Using cell phone for calls and SMS with ATT in Europe without paying $10 day

[ee_guy]

My wife and I just came back from a week in Ireland and Northern Ireland (UK) using our cell phones for calls and data without paying any extra fees beyond our normal monthly charge. The easy but costly solutions is to pay $10/day or $15/day for two phones using the ATT International Day Pass (IDP). Below is my setup in avoiding these charges.

My phone: Pixel 6a, ATT service with International Day Pass based in northeast USA
Wife's phone: iPhone SE, ATT service with International Day Pass.
Both phones have a physical ATT SIM.

In addition, my phone was loaded with a 30 day regional Europe eSIM that covers Ireland, Northern Ireland and more. Cost was $10 for 5 GB valid for 30 days after activation. See this link for more details on eSIM. An eSIM for one country would have been less expensive but we were in two countries on the island of Ireland and needed a regional eSIM. Two currencies (Euro and Sterling) were needed.

Both phones had ATT wifi calling with SMS. If wifi were available and airplane mode ON, IDP charges would not be incurred with calls and text. But wifi is not generally available when walking around around Ireland.

Cell phones setup
iPhone: airplane mode ON, wifi enabled, low data mode ON (reduces data usage). No other changes in settings.
Pixle 6a: airplane mode OFF, ATT SIM and eSIM both active (more details later), hotspot with wifi enabled. The phone was serving as a wifi hotspot for the iPhone

With this arrangement, the iPhone could receive calls, text and internet access while in Ireland i.e., normal communications with no added fees while outside of the US.

Pixel 6a settings:

ATT SIM: active, data roaming OFF, Calls with eSIM (not ATT), SMS with eSIM (not ATT), wifi calling enabled; mobile data OFF, switch mobile data automatically OFF, Calling preference over wifi.
eSIM: active, data roaming ON, calls with eSIM, SMS with eSIM, wifi hotspot enabled with password.

With the above setting the iPhone operated as if in the US. Calls and text came through. Google maps worked fine.

With the Pixel 6a I was able to receive SMS with my ATT number with no IDP charge. I was also able to receive calls and voice mail to my ATT number with no IDP charges. In fact, I received and played back a spam voicemail.

However, I could not send text or make calls with my ATT number. (I have read iPhones do not have this restriction.) This was not a problem for me since I could return calls on the Pixel 6a with Google Voice number and send text with with Google Voice number. Calls with Whatsapp works fine of course since Whatsapp uses data.

At the end of the trip I had 2GB of data (of 5GB) remaining despite heavy usage with google maps. The settings outlined above are specific to my phones and ATT but may work with other phones and phone plans.

While there are cell phone plans that allow you to use your phone outside of the US with no extra fees, we stuck with ATT because of a great grandfather deal.

[pizzy]

Could your wife’s phone make/receive all calls and send/receive both iMessages and standard text messages with her current AT&T number at all times?

[ee_guy]

Could your wife’s phone make/receive all calls and send/receive both iMessages and standard text messages with her current AT&T number at all times?

Yes.. just like in the states or in a hotel with wifi with her ATT number. Zero extra charges on my account.

[pizzy]

Could your wife’s phone make/receive all calls and send/receive both iMessages and standard text messages with her current AT&T number at all times?

Yes.. just like in the states or in a hotel with wifi with her ATT number. Zero extra charges on my account.

Just to clarify, non-iMessage text messages were working?

[UpperNwGuy]

I just paid the $10 a day and did not find it to be particularly onerous in light of the value I received. This was for a three week trip.

[curmudgeon]

It would seem like one potential issue would be texting (or calling) between your two phones when you are separated. For my wife and I, this is one of our common usages while traveling overseas, to link up when we have gone in different directions for a while. We mostly stick with doing calls when we are back at the hotel with wifi.

Still an interesting technique, though, thanks for posting the details.

[plmd]

Wife's phone: iPhone SE, ATT service with International Day Pass.

Which generation iPhone SE? The newer iPhones allow you to use “Wi-Fi” calling over your foreign cellular data. So instead of “AT&T Wi-Fi”, you’ll see “AT&T using Cellular Data”. To pull this off, airplane mode has to be off, since turning it on would also disable the eSIM cellular data. But then you would be able to make/receive calls and texts using your AT&T number anytime. The only issue is that the iPhone can’t tell that you have to pay $10 per day to use a foreign tower, so it’s possible that it will still try to connect the AT&T service to a tower, triggering the international day pass. The way around this is to call AT&T before your trip and actually block roaming completely. That way, without eSIM data or WiFi, the AT&T line will always have “No Service” when outside the US.

[ee_guy]

Could your wife’s phone make/receive all calls and send/receive both iMessages and standard text messages with her current AT&T number at all times?

Yes.. just like in the states or in a hotel with wifi with her ATT number. Zero extra charges on my account.

Just to clarify, non-iMessage text messages were working?

With this setup, non-iMessages worked fine. The phone appeared as if it was in the US using the cell towers.

[ee_guy]

Wife's phone: iPhone SE, ATT service with International Day Pass.

Which generation iPhone SE? The newer iPhones allow you to use “Wi-Fi” calling over your foreign cellular data. So instead of “AT&T Wi-Fi”, you’ll see “AT&T using Cellular Data”. To pull this off, airplane mode has to be off, since turning it on would also disable the eSIM cellular data. But then you would be able to make/receive calls and texts using your AT&T number anytime. The only issue is that the iPhone can’t tell that you have to pay $10 per day to use a foreign tower, so it’s possible that it will still try to connect the AT&T service to a tower, triggering the international day pass. The way around this is to call AT&T before your trip and actually block roaming completely. That way, without eSIM data or WiFi, the AT&T line will always have “No Service” when outside the US.

This is a iPhone SE 2020. Good to know about AT&T using Cellular Data when we upgrade.

[barnaby444]

Wife's phone: iPhone SE, ATT service with International Day Pass.

Which generation iPhone SE? The newer iPhones allow you to use “Wi-Fi” calling over your foreign cellular data. So instead of “AT&T Wi-Fi”, you’ll see “AT&T using Cellular Data”. To pull this off, airplane mode has to be off, since turning it on would also disable the eSIM cellular data. But then you would be able to make/receive calls and texts using your AT&T number anytime. The only issue is that the iPhone can’t tell that you have to pay $10 per day to use a foreign tower, so it’s possible that it will still try to connect the AT&T service to a tower, triggering the international day pass. The way around this is to call AT&T before your trip and actually block roaming completely. That way, without eSIM data or WiFi, the AT&T line will always have “No Service” when outside the US.

I heard about this and tried it before my last trip, but the phone reps at AT&T could not identify any way to do that ("block roaming completely") in their system. Have you had any luck doing this (specifically with AT&T)?

[plmd]

I heard about this and tried it before my last trip, but the phone reps at AT&T could not identify any way to do that ("block roaming completely") in their system. Have you had any luck doing this (specifically with AT&T)?

It’s been long time since I’ve had AT&T postpaid, since I have AT&T Prepaid now, but I thought the AT&T International Dept can block roaming if you call them at (314) 925-6925.

[plmd]

This is a iPhone SE 2020. Good to know about AT&T using Cellular Data when we upgrade.

The SE 2020 might already support it. I can’t remember which iOS version added the feature (12 or 13), but I believe that from an hardware standpoint, you just need to be able to use 2 SIMs simultaneously. I think iPhone XS and newer support this, and the SE 2020 has the same CPU as the iPhone 11.