T-mobile Simple Choice plan (USA)

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Anyone from the US tried it in Thailand? They promise free unlimited SMS & Data & $.20/minute calls when outside USA in 130 countries.

What data speeds do you get in Bangkok or Pattaya? How are sms and call quality?

[marcgent]

Call quality and SMS are great but the data is slow. If T-Mobile used True, I think the data could be better.

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They advertise is at 2g data when roaming, but I read on forums that if the roaming partner is 3g, you'll get 3g.

What speeds did you get?

[Little Evil]

I used it last year. Reception is great in BKK and Pattaya.  Full bars for most of the trip between the airport and Pattaya too. Call quality was as you would expect back home. No problems at all with data except for the speed, which was always Edge speed. That's just the terms of the agreement Tmobile has on this plan. Even if your phone can hop onto the local 3G Network, it will only be entitled to use 2G. It is just fast enough to keep up with map tile download while using GPS to track my trip to Pattaya. It wasn't fast enough for things like looking at online photo albums. It would take a long time for thumbnails to load and even longer for ensuing pictures. 

 

Having your local number from back home is great for staying in touch back there. Useful for those who aren't in LoS that long, but maybe less useful for those who vacation for months at a time, as having a local number would probably be better. The only thing I didn't get to test was Line. I'm sure it would work fine outside of video calls though, as it uses very little data to shoot messages back and fourth. 

[Capna]

Just signed up for it, and I've had some chance to test it in Chile. Performance was terrible and tethering was only partially usable, but Chile's networks are terrible. Will test it in Singapore next week.

[Little Evil]

Just signed up for it, and I've had some chance to test it in Chile. Performance was terrible and tethering was only partially usable, but Chile's networks are terrible. Will test it in Singapore next week.

 

Just remember that you're on Edge (2G), where speeds are in Kbps, not Mbps. Tethering to a laptop or tablet for anything beyond email and other simple tasks will be painfully slow, especially if you are used to 4G speeds back home. I'd go as far as to say that it isn't even worth tethering unless you have to get some work done. 

[sabrent]

I've been useing T-Moblie sinced I left the US (2) years now, and this is a great program its worked pretty much everywhere and if you have a newer t-moblie phone with the WiFi calling that works great just pop onto the hotel wifi and call home for free. I get speeds between Egde (2G) and HSPA 3G my last trip to Pattaya I was on 3G for 90% of the time over here in the sandbox its moslty 3G as well, but I keep it on WiFi when at home which is VPN'd back to the USA so the phone "thinks" it in the US most of the time, (fine print says 90% of the time the phone should be in the US) I would not try at all to tether off it, as already said above 2G is all that is said that they offer. Otherwise its grat and for the very little about it cost to keep your home number when living overseas is great.

[DannySpurs]

Anyone from the US tried it in Thailand? They promise free unlimited SMS & Data & $.20/minute calls when outside USA in 130 countries.

What data speeds do you get in Bangkok or Pattaya? How are sms and call quality?

Used it from December to the end of March with no trouble, in Pattaya, Bangkok, Prachin Buri, and also Phnom Penh, Saigon and Hanoi. Texting worked great, phone calls fine. Sometimes got 3G, otherwise Edge, but it was definitely enough for email, simple browsing, Google Maps, etc. from what I understand, you can pay more to guarantee higher speeds (where it's available), but I never saw the need.

 

Just hoping that if T-Mobile merger with Sprint goes through, we don't lose this.

[DannySpurs]

My wife, using iPhone 5S, got 3G more often than I did, using 4S.

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sounds good will try it on my next trip and report back here

[hioctane]

I just signed up for the plan. I'll get the phone just in time for my trip to Colombia and report back.

 

Sure as heck beats Verizon's $25 for 100mb international plan!

[crumbs]

I just came back from a 3 week trip to BKK and Pattaya and here's my experience:

 

Call quality - good

Voicemail - sometimes couldn't check the 1st time, got a beep and wouldn't go thru to the menu. Had to dial a few times before it went thru. (each dial is $.20)

SMS - received ok, but would not send when roaming on DTAC in Bangkok. Here's a tip on how to fix, make sure to select "TH GSM" network in Bangkok to roam instead of DTAC. You can do this in most phone settings. This fixed the problem. 

MMS - I had a few group MMS come in and pics wouldn't download. Not sure if this was due to the slow data speeds.

Data - 2G on "TH GSM" roaming partner. 3G on DTAC - again, I had to manually switch from DTAC to send SMS. LINE worked ok on 2G.

 

I called T-Mobile and informed them about the SMS problem, they said they'll fix it.

I used both an Iphone and later poped the sim card into an old android phone. The Iphone seemed to get better performance.

 

I bought a Thai sim card AIS since I needed to tether my tablet and laptop, the T-mobile option is pretty much unusable for this purpose due to slow speeds.

 

Overall, an ok experience that allowed me to keep in touch with people back home, especially the ones that didn't know and didn't need to know about my trip.

[BigVenz]

Been to Thailand, Costa Rica, Madrid, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Canary Islands since T-Mobile started this program.

No issues any of these places.

I love the fact that I don't have to go and find a local sim card (except Thailand, only place I go frequent enough to keep one active) as soon as I hit the ground.

I am usually abroad 10 days at a time and my T-Mobile bill is about $15 higher than normal when I travel.

 

Internet is slow but works fine for Maps, WhatsApp and Line.

If I am doing anything data intensive I am somewhere that has Wifi.

[Capna]

My T-Mobile worked great at Narita and in Malaysia (KL and PJ), but didn't work at all in Singapore.

[southsidebruce]

I used it when I first got here to keep my US phone number... turns out that nobody was calling me and I rarely used it to call folks in the States, and I was using my DTAC voice/data plan for all my local phone calls and mobile internet (at a relatively cheap price of about 800 THB per month - compared to the ripoff approx $100+ per month I was paying with TMobile with my plan in the States), so I now have the oldSchool (with CANX fee) T-MOBILE plan suspended until I can CANX the plan altogether... just using my DTAC local plan now... and use SKYPE and FACETIME to chat with relatives in the States on my laptop using the WIFI in my condo...