecutive 90 day period, you may have your international capabilities suspended.

I had some issues in Rome in Feb/Mar this year. The best I could tell, they were technical and related to poor signal availability. It wasn't limited to times when I was in difficult areas. As I understand it (and I could be wrong), Google Fi has contracts with multiple signal providers and uses the one it considers best at the time. For best, I think we should assume "cheapest and not necessarily most robust".

>> Corrected critical typo above, shown in bold.

What help me was to go into Settings on my (Android) phone, choose Mobile networks, then Network operators. I then turned off the Select automatically slider and chose TIM. Some of the options weren't available, but TIM was, at least in Rome. I had to do that more than once, because the phone would switch back to automatic mode eventually. But this technique got me service pretty quickly when I needed it. Your options in Spain will be different, but I'd try this. I had previously tried restarting the phone more than once, but that had no effect.

It goes without saying that it isn't supposed to work this way.

Thanks, acraven, for those tips. I'm heading to Bulgaria, where I've read varying reviews for Google Fi. It's a good reminder how to manually try other networks.

It may have absolutely nothing to do with the problems you have been having, but could you have an issue with the phone you are using? These days, there are a multitude of radio frequencies and phone technologies used by cell phone companies around the world and different places use different ones. If your phone is older or more limited than others, that might be the cause of a problem.

It probably isn't the cause, but at least as a remote possibility, it can't be ruled out entirely.

Grateful for all the comments. My husband’s phone is newer and also having issues.
Never expected so many issues. Won’t use Google Fi again.

My phone was a current, relatively high-end model when I bought it from Google Fi itself in 2021, do I don't think my issue could have been phone hardware.

I have not had any issues with Google Fi, I have had it maybe 5 years, been to Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, and the UK. In Portugal, I did need to manually select a network in Lisbon, at that time they did not have contracts with all carriers. I also did call them from Portugal, get wifi and call the help number; they may be able to help you.

I have had Google Fi since it first came on the market over 7 years ago and have never had a problem in Europe, Asia including Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaïdjan, the Caribbean. If you didn't use it for 90 days in the US first, as required, you probably don't have the overseas data roaming. You can use it over wifi, however. It appears to be exactly what the first answer said. It will be good to go for your next trip.

I don't qualify for US carrier overseas data roaming because I live overseas, but when I visit the States, data returns while in the US. I believe these rules on overseas data roaming are standard to all carriers. Now, I have a French carrier but keep Google Fi for my telephone number and use it on Wifi when needed.

I suspect it is a 90 day issue too.

That's good to know about the 90 day issue. I've had mine since December, so hopefully I will have no issues.

It makes sense that Google would require people to have Google Fi Wireless active for 90 days before allowing international roaming. Otherwise, since there is contract or termination fee, people could just sign up for Google Fi the day before their vacation and cancel the day they get home. I think T-Mobile has a similar requirement now. (Years ago, I did that with T-Mobile: switched to them just before my trip to Europe, canceled a few days after I got home, just for the roaming.)

The thing is, Google Fi doesn't get much more than the basic calling fee ($20 or so per month, I think) from me as long as I'm at home. I use very, very little data here. When I go to Europe, I try to turn off roaming when I don't need it, but I only remember part of the time, and my monthly charges are in the $50 to $60 range. That's all for cellular data, because I just don't make phone calls overseas. I imagine that difference of $30+ per month is more than enough to cover whatever costs Google Fi has for my use of European networks, so I don't see why Google would care where I am when I'm paying $10 per gigabyte of data. The economics might be different for customers who do a lot of calling.

acraven, Google Fi doesn't have an extra cost for data roaming internationally. There is no reason to turn off roaming on your phone. Just use WiFi whenever it is available to avoid extra data use charges. Your phone uses very little mobile data unless you have apps running that use data. E.g. video streaming uses a lot of data quickly, so best not to stream those on your phone if not on WiFi.

I use data liberally when I travel because it's so cheap. I paid 14 euros for 4GB of data on my Dutch Vodafone SIM last year, and over only ten days I used only 2GB of it. Besides using WiFi whenever possible, I used maps constantly when out and about and never tried to conserve data other than not to stream videos. Had I been stingy with data, I could have surely gotten away with 1GB in 10 days. The maps feature is surely the most useful feature of my smart phone, so I don't try to save data there since maps and directions on my phone save me so much time.

Thanks, Andrew.

Just an update - we were finally able to get some help to make Google Fi work in Spain with a customer rep. And, there was nothing in our contract about or mentioned by this person about a 90 prior usage requirement in the US.
The problem turned out to be on their end.
Thank you for the responses.

I have been using Google Fi in Europe for no less than five years. Did not have a problem. However, you MUST activate the service in the US before you leave the country.

If it does not work consistently, then it's an issue with the local telecom. Cell signals can be spotty in areas with small alleys and tall buildings.

Google Fi has worked flawlessly everywhere that the RS Best of Bulgaria tour went, with no need to manually select a network.