Getting ready to do a lot of international travel. First up are a trip to New Zealand and Australia in May. Wanted to know what to do with my iPhone 7. I am on the original unlimited grandfathered AT&T plan that works well here in the States. The iPhone 7 that I bought in November of 2016 is allegedly an unlocked phone. However, I am wondering if because when I picked up the phone and had them take the sim card out of my iPhone 5 and put it in my iPhone 7, if my phone is now not unlocked?

I have advice to just fly to New Zealand and buy a sim card there at the airport and do the same in Australia, and use that in my iPhone, but don't I still need to have a carrier that gives me voice, text and data?

AT&T has international plans called AT&T Passport that sound reasonable, for all except for data. I plan on using my iPhone as a digital map to help guide me around the country. So, clearly I need LTE data since I won't have WiFi everywhere.

AT&T PASSPORT. $40. One-time charge for 30 days or monthly recurring. Data. 200MB.
AT&T PASSPORT SILVER. $60. One-time charge for 30 days or monthly recurring. Data. 300MB.
AT&T PASSPORT GOLD. $120. One-time charge for 30 days or monthly recurring. Data. 800MB.

Clearly the $40 plan is economical and ends up being the same as me buying Two sim cards (one in New Zealand and one in Australia) and buying a foreign carrier plan. However, 200MBs seems like a serious joke. I would think walking around town for 30-minutes might use up 200MBs of data and then I would have to start paying like $0.25 per MB I go over. That sounds like a quick way to get a $1K cell phone bill.

Once I figure this all out, I then need to figure it out for going to the U.K. in July and Germany in September.

I would consider getting a TMobile SIM on the Simple Choice (if still available) or One plan. The monthly fee includes unlimited texting and data in all those countries, and 20 cents/min calling.

What a ripoff.

I'm currently in Asia and bought a local Prepaid SIM that gives me 5GB for the equivalent of $15.

I tested the speed at 27Mbps up/down; hotel's free wi-fi is ~4Mbps.

The plan allows tethering, so guess what i'm using...

Definitely check into the local plans.

You'll have to adjust a little for a local number, but with all the IM voice options now, it's of little concern.

Thanks for the replies. Is it as simple as just use a paperclip and pop out the old and pop in the new card and wait 5-minutes and away I go with a prepaid plan? Possibly before I even get on the shuttle bus at the airport to take me to the rental car place, or am I over simplifying it?

^^^^
That is essentially it.

I would do it before walking away from the sales place though, then if there is an issue you can quickly get assistance.

To see if your phone is unlocked, just switch sim cards with someone now. If it finds the new network you should be good to go.

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Fo that many trips in one year I'd consider switching to T-mobil.
However with t-mobil you won't necessarily get LTE data speed, you might just get 3G even if LTE is available.
If you have a grandfathere AT&T plan now you'd rather not part with just buy a sim card when you get there for about three bucks and buy whateverdata plan amount you think you'll need.
I had AT&T and used Passport. AT&T Passport prices are insane for data and they still get like a dollar plus/min or calls internationale . Even if you don't use much. A local sim will likely be the cost of the sim ($3 to $15) and $30 for 3GB of data, probably unlimited local call and text and maybe some international talk minutes. Haven't been to New Zealand but I found Australia was pretty much same as here, LTE usually in big cities, 3G in the burbs and spotty service in the boonies.

Just look up Telstra or Optus or Vodaphone sim card pre paid for Australia.


I have t-mobil and you don't always get LTE even if it is available but international calls aren't an arm
and a leg.


For EU ask if the sim card and prepaid plan you are buying works across borders and which borders. Also ask if you can recharge the card out of the country you bought it in if you think you might have to. The really cheap plans have caveats which may or may not be an issue.

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T-Mobile is the ticket for international travel.

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Thank you all for your answers. Very helpful.

You might want to check out Project Fi if you're willing to use a different phone. Voice and Text are $20 per month and data is $10 per gb with unused data refunded each month. They advertise that going overseas to something like 130 countries is transparent on the phone.

You can pause the line with a click that stops the account (wifi still works, but cell service turns off) and the cost of the account; it automatically turns back on after 3 months and you can pause it again. We're going overseas each year for the next couple of years and we're going to get a Project Fi phone to use and pause it between trips.

Michael,

Thanks. I hadn't heard of Project Fi, but will do some research.