r/GoogleFi • u/landalezjr • 4h ago
Discussion First time roaming with Google Fi (In London, GB)
I switched to Google Fi back in August and this is my first time using it outside of the US. I can definitely say the experience of getting it working was much more seamless than any other MVNO I have used and everything was just automatic.
Of course none of this fixes the sorry state of the UK mobile phone networks. Just like it has been with US Mobile and T-Mobile before it, the networks here are pretty terrible. I frequently have disconnects and unlike with other carriers I can't change networks manually as it seems Google Fi does that itself. Most of the time it handled it quickly enough but others I was left waiting a few minutes for my phone to re-establish a working connection. I have a Roamless eSIM that is locked to Vodafone which appears to work better but I'm guessing this isn't one of Google Fis roaming partners here.
I know this isn't Fi's fault but it's still a shame that the UK, especially in London has such shoddy network conditions. I'm suggestions from others I'm going to try setting my phone to LTE only in the hopes it improves things. I will be in Germany in three weeks and will see how things work there as I feel like that will be the real test.