Cellular Abroad Travel Blog

Verizon, along with their cohorts (specifically T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint) are getting into the international data roaming business big time. The main reason, you guessed it, is due to revenue. Carriers make a gigantic profit on roaming, particularly data roaming.

While Verizon quite possibly has one of the best plans (maybe a toss up between AT&T) for data roaming, it is expensive compared to other options and there are certainly some things that Verizon customers should take caution of.

If you have a smartphone and are traveling abroad, Verizon offers pay as you go bundles for data. Each bundle is $25, plus tax, for 100MB of data. While there are less expensive options, if you are already a customer of Verizon and do not want to deal with finding another option, this may work for you. However, and I cannot stress this enough, you need to stay on top of your credit. In fact, I got this directly off of Verizon’s website, “using data globally can be expensive.” If, for example, you purchase two bundles and hence get 200 MB of data yet you send a couple more emails than you anticipated and consume a total of 215MB of data, which for the mathematically challenged is a mere 15MB more than you prepaid for, that extra 15MB will cost you more than $300. Each megabyte of overage is over $20 plus tax.

Another problem, besides the cost, is the lack of flexibility with Verizon’s plan. Verizon allows you to add data to your current plan but what if you have, say a laptop or an iPad that you want service for?  With Verizon, you would have to have add another plan which means you would have to sign another 2 year or 3 year service agreement. This is obviously not a feasible solution for many travelers.

A better solution would be to purchase a pay as you go data SIM card. Pay as you go SIM cards are not associated with a contract and, you have the flexibility to put them in any device. Also, since the service is pay as you go, you will not unknowingly incur a roaming fees.

Market Outlook

Mobile data consumption is growing tremendously worldwide. The US is certainly no exception as the sales of smartphones and tablets (iPad) grow in popularity. Typical travelers want access to the internet to Skype, browse the web, upload pictures, use Googlemaps, research hotels and basically, anything one would do back home – and more.

However, US carriers such as Sprint, T-mobile, Verizon and AT&T offer extremely expensive smartphone solutions (T-Mobile charges $15 per MB) and only AT&T offers a solution for tablets.

Products

Cellular Abroad offers a data SIM card, a MiFi purchase option and a MiFi rental option. Here is a brief description of these products:

Data SIM Card – Available in different bundles (205MB, 500MB and 1GB) and rechargeable. This product is for tablets and smartphones.

MiFi Rental – a MiFi is a portable device that creates a private WiFi network allowing you to connect with any laptop, phone or tablet and up to 5 users at a time. Users can access the internet anytime, anywhere.

MiFi Purchase – This is the same product as described above but suitable for travelers who travel often.

Summary

These products offer affordable and easy to use data service for any WiFi enabled device. Not only do the US carriers not offer a full gamut of services (ex. Only AT&T offers international iPad service – if your iPad is 3G), but their rates are not feasible for many travelers. As with our current Nat Geo SIM card and Travel Phone, there are no contracts, no surprise bills and the costs are completely transparent. Here is an example of a MiFi Rental for Italy.

I have traveled “the boot” from tip to heel and up and down the front and the back but I have yet to find – and I’m not sure I will – a beach as gorgeous as the one called the Scale dei Turchi near Agrigento in Sicily. So beautiful that not only did I buy a house there but so did a friend of mine. Sure, there are phenomenal well-known beaches all over Italy including on the islands of Sardegna and Capri, the Cinque Terre, and in Puglia to name a few. However, in terms of beauty, weather and lack of crowds, it is difficult to compete with the Scale dei Turchi.

I write this with a dilemma. On the one hand, I love to share anything that I think is of value – from great restaurants to great wines to great…beaches apparently. However, one of the great things about the Scale dei Turchi is that it is not packed with tourists. The more people know about it, the more crowded it will get. Just ten years ago when I first started going there, literally if I asked someone from another part of Sicily if they had heard about it, 9 out of 10 would say no. Since then, and specifically the last couple of years, ask a “Milanese” (someone from Milan) and they will know about it. In fact, you know see a few Germans and Dutch and I am certain that within a few years many Americans will have heard about it. Hopefully you’ll remember reading this and think, “I should have listened to him.”

So why aren’t there more people that know about the Scale dei Turchi. First, the Rick Steve’s of the world haven’t done a PBS special yet (although my friend Rudy Maxa did many years ago). Second, the region has not spent much money on promoting the area. Third, the closest airport is about 2 hours away and fourth, the locals don’t truly understand the importance of tourism and what it can do for the economy. The few tourists that have come throughout the years have done so in RVs and, besides the gas station owners and a few others, the locals haven’t benefited much from their presence.

In sum, get it while you can. You will literally spend a third of what you would spend in Capri or other areas. As of this writing, you can stay at a nice bed and breakfast for around $30-35 a day, eat a fantastic meal for about $20-25 and access the beach…for free (try that at Forte dei Marmi in Liguria!). And just in case you’re a foodie, you will eat just as well or better than the above mentioned beaches. So, come and enjoy but…don’t let too many people in on the secret!

We at Cellular Abroad pride ourselves on being experts on roaming and our whole focus is to save overseas travelers big bucks on roaming charges. Unfortunately, carriers such as T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T and Sprint utilize extremely sneaky tactics that even the pros can rack up a huge bill – let alone your average traveler.

Here is a brief recount of what happened. As a temporary solution, we decided to use T-Mobile’s international data solution for our travelers while the one that we currently have was been thoroughly tested. While the rates weren’t great, at least we had something to offer in the interim. Better something to offer than nothing at all, right? Wrong! In brief, Cellular Abroad rented a data plan to a customer traveling to Europe. T-Mobile has an OK plan for Europe for 40 countries (not at all as good as our current one, but that is another post). However, if you go to another country that is not within that plan, the rates are $15 per MB. We told our rep at T-Mobile that they needed to block the countries not on the list but repeatedly were told that they couldn’t. We don’t buy that as WE are able to do so and we are a millionth of the size of T-Mobile. So, to make a long story short, one of our customers went to France, Germany, Austria…and Australia.

This is just one of the many ways that these carriers get you. Want some more? You buy a bundle of data from Verizon and you go over. A bundle from Verizon is semi-affordable but if and when you go over, not good news! Here is another one. You assume, “how much can sending one or two emails cost me? $5-$10 at the most? Not if there is an attachment.

if you want a safer bet, check our our new international data plan. The service is pay as you go so you CANNOT get absurd roaming bills. Better yet, read the reviews for our Italy MiFi rental.

And for those of you who are asking, no we did not charge the customer for using the service in Australia and running up a huge bill nor will we.