Forum Discussion
Overseas Work: How to avoid T-Mobile cancelling data roaming?
I am a merchant seaman (Civilian Mariner) currently working overseas on a naval ship. I left in January of 2022 and I am currently still overseas. On April 24th i recieved a messsage to my phone stating that the majority of the last two months of T-Mobile usage has been roaming internationally. Should it continue, my roaming usage will be blocked on May 27. My phone is how i contact home, check emails, etc while overseas. I called customer support and was told to change the SIM card. However, I am frequently in different countries or regions, and that also depends on whether I even have liberty to leave the ship/base. I was then told the only other way to be exempt from blocking was if i was active duty military. I am employed by Military Sealift Command. Which means I work for the navy/department of defense but i am still a civilian and therefore not considered active duty military. I do have orders, however I am not sure they would accept them without me being a part of the "uniformed forces". Im at a dead end and need a solution.
Nyyankeegirl6 wrote:
Even if your are active duty, that person must be the primary account holder. My son is deploying for 9 months. He is on my plan. It's very frustrating. It shouldn't matter if he is primary or not. Sure makes me think about changing companies
only time it would matter is if you are trying to get onto a military plan..then he would need to be the primary account holder in order for that to happen.
Before you change you should check the international roaming terms in the carriers terms and conditions.
Even if your are active duty, that person must be the primary account holder. My son is deploying for 9 months. He is on my plan. It's very frustrating. It shouldn't matter if he is primary or not. Sure makes me think about changing companies
As a MSC CIVMAR you are probably assigned abroad for 6 months at a time. I don't know of a good solution. Turning off the phone's cellular radio and using just WiFi seems somewhat self defeating as you're still paying for your cellular service but can't use it.
Have you considered Google Fi? Since you pay for all the data you use, they might be less picky about international roaming. Not sure.
One thing I've done is to game the system by downloading huge test files over cellular before overseas travel. This shifts the statistics in favor of domestic usage. I doubt this would work for 6 months, though.
In the past I’ve carried prepaid international roaming SIMs but I have not seen any really good offerings recently,
If you frequent the same countries (MSC ships tend to do that) you could get a local prepaid SIM for data and use your T-Mobile SIM just for voice and text. Juggling a bunch of prepaid SIMs can be a PITA, I know.
Keep your phone on wifi and airplane mode. Tmobile will close accounts for excessive international roaming.
