Project Fi Gets Even Better for International Travelers

Just one day after I reviewed the service, Google announced that it has improved Project Fi yet again, adding support for high speed data in over 135 international destinations.

I mean, seriously.

As I noted in my Google Project Fi Review, one of the many, many advantages of this unique wireless carrier solution is that you can use your handset internationally inexpensively: Phone calls are just 20 cents a minute, text messages are free, and you don’t pay extra for data: You just use data normally and it goes against your normal limits.

But that last bit had one caveat: Data access outside of the United States was constrained to 3G speeds. So you couldn’t take advantage of LTE/4G speeds where they would otherwise be available.

Well, that’s changing.

Starting immediately, Project Fi subscribers now have access to high speed data in over 135 international destinations thanks to a new partnership with UK-based carrier Three. There’s no additional charge for this access, so as always, you simply access the data you pay for at the very reasonable rate of $10 per GB. Amazing.

As for what “high speed data” means, Google only says that it is 10 to 20 times faster than before. So that means that this access can be up to 20 times faster than the 256 kbps 3G access that Project Fi previously supported. In other words, you’ll get LTE/4G speeds.

Here’s some more good news: If you haven’t yet switched to Project Fi and Android, Google is offering a new promotion where you can save $150 off the Nexus 6P—which, again, I use and recommend—when buy and activate the device with Project Fi. (That deal becomes available at 10 am PT today, Google says.)

Oh my.