Native international roaming
In most cases, all you need to do is turn on data roaming in your phone settings — as long as your plan includes roaming.
Before roaming can work, your line needs to connect to US towers and register some domestic data usage — this completes the roaming provisioning process. If your line has never been used domestically, roaming will not work regardless of when you enable the Data Roaming toggle. Once provisioning is complete, you can turn on Data Roaming either before you leave or after you've already arrived at your destination.
International coverage differs across our three networks. Light Speed covers 180+ countries, Warp covers 125+, and Dark Star covers 110+ destinations (30 of which are data-only). If you're traveling somewhere off the beaten path, check your network's coverage before you go.
When using Wi-Fi Calling internationally, calls back to US numbers are generally included. Calls to local foreign numbers while abroad may incur additional charges. Check your plan's Wi-Fi Calling terms before relying on it for local calls.
Make sure you have roaming on your plan
If your plan doesn't include roaming, or if you've run out of roaming data/minutes/texts, you can add more through our app dashboard.
Make sure you're on a plan with roaming or you've purchased our roaming add-on before continuing.
Turn on data roaming on your phone
Follow the steps for your device type below.
On iPhones
- Go to Settings.
- Select Cellular Service or Mobile Service.
- Select your US Mobile line.
- Turn on Data Roaming.
- Under Network Selection, make sure it's set to Automatic.
On Androids
- Go to Settings.
- Select Network and Internet.
- Select SIMs.
- Select your US Mobile line.
- Turn on Roaming.
- Under Network Selection, make sure it's set to Automatic.
If you don't get service after following the above steps, here are a few more things you can try:
1. Update the APNs
Set up the APNs on your phone by following the steps in the List of APN settings article.
2. Provisioning
When you arrive in a new country, avoid manually changing networks and let your phone connect automatically — manual selection can interrupt and delay the connection process. This might take up to 60 minutes, but once connected, your roaming will work uninterrupted.
With roaming, you can only call to the country you're roaming in and back to the US. Calls to a third country might not be supported.
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