Sprint International Value Roaming Plan Experience!

[Rocket87]

Lol it can't be pretty, probably why they don't even make it available. Sprint lists data in the Bahamas as $0.005/KB which, of course, can add up pretty quickly if you're not careful.

So thats like 5k a gb right? Damn

[Rawvega]

So thats like 5k a gb right? Damn

Yep, imagine having a fun-filled Bahamas vacation and then coming home to that bill.

[WiWavelength]

Yep, imagine having a fun-filled Bahamas vacation and then coming home to that bill.

 

I smell docked or passing cruise ship traffic capture.  That is a good racket.

 

AJ

[Rawvega]

I smell docked or passing cruise ship traffic capture.  That is a good racket.

 

AJ

 

Indeed it's a racket, as is the on-board calling ($2.99/min.) and texting rates. Most, if not all, cruise ship cellular communications are handled by these folks: http://www.wmsatsea.com

 

That seems like a monopoly and what's worse, looking at their management and BoD it seems that they're controlled by AT&T. 

[Rawvega]

For those that care, Sprint's Canadian arrangement is with Rogers, in Australia it's Optus, in New Zealand it's Spark and in Israel and the Palestinian Territories it's something that they identify as Partner (ISR01). I have no idea who or what that last one is.

[travismheim]

Adding Canada to IVR seems to steal some of the thunder away from T-Mobile with their latest North American roaming. While not quite as good, with the latest adds they now serve most of the destinations Sprint customers would be traveling to.

[shaferz]

This is great news.

 

Oddly enough - I just found out I will be in Canada quite often for work now through the beginning of December.  I will go add this to my plan shortly;  Very cool!

[Deval]

I smell docked or passing cruise ship traffic capture.  That is a good racket.

 

AJ

 

Yes, I just came back from the Bahamas, and have almost 20mb in roaming to pay for.

[Paynefanbro]

Cruise ships have their own roaming fees though and they're expensive too! In general, when I'm on a cruise, I just turn off data altogether unless I am in a U.S. territory like the USVI or PR.

[Rawvega]

Currently in Cabo. My experience hasn't been too much different from James Sinclair's so far. I didn't bother to call Sprint before leaving. I'd had international value roaming activated on all of my family's lines since the option became available. After landing ask of our lines became active at different times. First was my daughter's iPhone 6 Plus, then my wife's GS6, then my LG G3 but my son's Note II wouldn't activate. I had to put his network mode into automatic and check the GSM networks data roaming box.

 

The text we all got after arrival:

 

 

I've only used a couple of regular voice minutes down here, but it worked without a hitch. Texting works great. Almost every place down here has WiFi and I've used WiFi calling a number of times without issue.

 

Data is painfully slow as expected. Light browsing and other low bandwidth tasks work OK. BBM and other OTT apps that only need a small burst of data work well. Pictures load slowly and pretty much forget about streaming video. Google maps do work, but I've been using Here maps and downloaded the Mexico maps while still stateside. I think that's a better solution for me while here.

 

Speeds:

 

 

 

Since arriving here my phone has been getting this annoying error message which I'd never seen before. I don't know exactly how to solve this issue, but it doesn't affect the phones usability:

 

 

Just to satisfy my curiosity I brought an old Nextel phone and Sprint CDMA only dumb phone. Not that i doubted it, but I can confirm that the Nextel Mexico iDEN network and Iusacell CDMA network are still operational at least in Cabo:

 

 

 

[Paynefanbro]

I recommend everyone browse using Chrome when they're roaming. Chrome automatically recognizes slow networks and switches over to a "condensed web" version. I noticed this when I put my phone in 1x only mode just for kicks. Websites will load fast like you're on EVDO.

[Paynefanbro]

Additionally if Facebook is your thing, people with Android phones can download the Facebook Lite app onto your phone. The thing is, you'll have to download the apk file since it is supposed to only be available for phones in certain countries. It doesn't have any animations or anything but it's fast, only 1MB, and made to work on 2G networks.

