Fi, eSIM, CDMX, and Me (Premium)

I switched back to Google Fi this year because I’m traveling internationally more often. But I’m probably going to switch again, and for a variety of reasons.

I wrote about my return to Google Fi back in April. Before that, I used Mint Mobile for two years. And before that, I had used Google Fi full-time since September 2017. (I used it on trips prior to that.) Point being, I’ve always really liked Google Fi. Indeed, I’ve liked it since it was called Project Fi.

But my two-year Mint Mobile side-trip was all about money: Google Fi has transparent pricing and incredible international features, both of which I love, but it can be expensive, with a base monthly price of $30 plus another $10 per each additional GB up to a 6 GB spending cap. And with the pandemic starting in March 2020, I figured I could save a lot of money on my wireless bill each month, especially since I wouldn’t be traveling internationally again anytime soon.

And that’s exactly what happened: Mint Mobile cost me $300 per year (so, about $25 per month) over those two years and I never came close to using all the data I was allotted. But things did change again in those two years. First, travel started back up again as the vaccines appeared and the pandemic waned in 2021. Then, international travel slowly kicked in again. I purchased an iPhone 13 Pro in late 2021. And then, in early 2022, we purchased an apartment in Mexico City, which changed how, where, and how often we travel internationally. Dramatically.

You probably know or remember at least some of that. But I bring it up again not because it’s interesting but because it’s all relevant to something I’ve been thinking about again: saving money by getting rid of Google Fi but doing so in a way that works better with the iPhone and won’t hinder my very necessary international cellular phone, text, and data needs. In other words, this time I want to have it all: the convenience of Google Fi combined with the savings I experienced with Mint Mobile. And because so much has changed, I can probably make that happen.

This desire to switch things up has been building all year. I’ve traveled internationally four times this year already, for a total of five and a half weeks away, and we have another two-week trip planned for October. Combine that with our ten-day trip to Seattle/Alaska in July, and that’s a lot of travel for someone who hasn’t been on a work-related trip since November 2019. Put another way, that’s 7.5 weeks so far (and 9+ weeks by the end of October) in which I’ve been using Google Fi quite extensively. And this has resulted in some expensive bills. And some frustrations.

First, the bills. Here are my last five bills because, previous to that, I was still using Mint Mobile and was activating my Fi account only when I was away:

$81.52 (5.5 GB)

$86.71 (6.99 GB)

$44.96 (1.82 GB)

$86.03 (9.24 GB)

$56.71 (1.3 GB)

Looking at those figures, you can see that I maxed out my Fi billing in three of those five months. That’s because of that 6 GB cap on data pricing: The basic Fi bill is $30, which assumes you use 1 GB of data in any given month. You’re charged an additional $10 for each GB you use (or credited for the data under 1 GB you do not use). But it’s capped at 6 GB: after that, data usage continues, but you’re not charged for it. (And, yes, there is some really high cap on high-speed data, but I can’t remember what it is. I’ve never come close, regardless.) So aside from taxes, fees, and additional charges for international calls or whatever, the most I should have to spend on Fi in any month is $80.00. Which, as you can see, I hit three times in five months. Those map to my May (Mexico), July (Seattle/Alaska), and August (Mexico) trips.

Looking at those figures, you can also see that my average cost per month is over $71 per month. I can’t imagine that we’ll travel to Mexico City every other month for the foreseeable future—the airfare alone would be quite expensive unless prices go down dramatically again—but even those months when I’m not traveling seem costly to me, given how much data I am using. Surely there is a better way.

But it’s not just the cost, and I need to account for a lot of variables here. Because, as noted, a lot has changed in the two years since I switched temporarily to Mint Mobile. And I have some frustrations with Google Fi.

As you may have seen, Google Fi just added two useful features for iPhone users: Wi-Fi calling and international hotspot. These are features that Android phones have had for years, and they were sorely missed on iPhone. But there are still other Fi features that iPhone users can’t enjoy: network switching, which is a key Fi benefit, and 5G compatibility, for example, though I can’t say that second one has impacted me at all. (And many 4G/LTE networks seem to be faster than 5G, still.)

As for the frustrations, those are becoming problematic.

I’ve written before about how useless the iPhone is when it comes to blocking spam calls and texts, and how Fi does very little to help with this issue. (That said, Fi combined with Android seems like an ideal solution.) I’m going to try and write about this issue in more detail, but that assumes I actually solve the problem. From what I can tell, third-party services like True Caller offer only tiny improvements of their own, and the only real way to truly fix this issue is to use a carrier—AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon here in the U.S.—that offers its customers top-notch spam protection. (Mint Mobile offered none, for example.) Or to switch back to Android on Fi.

