Re: 5G map

On 4/6/2022 3:58 PM, RJH wrote:
> On 6 Apr 2022 at 10:37:48 PM, sms <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>> The voice and SMS worked well in Europe but the data was too
>> slow to be useful.
> 
> Since there aren't any TMobile, AT&T or Verizon towers in Europe, why would
> the speed you get on any one USA carrier be any different when all of those
> USA carriers would be roaming on local telecoms when you're in Europe?

There actually are T-Mobile towers in three countries in Europe 
(Germany, Netherlands, and Czech Republic), but that's beside the point.

The problem with the included international roaming data on T-Mobile 
U.S.A. is throttled to 128 Kb/sec. Fast enough to do e-mail, but not 
very useful for web browsing or to use GPS mapping functions.

After experiencing the nearly unusable 128 Kb/s roaming data, the next 
two trips we made to Europe I bought local SIM cards that included high 
speed data. With EU rules, those worked in all EU and EEA countries. 
Sadly, with Brexit, the SIM cards sold by UK carriers like Vodafone, 
have been greatly worsened. I did the same thing on two trips to China 
in 2018 and 2019.

On the trips to Italy and China I was traveling with others and some of 
them were just sure that their included T-Mobile international data 
would eliminate the need for buying a local SIM card. They were wrong. I 
set up a hotspot and let them tether into my phone. For $15 per month 
they could upgrade from 128 Kb/s to 256 Kb/s. If they wanted high speed 
data it was $5/day for 512MB, 5GB/10 days for $35, or 15GB/30 days for 
$50. This is way more expensive than buying a local SIM card. The 
Vodafone card that I bought in 2019 was £1 per day for 500MB of high 
speed data (plus unlimited talk and SMS).