[sbolen]

Additionally if Facebook is your thing, people with Android phones can download the Facebook Lite app onto your phone. The thing is, you'll have to download the apk file since it is supposed to only be available for phones in certain countries. It doesn't have any animations or anything but it's fast, only 1MB, and made to work on 2G networks.

Why not just use m.facebook.com in Chrome? That's really lightweight, and, as someone said up-thread, Chrome can detect slow speeds and compress images/scripts to let you browse faster.

[Paynefanbro]

Why not just use m.facebook.com in Chrome? That's really lightweight, and, as someone said up-thread, Chrome can detect slow speeds and compress images/scripts to let you browse faster.

 

True!

 

P.S. I said the thing about Chrome.

[sbolen]

True!

 

P.S. I said the thing about Chrome.

You're a wizard, Harry!

[shaferz]

Just wanted to express my joy with this add-on as well. Added it to my account last week. Landed in Vancouver yesterday. Phone latched onto Rogers. Has been relatively rock solid since I've been here. I did not try Google Maps with satellite view, but it works fine on standard view. IMessage works, text works.

 

I offload to wifi and use wifi calling whenever I can, but I am extremely happy knowing I can at least text and use some data for free. Two thumbs up!

[ericdabbs]

I finally got to use the International Value Roaming add-on during a 1 night layover in Toronto, Canada. It was great, I just turned on my data and after enabling a few options on my G2 (Settings -> Roaming -> Allow international data and allow GSM data) I was able to connect to Rogers Wireless via 2G (GSM spinning circle icon). My mobile network setting on my phone was set to "Global" and it was great for the most part except at 1 point, I was connected to Telus network which uses CDMA and I was connected to 3G at point. Little did I know until later that by doing that I was connecting to 3G outside of the International Value Roaming program and when I checked my account it was dinged $36.36 and it was due to the phone connecting to Telus's 3G network. I called Sprint to ask them about that and they credited me the $36.36 on my account.

 

So my warning is when you are using the 2G data outside of the country, please ensure the mobile network setting on your phone (Settings -> Mobile Networks -> GSM/UTMS) is set to GSM/UTMS to ensure you don't accidentally connect to CDMA/EVDO. I mean I should have known that going in regardless but for some reason I didn't think I would connect to a CDMA network.

 

Overall I was very happy to be able to use my data outside of the US without penalty and hope they continue to expand their country list. In fact because of the IVR program, I was even able to call an Uber to take me to the supermarket to get my beloved Ketchup/All Dressed potato chips =). However Tmobile just always finds a way to 1-up the competition by allowing full 4G access in Canada and Mexico which really makes it attractive but 1 step at a time.

[greenbastard]

I called Sprint to ask them about that and they credited me the $36.36 on my account.

What exactly did they tell you about those charges? I only asked because last time I asked about roaming on iusacell (which is CDMA), they said it was free, but they would still rather have me on GSM in order to have a "better experience".

[ericdabbs]

What exactly did they tell you about those charges? I only asked because last time I asked about roaming on iusacell (which is CDMA), they said it was free, but they would still rather have me on GSM in order to have a "better experience".

 

I asked them where the charges came from.  The sprint rep said it looks like you were connected to 3G at some point and that is where the charges came from.  And then when he said that it hit me that at one point, I saw my phone display the "3G" icon vs. the "GSM" icon.  I just assumed that even though it said "3G" that my speeds would be throttled to 2G speeds.  So the Sprint rep put me on hold and about 5 minutes later, the sprint rep told me that they will credit my account for the amount charged.

 

I should have known about it and just set my phone mode to GSM/UTMS and avoided the fiasco.  Basically the Sprint rep told me that normally when people are going to travel internationally, they advise calling their phone number to give you the run down steps on how to prep your phone to use the International Value Roaming data plan to avoid connecting to non GSM networks.