What I haven’t written about before are the other issues I’ve experienced with Fi, and not just with the iPhone.

When we fly to any location, be it international or domestic, I always have trouble reconnecting to the network, while the people around me, including my wife (who is on Verizon), have so such issues. This is true in both directions, when we arrive and when we come back home. It just takes a long time. Much longer than it should.

And while Android phones properly configure themselves for Fi, the iPhone often does not, even though this has supposedly gotten better recently. I have to manually go through my APN settings and make sure each option is configured exactly right, otherwise, things break, most notably group messaging. And this seems to reset somehow, so I have to go in and check those settings from time to time and fix them again.

Anyway, add this all up—the high costs, the missing Fi features, and the frustrations—and you can probably understand why I’m ready, again, for a change. And are probably wondering why I went back to Fi in the first place. The thing is, I like the idea of Google Fi, and I like how it works with Android, especially Pixel. And who knows? If Google had nailed the Pixel 6 Pro I would never have bought an iPhone and maybe we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

Except, of course, that we would be. Because this is just like any other decision, a matrix of choices, each weighted to my specific needs and wants. It’s not just one thing.

And let’s be honest here. For all the (valid) complaining about the paid subscription era in which we now live, the primary benefit of this model now applies to wireless carriers too: I can easily switch between any carriers I want, every month, if that’s what it takes. It’s not like the old days when your only choice was annual (or even longer) contracts. (Though one can still choose that if it makes sense.)

But there are other factors, too.

While it’s possible we’ll occasionally travel to other international destinations over the next year or so, we’re pretty focused on Mexico, and I’m having trouble wrapping my brain around not going there as much as possible. And Mexico, like Canada, is an interesting special case for wireless carrier customers in the U.S.: most wireless plans come with some free benefits related to calls, texts, and data.

This varies my carrier and plan, of course, but looking just at T-Mobile to keep things simple, I see that all of their Unlimited 55+ plans (I’m 55 years old) offer no additional cost and unlimited calling and texting in Mexico and at least some form of data access: 2G data, which is worthless, via the Essentials 55+ plan ($40 per month) and 5 GB of 4G data per month via the Magenta 55+ ($50 per month) and Magenta Max 55+ ($65 per month) plans. The big difference between Magenta and Magenta Max appears to be hotspot data (5 GB vs. 40 GB), free inflight Wi-Fi on airlines I don’t frequent, and some Netflix/Apple TV perks I don’t really care about. Oh, and access to Scam Shield Premium, which may or may not matter; I suspect whatever T-Mobile does about spam is still better than what I have now.

Would 5 GB of data handle my monthly needs in Mexico City? Probably not, given that I exceeded my 6 GB Google Fi data cap on two of my last three trips (one for 10 days and one for 8 days). But I could always get a Mexican SIM card and use that for data while I’m there. The costs are minimal—we are currently paying $10 per month for an eSIM with 3 GB of data—and you can buy additional data for as low as 1 cent U.S. (yes, really) per MB. And that’s for prepaid plans. (Of course, that $15—or whatever—per month is in addition to whatever I will pay at whatever U.S. carrier. So there’s that.)

I hope you noticed the eSIM mention in there: even in Mexico, you can get eSIMs now, and the ability to switch between U.S.- and Mexico-based SIMs is useful. Even more useful is the ability to use both together. For example, I can choose to use my U.S.-based eSIM (or SIM; Google Fi today) for calls and text and a Mexico-based eSIM (or SIM) for data. And that ability to mix and match changes my requirements on the U.S. side, and adds some versatility. And, depending on what I choose, some cost savings too.

(This varies by phone. But my Pixel 6 Pro will let me use two eSIMs at the same time. With my iPhone 13 Pro, I can use one eSIM and one nano SIM simultaneously. I assume the new iPhone 14 Pro, which supports only eSIMs, lets you use two at once.)

And … that’s kind of where I’m at right now, still in a sort of research mode.

If Mint Mobile offered any kind of call/text spam protection, I’d probably go back to that, perhaps for 3 or 6 months, and use a Mexican SIM/eSIM when there. But they don’t.

I could do the same thing, but stick with Google Fi and pay $30+ per month (realistically, about $50 per month) when I’m home and use a Mexican SIM/eSIM when I’m away. But Fi doesn’t offer good call/text spam protection (on iPhone) either.

Or I can do what I think I’m going to do and switch to a major U.S. carrier to get that spam protection. The trick is finding a plan that meets my needs but doesn’t cost too much. (For example, I like the idea of using a hotspot when needed.) And then use a Mexican SIM/eSIM for the most part in Mexico.

I’m not trying to waste anyone’s time here, but if you have any thoughts on this, please do share.

And you live in Europe, please. Don’t tell me how cheap/easy this is there. 🙂