Forum Discussion
Activating new TMobile SIM while overseas?
I need to move four lines from Sprint to TMobile side by mid-year. Two of the phones are overseas, and users are unlikely to be in U.S. anytime soon. If I send (or bring) the new SIMS to the users overseas, my guess is that they will be unable to activate them, correct? The phones and new SIMs will need to be in the U.S. to activate. Correct?
edeemari58 wrote:
I am t-mobile consumer and will travel to London with my friends for a week. Obviously we're afraid of surprise roaming charges, but we're cognizant that we may need to call each other in case of emergency.
How do I get cell phone service in London? Do I have to buy a separate SIM card there or here ? Also, what do u suggest on how to get wi-fi service?
@edeemari58 First, it’s best to start a new thread for a new question.
Next, T-Mobile has very good roaming in UK. You should have no problems, assuming you have a postpaid plan and a fairly modern phone.
edeemari58, I’m not really the person to ask as I only use the US phone occasionally. That being said I’ve notice that the US phone likes to connect to the UK Vodafone network on its own. I try calling the US phone from my UK phone...sometimes it rings, other times I get voicemail. Both are good enough for me.
You can stop by a Tesco store or other corner convenience shop and pick up a pay-as-you-go sim card for small change, something like £1. The sim might work in your existing phone. If it does then you can pay the extra £10 or so for the top-up code. I would use an O2 sim.
Most coffee shops (Costa, Caffe Nero, Starbucks, others) have wireless access points, just ask for the SSID and password.
Hope this helps.
I am t-mobile consumer and will travel to London with my friends for a week. Obviously we're afraid of surprise roaming charges, but we're cognizant that we may need to call each other in case of emergency.
How do I get cell phone service in London? Do I have to buy a separate SIM card there or here ? Also, what do u suggest on how to get wi-fi service?
Success! A cool Customer Service guy named Renc got my overseas (UK) Sprint phone moved over to T-Mobile without a visit to the States for activation. The key is to use an eSIM, so your phone has to be capable of supporting it. You can do the transfer over the phone with Customer Support. He also knocked my payments down to boot.
Activating on an older iPhone in the USA would certainly work. Once activated, it will work in any other compatible phone. It might be able to activate a phone overseas, that’s something I’ve seen debated. I’d like to know because I carry a spare, unactivated SIM when I travel abroad, in case a phone gets lost, stolen or if the SIM just stops working. I’d like to know for sure.
Hmm. Interested in understanding if activating SIMS on compatible phone (I have an “extra”, older iPhone around; not the model of the phones located overseas) in the U.S., and then carrying them overseas for installation, would work. Anyone else able to weigh in on whether this might work?
There’s been some debate regarding if a SIM needs to be on T-Mobile’s network to be activated or not. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a definitive answer to the question. Since T-Mobile SIMs (unlike Sprint’s SIMs) are not locked to a particular phone, you could activate them in the US on any compatible phone, then send or carry them to Europe. The old SIMs would not work once the new ones are activated. You could also take your chances on sending unactivated SIMs to Europe to see if they can be activated there.
Look at porting the number to Google voice if you have an Android. Check out the rates for international roaming.
I moved a few years ago to another state a kept my number and added a line through Google voice with a new area code for free. It uses the minutes from my Tmobile plan
Thanks.
One of the two overseas lines has been out of the U.S. for quite some time. Very little roaming on the phone, which has been with Sprint for years. I think we’ve kept the line primarily to avoid disruption to iMessage and WhatsApp communication (all the users’ contacts use the U.S. Sprint number), and for occasional roaming use when the local in country cell phone doesn’t have coverage, but the Sprint iPhone has roaming available.
It may be time to park the numbers and give up the Sprint/TMob lines, and move forward with iMessage and WhatsApp with local in country phone numbers. Any thoughts/suggestions on how to do this?
Thanks again.
Yes the Sims need to be in the US.
Just to let you know that most of the usage needs to be on Tmobile towers so after a couple of months the 2 lines that are overseas will probably be terminated for excessive international roaming.
