T-Mobile just recently announced two changes to their free International Plan – one good and one bad.   First the bad – the cost of international calls are being increased from 20¢ to 25¢ per minute.   But the good is the number of included countries for phone and free 2G data is being increased by 50+ to over 200 countries.

But it’s not enough for me to switch, here’s why I’m still going to use a combination of Cricket Wireless domestically and Google Fi for my international travels.

Cost

T-Mobile

In order to get T-Mobile’s free 2G International data and 25¢/minute calls – you can’t signup for their prepaid plans – you actually need to sign up for their more expensive T-Mobile One plans.

For my family of 4, it would run $160/month or $1920 for a year.  

 

Google’s Project Fi

Google launched Project Fi back in 2015 as an alternative mobile network – but it’s actually multiple networks (Sprint & T-Mobile).  It has a simple pricing structure – $20/month for unlimited calls & texts, then $10/GB for high speed data with no charge past 6 GB.  You can also add extra people at $15/month.  Like T-Mobile One, Project Fi also includes International calls (at a lower rate of 20¢ / minute rate) and there is no extra charge for using the data in 170+ countries.

 

But for a family of four to use this as their regular domestic plan would be pretty expensive.  Once you factor in 4 lines and the data we typically use, it would cost over $205/month or $2460/year + taxes.

 

Cricket

I’m currently in a Cricket Wireless plan that includes 5 lines with unlimited calls & texts that each have 5GB/month LTE data (after 5GB, speed is slowed) – all for $100/month or $1200/year.  Even though my plan is no longer available, Cricket currently has a 4 line unlimited data plan for $100/month.  But unlike T-Mobile One and Project Fi, Cricket does not come with International calling or data.

Don’t snub your nose at low cost carriers – they all use of the 4 major networks (Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, T-mobile) so you will get the same coverage.  Cricket uses AT&T’s network while Metro PCS uses T-Mobile’s network.  Here is a good roundup on all the low-cost carriers.

 

Cost Summary:

	Cost (Year)	Taxes Included?	International Calling	International Data (Speed)
T-Mobile One	$1920	Yes	Yes - 25¢/min	Yes (2G)
Google Project Fi	$2460	No	Yes - 20¢/min	Yes (LTE)
Cricket Wireless	$1200	Yes	No	No

I’m saving $720 / year by using Cricket instead of T-Mobile domestically but don’t get International calling or data.  That’s where Google’s Project Fi comes in handy.

The Project Fi Plan

In order to stay connected while traveling internationally, I signed up a Google’s project Fi account also.  The great thing about Project Fi is that you can pause your service for 3 months at a time.  I just keep my service paused until the day of my international trip, then simply log into the Project Fi website and resume my service.  When my trip is over, I just pause the service again.

The other nice benefit of Project Fi is you can order data only SIM cards that are connected to the account.  This works out great for my family – I use the $20/month voice/data SIM card and I put the data-only SIM cards in my family’s phones.  We share the international data and pay $10/GB up to $60 max (Project Fi has a data protection feature for one person that kicks in at 6 GB).

 

So the most I will pay when traveling for a month of service that includes International data is $80 ($20 calls & texts + $60 data) + taxes + 20¢ / minute for any International calls that I make.  The other nice thing is that the costs are prorated – when I pause my service, it credits me the unused portion of the $20/month for calls & texts.  So I only pay ~67¢/day for phone access.

 

 

International Data Speed – T-Mobile vs Project Fi

Here is where Project Fi blows T-Mobile out of the water.  T-Mobile only offers a pitiful 2G speed – which equates to 128 kilo bytes per second.  Project Fi on the other hand offers the highest speeds available in each country.  Just last week while on the subway in South Korea underground, I was able to get 47.4 MEGA bytes per second. 47,400 vs 128 – there is no comparison!  T-Mobile’s slow 2G speeds are like having an old dial up American Online modem.  It would barely be usable, it would drive me nuts!

 

I got similar amazingly fast speeds in other countries also – 56.1 Mbps in Paris, 55.6 Mbps in Turkey, & 58.3 Mbps in Barcelona.

 

T-Mobile Benefits

While Project Fi included more countries that T-Mobile (170+ vs 150+) for the longest time, T-Mobile’s recent announcement to add 50+ more countries means it now covers more countries that Project Fi.  Hopefully Project Fi will respond with their own increase in the number of countries covered.  But take a look at the lists and see if have any plans to travel to the extra countries that T-Mobile has.

The only other benefit I can think of that the T-Mobile plan has over my Cricket / Project Fi Combo is a single account.  With the T-Mobile plan you won’t have to switch SIM cards when you leave the United States and will have a single phone number to receive calls/texts.

With myCricket / Project Fi Combo – we have to swap SIM cards when we leave the country.  So I have two phone numbers and won’t be able to get calls/texts on my usual domestic phone number once I swap SIM cards.  But we haven’t had too much of a problem with this since we use many other chatting/texting/calling apps (WhatsApp, iMessage, Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts, etc) that use wifi instead of SMS.

What devices can I use on Project Fi?

While Project Fi says it is available on Pixel, Android One Moto X4, Nexus 6P, Nexus 6, and Nexus 5X – since these phones are able to support multiple networks (switching from T-Mobile to Sprint networks depending on location), I can assure you it also works on iPhone, Samsung, etc.  It just won’t be able to switch from T-Mobile to Sprint – but I don’t care because I don’t use it domestically, I only use it internationally where there are different carriers anyway.

The one snafu is that you have to activate the Project Fi SIM card on one of the above mentioned phones.  Hopefully you have a friend who has one or you can buy a cheap used one on ebay.  Here is a step by step guide on how to setup Project Fi on an iPhone (it’s similar for Galaxy).

The Cricket / Project Fi Combo

Our family saves $720/year by using Cricket Wireless over T-Mobile.  I still come out way ahead of T-Mobile by using Google’s Project Fi’s amazing FAST international service and only paying for time and data I use which is no where near $720/year.

Want to try Google’s Project Fi?  Use my special referral link and you’ll receive a $20 credit after you sign up and have been active for 30 days.

 

 

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