On Verizon, 4G LTE phones are not just CDMA. They are considered “World” devices and work in over 220 countries. And they are automatically unlocked. All this info is available on the Verizon International Travel FAQs pages.
D’s Verizon Samsung Galaxy S5 was purchased this last February. She is now in Greece for the semester and had no problem installing a Greek SIM card with no intervention from Verizon.
For her shorter trip to Greece in the summer, we just added an international plan. In both cases, she has easy access to wireless so we most frequently communicate via the What’s App messaging app.
For what it’s worth, when D dropped off our AT&T family plan (part of wanting to be totally self-supporting), she went with Sprint because of its international coverage at no extra $$ for her very reasonable plan. She has had no issues in Germany or Greece, and we’ve had an easy time communicating since we both have iPhones and use the Apple IM.
My son has Verizon and a Samsung phone, with a 2 year contract that started last Thanksgiving. When he went to Singapore he was able to buy a SIM card there (very Inexpensively) and use it to communicate with his friends who were all based in Singapore. When he came home, he couldn’t find his “US” SIM card, but Verizon gave him a new one for free.
The problem with the Verizon plan is the 100mbs of data. Yea I know there is wifi everywhere but I have tons of problems with connecting on s public wifi and usually turn off the wifi and use my data since I have a ton here. I hate to go to Europe and be nervous about only having 100mbs for $40 which I think is highway robbery. Sorry for the rant
I’d like to co-rant w you. 100mbs is indeed an obscene joke.
I live overseas and maintain a local cellphone contract for self, plus an American AT&T contract for kids in the States. AT&T is such a rip-off compared to my “home” service. For my “home” service, for 10 USD per day, I get UNLIMITED text/data international roaming.
Of course I don’t pay 300 bucks a month for my LOCAL service. The 10 bucks/day is for INTERNATIONAL ROAMING w unlimited text/data. Compare that to 40 bucks for 100 mbs data. A lot of people can easily use that much data in a single day.
@GMT, I am not sure where ya’ll use the phones, but my UK kid just got a phone from THREE, something like £15-17 for unlimited data and you can use it in many countries in Western Europe and even the US
I have to disagree with those who say to temporarily get the international plan. We have Verizon (iPhone 5s) and traveled internationally the summer before last to multiple European countries and then just last month to London. Both times we waited until we got there and went into one of the MANY cell phone vendors and bought a “pay as you go” SIM card. The one I bought in London was £12 (about $18 or so) which included 1GB data, 750 minutes of talk and 2000 texts, which was plenty for a week. YMMV. But it was cheaper and had more data than going with the temporary plan by Verizon. It’s very easy to swap out a SIM card; just make sure not to lose your domestic card! If you go this route, make sure you test the phone with the new card installed before you leave the store, in case there are any problems (we didn’t have any, but good to check.)
I travel to many different countries in asia/europe/US every year, so it’s not worth the hassle to get a SIM card for every place i visit for just a few days usage at a time.
Plus, I want to be REACHABLE AT THE SAME PHONE NUMBER and not make my family crazy w my phone number always changing one week to the next.
^^Yep, @GMTplus7, that was our logic, too, in paying Verizon for a month’s worth of int’l calling even though we’ll only be there 10 days and their data plan is a rip-off. Our family members know our numbers and will be able to reach us in an emergency.