Verizon Travel Pass for Cambodia

[Parliament 14413]

I have a customer going over there in February for a motorcycle trip, and I want to get him a global phone for the trip.  He has a Verizon plan now, and I see their Travel Pass includes Cambodia.  But realistically, how good will his coverage be?  Verizon uses an entirely difference system (CDMA or whatever) and I'm worried there isn't tower coverage over there?  Is there a better way?  

TIA

[Brisketexan 105701]

6 minutes ago, Parliament said:

I have a customer going over there in February for a motorcycle trip, and I want to get him a global phone for the trip.  He has a Verizon plan now, and I see their Travel Pass includes Cambodia.  But realistically, how good will his coverage be?  Verizon uses an entirely difference system (CDMA or whatever) and I'm worried there isn't tower coverage over there?  Is there a better way?  

TIA

Definitely talk to someone there, or who has been there.

In my experience, even if your carrier SAYS it has coverage in a country, it may well be that they just have coverage in a tiny area in the capital or something.  You may end up needing to just get a throwaway phone locally.

I'm speaking from some experience in Armenia.  We had "coverage."  I got signal in the airport, and a couple of high spots in Yerevan.  Otherwise, my AT&T phone was a brick unless I was somewhere with wifi.  If he's going to be tooling about the countryside, he will probably need local service, and even then, I wouldn't count on getting it everywhere.

[Firemans4Horn 18344]

Might look at getting him something like this as well (they cover Cambodia):

 

https://www.skyroam.com

Edited January 16, 2020 by Firemans4Horn

[Sam Lin 3567]

Modern phones are cdma and gsm, roaming overseas you will connect to gsm networks. Verizon has decent service in Cambodia, but honestly I'd tell him to buy a tourist SIM at the airport on arrival, $10-15 will get unlimited data for a week.

[Parliament 14413]

Can I buy one of those sims now? I literally wanna drop his new phone on his desk before he leaves.

[CooterBrown 18118]

GSM is what you want outside of the US. Just get an android burner (if existing phone isn’t unlocked) and a pay as you go SIM for where you are traveling. You can get both off of amazon for under $100 total. SIM by itself with 10GB data and 500 minutes of talk will be $20-40.

[elfenix 34396]

it's 2020.  any major phone sold in the US nowadays has pretty much any band you'd want for going anywhere around the planet.  if dude has an iphone or a galaxy s it'll work.  with the travel pass he uses his verizon phone number and sim (and verizon has had sims as long as it's been using LTE) on the cambodian network. 

5 hours ago, Parliament said:

Can I buy one of those sims now? I literally wanna drop his new phone on his desk before he leaves.

the reason to do this is because it's cheap.  he'd almost certainly wouldn't be gaining any additional coverage over what he'd get using verizon travel pass.   he won't be using his verizon phone number.  and no, i don't think the cambodian cell company sells sims in the US.  call it a hunch.

 

edit: if he's interested in using a cambodian sim he'll need to call vzw and make sure his phone is sim unlocked so it can us a sim from a different network.

Edited January 16, 2020 by elfenix

[midtown 3348]

People still need sims when traveling internationally?    Google fi works pretty much everywhere.

[Chopper 17380]

23 hours ago, midtown said:

People still need sims when traveling internationally?    Google fi works pretty much everywhere.

If I recall correctly Google Fi worked only when attached to wifi in Cambodia. When I got to Vietnam I had a local buy me a sim card that worked in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. It cost like $10 for a month's of voice and data.

 

 

 

[AngryDragon 270]

As someone who's done both of these options I would definitely go w the SIM at the airport option but he can actually just decide for himself once he lands in the country and tries it out. 

Worked great in Japan but I wound up getting a sim card in Thailand and Korea because the speeds were so slow.

[midtown 3348]

1 hour ago, Chopper said:

If I recall correctly Google Fi worked only when attached to wifi in Cambodia. When I got to Vietnam I had a local buy me a sim card that worked in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. It cost like $10 for a month's of voice and data.

Perhaps.   I could have sworn I made phone calls in Vietnam not connected and since then I think google has really upped the countries that dont require wifi.

[Chopper 17380]

2 minutes ago, midtown said:

Perhaps.   I could have sworn I made phone calls in Vietnam not connected and since then I think google has really upped the countries that dont require wifi.

Well goddam you're right. What a difference a year makes. All 3 countries are now covered. https://fi.google.com/about/international-rates/

[Longhornmaniac8 255]

Verizon phones shouldn't have any difficulty working abroad. They're all GSM in addition to CDMA. 

But seriously, the tourist sim takes all of 5 minutes to set up in the arrivals hall of REP or PNH at any of the kiosks specifically designed for that. They'll likely take a photocopy of his passport, that's normal. I was browsing Facebook in my tuk-tuk ride from the airport. And this was 2014.

He'll have a working phone with Verizon if he gets into a jam, but why spend $10/day when you can spend $15-20 for the week with 4G speeds?

[Fudge Nuggets 19293]

I lived and worked overseas for 16 years and never used a US SIM.  As everyone points out, buy a local SIM when he gets there.  Depending on the country it will take a bit of paperwork including scanning the passport - hell, in Thailand I used my TX drivers license on more than one occasion.  Some places may even require a fingerprint scan or some other biometric.  Last I recall a full month in Thailand was the equivalent of about $15 and I would expect Cambodia to be in that range if not slightly cheaper.  Cameroon in West Africa, 4G unlimited data for a month was something ridiculous like $3. 

But yeah, here in America we think $65 per month is a great deal.

[52-80 19287]

Google Fi is perfectly fine if it is the primary service on your phone.

 

I used it in a dual-sim phone, and occasionally toggled it on and off, in favor of my primary carrier.  It triggered re-registrations to the Fi network, and that was process always glitchy, requiring various confirmations and logins using the Fi app.  I think somewhere in the policy they required initial that registration to actually be done from the US.  I had these issues in SE Asia and it was a pain in the ass. 

 

Just buy the sim at the airport or thousands of other places in town

[midtown 3348]

Looks like I'm going to Laos and Cambodia in October.. Solo trip.

[Parliament 14413]

OK, how about this.  Buy this phone:

https://swappa.com/listing/view/LRYD43522

...with the advice to buy a sim card in-country?  As I stated above, I'm doing this as a gift.  He can probably figure all this out for himself, but I wanna do a good thing for him.

[CooterBrown 18118]

If you already have an iPhone you can get it unlocked via DrSIM.com for under $30.