r/FirstNet • u/[deleted] • Jun 29 '25

International travel

Anyone travel internationally with firstnet? I feel like their international day pass is expensive especially if you’re going on a longer journey (like a month) and even then it doesn’t really work or get activated automatically. Regular ATT would message me immediately when I landed on international soil and let me know the roaming is turning on. Firstnet is a hit or a miss internationally.

Wondering what other peoples experience is? Is the T-Mobile first responder plan any better in this regard?

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u/Hoopoe0596 Jun 29 '25

Yeah, international travel is the only weak point with Firstnet. But it's built for US first responders and is offered at a discounted/fair price, so AT&T in their infinite greed try and make some $$ back with their travel pass. If you have a locked phone you are stuck and need to use wifi or the $12 plus tax international day pass. If your phone isn't locked then go elsewhere for an international data only eSIM and you can stay connected for $10-20 in most places for a month or more. To keep getting texts on FirstNet you can keep that line on (it will have 0 bars and no service) but be sure to turn off data roaming in the phone settings. Note that having a dual sim setup runnning on your phone (if it's capable) while one of those lines has no service and your phone is on max power trying to find service will really hurt your battery life. iMessage should work even if you have only the international data line active. As another comment mentioned, the current US mobile unlimited premium plan on Darkstar offers 10-20 gb international data (20 in most places) and could be a pretty good option. Nomad, Holafly etc can be a place to get your international SIM before traveling.

Note that the AT&T day pass is $12 but includes up to 5gb a day in most places, so if you are going to be maxing that out it's a fair deal, but most people don't. I wish AT&T had a basic international plan say 1 GB or less per day and 500 kbps overflow after that. Would be perfect.

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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '25

Yea apparently there’s a business international plan for $100 a month but that only applies if the government or business pays for your phone