Notes on international mobile data roaming

First, let’s just say it: roaming outside the US with a US-carrier smartphone and SIM card, no matter what you do, is highway robbery. There, now that that’s out of the way…

I have a global phone from Verizon (shoutout: Droid Incredible 2, w00t w00t), and I’d planned on purchasing a German SIM card to use on my trip, since it’s too expensive to use Verizon’s global services. To do so, I called ahead and got the unlock code for my phone (this is not “jailbreaking” or “rooting” as some have asked in forums online— this is just unlocking your phone to be able to use with another carrier).

I knew, however, that I wouldn’t be able to get a German SIM as soon as I landed, and I would want to have continuous data access. So, I called Verizon and pre-ordered a package of data to use, about 25MB, thinking that would be enough to cover me until I bought the new card. (Cue foreshadowing music.) 

When I got to Germany, my phone didn’t automatically switch over to the European standard (GSM/UTMS), and I had to call Verizon to fix that. Turns out they had to re-register my Verizon SIM card and do some rituals in honor of the gods of transmission, and about 30 minutes into that first phone call to customer service, my phone started working.

A few hours later, I got a text telling me that I’d exceeded $150 in data roaming, and I best change my settings or call customer service. I knew I couldn’t have gone over my limit in a couple hours, so I called. The rep told me he didn’t know why I got that text message; the German roaming partner (Vodafone) hadn’t reported me using any data yet. He said not to worry about them.

Another few hours go by, and I get another message — I’d now exceeded $500 in data roaming charges. Might want to look into that, cowboy. I called back, and again the customer service rep said, “No idea.” He made a note to himself to check the account the next morning, just to double check. True to his word, he did, and texted me that Vodafone still hadn’t reported any data usage.

I bought my German SIM that afternoon (shoutout: blau.de’s prepaid plan rocks for heavy data usage and light phoning/texting), so I ended up with about 24 hours on Verizon’s roaming service.

Today, I got an email that I’d racked up about $1,000 in data roaming, and Verizon was pretty sure I might not have intended to do so. Yeah. Third call to customer service landed me someone in the global support department this time (you’d think that you’d get there to begin with when you go through the voice-prompted system asking for global support, but alas, no). This time, the rep explained a few things to me:

• There’s lag time between when your prearranged international data plan is activated, and when the system actually starts recognizing it. So, evidently, it’s going to think for a couple days that I haven’t prearranged any data service, when I in fact have. Then it’s going to send me freak-out messages about how much money I’ve spent until my heart stops. By the time my bill is actually tallied, though, it will have caught up and righted itself. (Am I the only one that thinks that this lag thing is silly in the digital age? I’m picturing Brazil-like systems inside Verizon that keep plans from activating properly. Here be pneumatic tubes!)
• Nonetheless, I ended up, in a 24-hour period, using 48MB of data. That’s well beyond the 25MB that I purchased, and would have ended up costing $471 in addition to the ~$25 I prepaid. I found it hard to believe that I’d used that much, since I purposefully reduced my data usage severely and stopped a bunch of apps from auto-checking. The agent looked at my account and said, “Well, a normal day of data for you is about 90MB, so you halved your usage.” Ah. Well then. She did offer me a backup plan: purchase the higher plan of 70MB for $100, and she’d make it retroactive, and I’d be covered. So, I ended up paying $100 for a day of data usage. I did mention highway robbery at the beginning of this post, right?

Things to consider in the future:

• Find out what my average daily usage is ahead of time in the future, and purchase accordingly.
• Buy the German SIM card faster. Maybe even order it ahead of time and have it sent to the apartment I’m subletting.
• Make sure Verizon actually does have what it needs to have in place to make sure my phone functions properly right away.
• Continue to pester Verizon with phone calls and ask for notes on the account to be made with each call. No way I’m coming home to a $1,000+ bill. No way.