[greenbastard]

That's odd. I'm assuming the rep was confused as well about the charges since you can connect to GSM 3G services as well abroad. Sprint phones can use Telefonica's HSPA, which is considered 3G (capped at 2g speeds) of course.

 

The entire International Value Roaming seems a bit confusing as to which networks you're supposed to roam on.

[ericdabbs]

That's odd. I'm assuming the rep was confused as well about the charges since you can connect to GSM 3G services as well abroad. Sprint phones can use Telefonica's HSPA, which is considered 3G (capped at 2g speeds) of course.

 

The entire International Value Roaming seems a bit confusing as to which networks you're supposed to roam on.

 

No no I think you are confused, I was connected to Telus's 3G EVDO network which is not part of the IVR program.  SignalCheck Pro confirmed it was EVDO and not HSPA.  That is probably why I was dinged the charge.  Basically the best way to avoid any chance of getting charged is to set your phone to GSM/UTMS phone mode and not on global so you don't bounce between potential networks that use CDMA and UTMS.

[travismheim]

No no I think you are confused, I was connected to Telus's 3G EVDO network which is not part of the IVR program.  SignalCheck Pro confirmed it was EVDO and not HSPA.  That is probably why I was dinged the charge.  Basically the best way to avoid any chance of getting charged is to set your phone to GSM/UTMS phone mode and not on global so you don't bounce between potential networks that use CDMA and UTMS.

Not all phones have that specific setting. That doesn't show up on my Nexus 5 if a Sprint SIM is in the phone, just LTE, 3G, 1x, and Global. IVR is confusing, the PRL should probably be set up to disallow any international CDMA roaming to prevent that from happening to other customers.

[shaferz]

Not all phones have that specific setting. That doesn't show up on my Nexus 5 if a Sprint SIM is in the phone, just LTE, 3G, 1x, and Global. IVR is confusing, the PRL should probably be set up to disallow any international CDMA roaming to prevent that from happening to other customers.

 

I was led to believe from SWW support chat that with my iphone6+, so long as I have IVR, and I am in an IVR country, my phone will not connect to a network that is not 'with' the IVR program.    See below from my chat transcript:

 

 

[05:07:19 PM] Jenny V.: As I understand it, you are inquiring if you will incur charges because your device is showing 3G and you have the international value roaming plan.

[05:07:55 PM] Zach Shafer: That is correct.  My assumption was that this small amount of data I have used is free. 

[05:08:30 PM] Jenny V.: As long as you are connected to Rogers you will not incur any charges.

[05:09:51 PM] Zach Shafer: Ok, great.  Is there another provider here that I should try to make sure my phone doesnt connect to?  It has been Rogers anytime I am not on wifi/wifi calling

[05:10:40 PM] Jenny V.: There is Telus and Bell.

[05:11:13 PM] Zach Shafer: And my phone can connect to those?  Is there a way to prevent that from happening? 

[05:12:17 PM] Jenny V.: It should not connect to any other network because of the international value roaming plan. You will only get service while connected to Rogers.

[travismheim]

I was led to believe from SWW support chat that with my iphone6+, so long as I have IVR, and I am in an IVR country, my phone will not connect to a network that is not 'with' the IVR program. See below from my chat transcript:

That's how I thought it would work too, but his experience differs.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Rawvega]

In Mexico none of my family's phones ever attempted to connect to Telcel or Iusacell's GSM/W-CDMA networks nor Iusacell's CDMA network. I did turn off international CDAM roaming on my daughter's iPhone 6 Plus, but all of the Android phones were left untouched. To be fair, I doubt that we were ever anywhere that Movistar didn't have coverage but another carrier did. 

 

This is still relatively new so there are bound to be a few bugs to be worked out. For instance, over on HoFo some T-Mobile users have had issues with 'Mobile Without Borders' in Canada. At any rate, the Bell and Telus CDMA networks will be decommisioned soon as will the Iusacell CDMA network so that won't be an issue in the near future.