Staying Connected

Verizon introduces new international roaming plan

verizonIn November Verizon announced a new international roaming plan, TravelPass, which will allow customers to pay $2 per day to use their phones in Canada and Mexico, and $10 per day to use service in a number of other countries around the world. There are some unspecified taxes and fees added on to this, so read the fine print before signing up.

While $2 per day seems like a reasonable price to me, $10 per day is not cheap. I know international data can be extremely expensive, so if you’re with Verizon and you plan to use your phone internationally, this is almost certainly your best bet. But I don’t think this competes with the T-Mobile, Sprint and Google Fi offerings.

I use T-Mobile (here’s my review of their service), and have found the coverage around the world to be quite good. Sure the data plan is a bit slow, but I’m not looking to use my phone for downloads or streaming. I just want to be able to use maps and look up relevant travel info. The T-Mobile international roaming is free with a qualifying plan, but I didn’t have one so I’m paying about $10/month more to have it on two phones. Considering how much I travel that’s a bargain. And this price makes the Verizon TravelPass seem very expensive.

If you’re a Verizon customer it’s nice to have this expanded option. But if you’re a regular traveler and want to use your phone internationally, I still say you should consider switching to T-Mobile or Google Fi.